Of these three Scripture passages, only the Psalm response seems
to lend itself to devotion, prayer, and Advent longing: "Justice
shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace forever."
One could pray on that one-liner and the rest of the psalm too,
seeing in Jesus the fulfillment of all God's promises.
But I wouldn't give up so easily on mining the possible treasure
one could find in the other two readings. I offer this particular
angle on the Gospel passage. The lengthy genealogy lists four women
all of whom are foreigners with somewhat shady characters. Tamar
dressed as a temple or sacred prostitute to win Judah's favor and
become the mother of his child! Rahab was indeed a prostitute who
rescued Joshua's spies and helped him win victory over the Canaanites
and safety for her own household! Ruth entered sacred history as
a pagan who married into the chosen people, and Bathsheba's beauty
tempted David to commit murder and marry her and become the father
of Solomon, who late in life was himself taken up with foreign women!
And this all leads to the marriage of the pregnant virgin, Mary,
to Joseph! Of her is born Jesus who is called the Christ, who will
indeed take away the sins of the world! Now here we have some material
to ponder, to wonder at, and to pray over!
We can reflect on how God's ways, Gods actions, God's preferences
are so unlike our own. God always chooses the weak to confound the
strong. God lifts up the lowly and humbles the proud. God's love
welcomes and includes and embraces foreigners, strangers, "enemies."
God surprises us at every turn of our lives.
We even see this in the blessing of Judah by Jacob. How is it that
this wayward son, this "lion's whelp," this fierce king
of beasts is chosen to be the ancestor of the lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world? In grateful awe and wondering gaze,
let us admire, praise, and welcome God's startling ways and ask
to be freed of all those pre-conceptions, prejudices, presuppositions,
and perceptions that keep us from recognizing the presence of grace
and the providence of God in all the events, sufferings, and people
that God brings into our world and into each of our lives. Let us
especially recognize God's pattern of choosing the unlikely, the
unnoticed, the unknown, the unsung folks of our world. Truly, they
join together in a lowly chorus and sing with Mary: "For
God has looked upon his servant in her lowliness; all generations
shall call me blessed. God who is mighty has done great things for
me, holy is his name; His mercy is from age to age on those who
fear him." Let us sing along!