“Begets and By-Gollies”

            I imagine many of you have decided to read the Bible straight through from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 21:21 only to get as far as Genesis 5 and give up with one of the ten genealogies recorded in the book of Genesis alone!

            This week the Church has celebrated All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.  We have read the names of those who died during the past year.  We have remembered all they were to us and the ways they still influence us.  We sing “For All the Saints: and we remember the “great cloud of witnesses”.

           

      I have been remembering my great-grandmother, Eliza Jane Dieffendieffer Wasser, and my grandmother, Clara Rebecca Wasser Powell.  They were two women of faith who quietly shaped my own faith even though I only knew one of them.  I carried my great-grandmother’s Reformed Church Hymnal and Prayer Book with me the Sunday of my ordination sixteen years ago.

       (Zions’ Reformed Church UCC, Greenville, PA)

            I am also an enthusiastic participant in researching family history and compiling the narratives for those lines entered on the charts of births, marriages, children and deaths.  We plan some of our vacation time to visit those places where our ancestors once lived.

            That is why the genealogies found in the Bible touch this season of sacred remembrance.

            The family tree listings found in the Bible would not be found in popular websites.  Each genealogy is its own kind of family story-telling.  The name are not listed because there are documented papers nor are they recorded in county courthouses.  In the book of Genesis alone there are ten different genealogies.  Their purpose is to provide a structure for the stories of the Hebrew people.  They also serve to remind those who read the book of Genesis of the connectedness of humankind.  In all the changes of life that familial relationship (defined in many ways) is constant and sustaining, even when people are not under the same roof (or tent).

            I never knew Eliza Jane Wasser, but her story, her faith, her persistence in times of great difficulty are threads that reach out to me almost 100 years later.  I can say the same for one of my ancestors who risked all on that Mayflower crossing.  When I learned that one of my ancestors was imprisoned in London for being the pastor of a Congregational Church, his story became my story.  When my sister and I visited Quaker meeting houses still existing in Rhode Island and New York State three hundred years later, those ancestors who worshipped there showed me a new connection to my religious faith.

      (Friends Meeting House, Little Compton, RI)

When I worshipped at Trinity Great Swamp United Church of Christ, I knew that my faith was formed by those who risked everything for the sake of the Gospel.

     (Trinity Great Swamp UCC, Spinnerstown, PA)

            The genealogies of the Bible are not line charts of parenting.  They are witnesses to defining moments of a faith community.  When you encounter them in the Bible look for the stories behind the lists.  There are two genealogies for Jesus in the Bible.  One is found in Matthew 1:1-17 and one is found in Luke 3:23-38.  They are different listings of people.  When you read them I encourage you to wonder what stories are being told to help you know more about Jesus.

            I also encourage you to think about those in your own ancestry who influenced your faith journey.  Who would you put in your personal genealogy of faith?  I can tell you that some names will be related to you and some won’t.  That is the nature of faith genealogies.  They tell stories.  They tell the story of how God has touched your life and formed you into the person you are becoming. 

Grace and Peace

Rev. C.