ancestry

Sunday December 21^st, Luke 1: 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. When we trace the lineage of Jesus back to David through the ancestry of Joseph, we honor the traditions of humanity and what the world views as great.  That greatness is impressive and contains some wonderful examples of men of great walking with God. God chose a slightly different route however, Mary, whose lineage is not known at all.  In choosing Mary, we are left with Jesus’ greatness coming from God, not lineage or pedigree or education or maleness or anything having to do with human honor, prestige or power. Just like today, all attempts to corral or control Jesus fail. From the very beginning of the birth of Jesus, God’s plan was God’s plan and  continues to be God’s plan and has nothing to do with humanities grasps at greatness. Books and movies like “The DaVinci code” which still plays regularly on the movie channels, attempt to bring Jesus down to a purely human level. Others attempt to make Jesus so Holy so as to strip all humanity from him on the one hand and sing “Jesus is my boyfriend” praise songs on the other, stripping him of his true God given holiness that came through suffering. What came from Mary was a gift from God, and a gift for you and I and all humanity. Emmanuel means God with us, not just God with me.