10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Skeletons in the Cupboard

New book time! I'll be reading "10 Things they never told me about Jesus" by John Bell. This book is an exploration of the personal life, relationships and ministry of Jesus that is seldom talked about in church. I would like to be relating this more to personal life... or at least talking more about the wider context rather than summarizing the book, so we'll see how that goes.

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Firstly, have you actually read the full genealogy of Jesus? You know, "The Begats" in Matthew 1? They're boring... for the majority of the time. Otherwise, they're incredibly intriguing. There is, for the most part, simply a list of "So and so begat so and so who was the father of so and so who begat so and so......" on... and on...

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BUT this is intersting because there are only FOUR women mentioned in this lineage.

Tamar: Dressed up as a whore to coerce her father in law into sex so that she could bear a child.

Rahab: A prostitute from Jericho who helped some Israelites after they helped to hide her.

Ruth: Daughter-in-law to Naomi who convinced Ruth to seduce Boaz, the owner a field and an older man.

Bathsheba: She had an affair with King David and became pregnant. They sent for Uriah (her current husband) to be killed in battle so he would not know of this and David and she could be married.

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So we see these women in the genealogy... but why these women? Bell gives suggestions, but I want to talk about the implications of one of the suggestions. So maybe they put this in there because they felt that if Jesus came from a long line of virtuous people, this whole idea of accepting him as human (as well as divine) would never happen. Bell says the flawed lineage of Christ is "about God immersing [Godself] in a deficient world and among fallible people because [God] knows that through impartial love all can be redeemed" (22).

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I would agree with this, but I hate the fact that the women are those pointed out as the "flawed" ones. I suppose that is what happens when you have these men writing the Bible. You just can't really get around that. More so than that, though, I think it's also about this impartial love of which Bell speaks. This love of God conquers all. This love of God is open-minded, if you will. Had they not spoke of these flawed characters in Jesus' past, there are prostitutes out there who may have never realized that they could be welcomed in church just as much as the next person. But then again, it isn't just about prostitutes. It's about all of us. We all have skeletons in the closet and we aren't proud of them. But God knows and wants us to know that we are loved... we are God's beloved. All of us. No matter who we are. Or what we do.

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That is the beauty of my denomination, the United Church of Christ. We understand that all people are welcome and while we may have a hard time getting to that point of accepting all people as they are, God's got it covered.

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All people are children of God, no matter what. Even Ruth... Even Bathsheba... Even Tamar... Even Rahab. We are all loved by our Creator and nothing can strip us of that.

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The UCC says, "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here" (and I would add) and you are loved always.