These are the opening words of Matthew’s Gospel. He begins with the basics – the genealogy of Jesus. It will be a long list of 48 names stretching across 2,000 years.
Matthew wants to emphasize that Jesus is the Messiah, the long-awaited “Son of David” who would fulfill Old Testament prophecies. That’s why he works downward from Abraham through David, to Jesus. (Luke, in his genealogy, starts with Jesus and works upward to Adam. He wants to emphasize that Jesus is the Son of God.)
Both Matthew and Luke drew upon popular traditions (rather than written records), and both adapted the data. They are trying to establish Jesus’ theological identity, not his DNA.
The list of names in Jesus’ genealogy includes a wide variety of people, not all of the perfect by any means. Jesus’ family had some skeletons in the closet. Probably your family is no different. They’re still your family.
We’re about a week away from Christmas. This would be a good time to mend some family ties.
”Do You Hear What I Hear?”
The popular Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear? Was actually written as a prayer for peace.
In October of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union seemed on the brink of nuclear war because of the Cuban missile crisis. Composer Noel Regney was walking home in New York, having just met with his producer who “was listening to the radio to see if we had been obliterated.”
While walking, he recalled, “I saw two mothers with their babies in strollers. The babies were looking at each other and smiling…and all of a sudden my mood was extraordinary.”
When he got home, Regney (a French Resistance fighter during World War II) began to write the lyrics to a song about peace. He thought about the green fields of his native France, the innocence of newly born lambs, and the peacefulness of the first Christmas.
“Do You Hear What I Hear?” (His wife wrote the music.) was slated to be the “B” side for another song that was expected to be a hit. When plans for that record were cancelled, another record company picked up Regney’s song.
Released at the end of November in 1962, it sold out all 250 thousand copies within a week.
Noel Regney died almost 40 years to the day after his record was released. He was buried from St. Mary Catholic Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut.