Reader 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  he himself was not the light,  but he came to testify to the light.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

Reader 2: That’s what John’s version of the gospel has to say about Jesus’s birth.  No angels.  No shepherds.  No stars or wise men.  Just light, life, creation.

Reader 3: An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham

Reader 2: Jesus’ genesis according to Matthew’s version of the gospel, his family tree, his pedigree, the timeline that claims him as King and Messiah, descended from the founders of the Jewish nation and their great kings.  This is the time-line from Abraham to David: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez

Reader 3: Perez’s mother was Tamar, a wronged woman who made her own justice by conceiving a son with her father-in-law.

Reader 2: Hezron, Aram, Aminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz—

Reader 3: Boaz’ mother was Rahab, a prostitute who risked her life to protect Jewish fighters

Reader 1: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

Reader 2: and Obed

Reader 3: His mother was Ruth, a foreigner, an outsider who married into the Jewish people.

Reader 2: Jesse, King David.

Reader 1: The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

Reader 2: This is the time-line from David to the exile: Solomon

Reader 3: His mother was Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, a woman whose husband was murdered so that the king could marry her.

Reader 2: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asaph, Jehosaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amos, Josiah, Jechoniah—he was deported into Babylon.  This is the time-line from the exile to the birth of Jesus: Salathiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph.

Reader 3: His wife was Mary, a teenager who became pregnant before her marriage.

Reader 1: What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

Reader 2: Matthew says this history has a shape
 Matthew tells it as God’s story
 Matthew suggests our story links back to this story
 If these are also our roots…
 Abraham is our father, Sarah is our mother, David is our king

 And the true light?  Well,…

Reader 3: This is our family tree, a tree with many roots,
 A closet full of skeletons
 A story of incest, prostitution, and mixed parentage
 This is no genealogy of purity or pride
 This is a genealogy of grace.

Reader 2: And we are its heirs.

Reader 3: And we are its heirs.

Reader 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

Reader 3: His mother was Elizabeth, who was childless and disgraced, too old, they said, for much of anything useful, until the angel came and told her about her son.

Reader 1: He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

Reader 2: Elizabeth’s cousin was Mary, and when the angel told her about her son, she said,

Reader 3: My soul magnifies the Lord,
 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
 for she has looked with favor on the lowliness of her servant.
 Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
 and holy is her name.

Reader 1: He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

Reader 3: Her mercy is for those who fear her from generation to generation—

Reader 2: —from Abraham to Tamar to Ruth to David to Joseph, who was engaged to Mary—

Reader 3: She has shown strength with her arm;
she has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

Reader 1: But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of humanity, but of God.

Reader 3: She has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
 and lifted up the lowly;

Reader 1:  And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

Reader 3: She has filled the hungry with good things,
 and sent the rich away empty.

Reader 1: From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Reader 3: She has helped her servant Israel,
 in remembrance of her mercy,
according to the promise she made to our ancestors, to Abraham—

Reader 2: —and Sarah, and Jacob, and Rahab, and Amos—

Reader 3: —the promise she made to Abraham, and to his descendants forever.

Reader 1: The promise.

Reader 2: To the ancestors.

Reader 3: To the descendants.

Reader 1: But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

Reader 3: Children of God.
 Not children of perfect pedigree.
 Not the offspring of good breeding.
 Not the scions of noble houses.
 Children of God!

Reader 2: Children of the Word!
 Himself the son
 of inbreeding,
 of murderers,
 slanderers,
 prostitutes,
 foreigners,
 an unwed mother

 and of God.

Reader 3: Like us.
 Children of God, heirs of the promise.

Reader 2: The promise.

Reader 1: The light!

Reader 3: Unto us this day.
 Unto US—
 children of God,
 descendants of grace,
 the promise:
 a savior.

Reader 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  And the Word became flesh and lived among us.

Reader 2: Amen.

Reader 3: Amen.