pat loughery

We began working through Matthew today. Instead of ignoring the Begatitudes that open the book, I wanted to talk a bit about why Matthew includes the 5 women in his geneaology. I love it when God whacks us up alongside the head and says “hey, pay attention to this, it’s good stuff.” I only hope I was able to communicate it well.

I took the story of Tamar and generalized it, telling people a “fairy tale” like this:

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there lived a woman that we’ll call Tamara. Listening more to her family’s judgment than to her own, she married a certain man. This man was so evil that, not long into the marriage, he’s was struck by lightning and killed. He left behind the widowed Tamara at a young age.

Desperate to find happiness, and desperate to have children, Tamara remarries immediately. In fact, she marries the brother of her first husband. Her second husband is more evil than the first. Knowing that she desperately wants to have children, and filled with spite, he – well, let’s just say he short-circuits the marriage act. Over and over again. Not long after their marriage, he’s driving to work laughing to himself at the way he’s keeping his new bride dangling, and a meter falls from the sky and crushes him, leaving nothing but a smoldering hole in the ground.

Tamara, emotionally devastated but now even more desperate for true companionship and family, is now at her wits’ end. Her biological clock is ticking. She’s suffering horrible grief. She’s also slightly mental. She dresses up into her finest clothes, hangs out at the bar that her now-twice-over father-in-law goes. Near closing time, with his wits having left him, she sidles over and, by and by, she seduces him. In their one evening together, she becomes pregnant, and when he tries to drum her out of the family for good and humiliate her so that she leaves the state, she discretely shows him the hidden videotape the she took of their evening.

Then, I took the story of David and Bathsheba and packaged it like this:
Once upon a time, there was a leader in the most powerful and wealthiest nation in the world. Born in a humble portion of the country, he rose to power at a relatively young age, younger than the heads of state who had preceded him. But he was very popular with the people, undeniably charismatic and charming. He was the kind of person everybody wanted to hang out with – and he commanded the politicital force of the leading nation on earth. He tackled every difficult political challenge facing him and his administration, and was highly successful. The first term of his leadership was overwhelmingly successful. He won re-election in a landslide.

As undeniably great a leader as he was, he had a couple of character flaws. He was impulsive, he didn’t have much self-control. And, a complicating factor was that he was a womanizer. And because of his power and authority, he was able to justify to himself why his adultery was acceptable. It didn’t affect his governance, he told himself. It didn’t hurt anyone. It was one of the side benefits of his authority. People were willing to look the other way at his private life because what he accomplished in public was undeniably good for the people he governed.

On one occasion, during an unguarded moment, he caught the eye of a young woman who caught his attention. Intrigued by her beauty, he sent for her. She, intrigued by his power and flattered by his interest, accepted his invitation. They briefly got to know each other. Those assigned to protect the sanctity of this leader looked the other way – literally. They began secretly meeting, and a physical relationship ensued.

Even though they had been careful in their activity, suddenly there was physical evidence of their relationship. She was pregnant. Panic struck him. Her husband had been sent away for state duty months before, and he knew that all signs would point to himself. He arranges for her husband’s QUOTE “accidental” QUOTE death.

He thinks he’s off the hook. However, the mess wasn’t as tidily wrapped up as he thought. Someone with a differing political agenda finds out about the murder, and then about the pregnancy, and the relationship. Confrontation occurs, the mess is exposed to the public. The child is born – but apparently the overwhelming stress and shame on the mother, father and child are too much.

The child lives seven days, and then dies.

The leadership of this man is permanently tarnished. The nation revels in the tawdry details of the dalliance. The woman is forever known for an act that she had hoped was private.

After this, we spent time talking about the kinds of choices God makes in fulfilling his purposes, and the kinds of things we look for in people. And how different those can be.

It was interesting to me how timeless the second story is.

Anyway, just another experiment in sermon-as-story.