Matthew 1:1-25 12-25-2022 (As built, Amite #526)
- You can feel the excitement… man I’m telling you I could just see it in your faces when I said Abraham’s the father of Issac who’s the father of Jacob and I could see it in your face like oh my God… it’s that reading again… which means you haven’t been here in a year… okay but I digress… my brothers and sisters in Christ you know I could have said Abraham the father of Issac who’s the father of Jacob and sneezy, dopey and grumpy and some of you would have said yeah I remember that I was there I remember that… Names… more importantly… your name… outside of the Christus is the name… your name…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ if I were to ask you… well you might say well father Abraham and Issac I got that… you know but Abraham, Issac and then Judah but you know Father I’m not very biblical… I’m more worldly… and so if you were to ask me questions about the world then I might do a little better… well I’ll tell you what… if you get seven out of ten of these names… then I will agree that you are more worldly… if you do not get seven out of ten… may I suggest you start learning the names of the biblical line… because this world will come and pass… so let us begin… if I were to tell you on the one dollar bill you would say obviously father please… Washington… if I were to say the five dollar bill… some of you may say Lincoln… if I were to ask you who is on the ten dollar bill…you would look around and ask one another who’s got a ten on you… right that’s where we are at… you would say that might be Alexander Hamilton… if I were to ask you what is Jackson on… okay on the twenty dollar bill okay see I gave you one ahead of time… if I said if Jackson is on the twenty then who is on the fifty… would you say Grant… if I said a hundred dollar bill… would you know that we’re talking about the Benjamins… Benjamin Franklin… close enough… if I told you my brothers and sisters in Christ that maybe if we got to the five hundred dollar bill… would you even know who that could possibly be… would you know that it’s McKinley… if I told you the thousand dollar bill… would you know it’s Cleveland… if I told you on the five thousand dollar bill it’s Madison… if I told you that it would be the ten thousand dollar bill… his name would be Salmon Chase… and for big money… in a hundred thousand dollars… would anybody even know Woodrow Wilson… but I’ll tell you what… let’s just assume that you got six out of ten and you’re short two… I’m going to give you two bonus questions… who’s is on the two dollar bill… that would be Jefferson… you only got one left… and there was a three dollar bill… it didn’t last long… on the three dollar bill was none other than Santa Clause… true story my brothers and sisters in Christ…
- The fact of the matter is those names are irrelevant the most important name is yours… and the second most important thing is that your name be written in the book of life… my brothers and sisters in Christ you need to understand that names are important… and if I were to ask you what’s the name of the couple in the garden of Eden… would you be able to say well it’s man and woman father… because your right… because Adam means ground… Eve doesn’t get her name until after they are kicked out of the garden… if I were to ask you the guy in the whale… would you be willing to say oh father that’s Jonah… but let me help you father that’s make believe… here’s the problem… that according to our savior Jesus Christ… my brothers and sisters in Christ… Jonah sang a funeral dirge in the whale… he dies in the whale… this is why in Matthews Gospel around chapters twelve to fifteen or sixteen or so… this is why he says you were looking for a sign but you will only get the sign of Jonah… just like he descended to the dead for three days so will I… doesn’t sound very make believe to me my brothers and sisters in Christ… he’s talking about his resurrection… you know what’s amazing he does it again with Noah around chapter twenty four in Matthew… where he says people were married at the time of Noah so will it be when I return… why would he tell Jewish people… who believe in Jonah and Noah… and use them as make believe if he’s going to use them to describe his descending to the dead for three days… and that of his second coming… people will be married and getting married… my brothers and sisters in Christ names are important that’s why you and I have names… because you and I are going to be held accountable for our actions… if you and I had stayed in the garden there would be no reason for names… why… because we’re perfectly home now… there’s no differentiation…once sin enters the equation and they’re kicked out of the garden… you and I have names… this is why St. Paul says to the Corinthians… you will stand before him and he will judge you… everything you did with your body both good and evil… my brother and sisters in Christ let me give an example so you understand… remember the story about the young lady that was a prostitute… and they were about to stone her… and there were people that were picking up the stones… do you remember such… take my word for it it’s there… in scripture my brothers and sisters in Christ the scribe comes to him and says Lord we found this woman caught in prostitution… you notice they never catch the guy… I digress… the fact of the point at hand… you notice that the scribe says according to Deuteronomy she is to be stoned… what say you Rabbi… and the reason why he’s asking is because within earshot there is a Roman centurion who knows that only Pilate can out people to death… he’s trying to get Christ caught in the middle… my brothers and sisters in Christ this is what’s going to happen… the good Lord begins to talk and then all of a sudden he does something very unique… he get’s down on his knees and he begins to write in the dirt… now I do not believe that he wrote their names to correspond to a sin… because that would be calling you and me out… but I do believe the wrote the symbol of the sin that only you and I would understand… therefor you and I recognize what he’s drawing in the ground is my sin… as a matter of fact when he stand up some have dropped their rocks but others remained… so the good Lord does it yet again and begins to write again in the sand… pretty soon everybody has dropped their rocks and walked away… do you know why they’ve done it… because according to Jeremiah… if your name is written in the dirt…. Your destination is hell… so he’s writing their names and their sins in the dirt… and he’s telling them therein lies where you will go… you see my brothers in Christ there is no book of death… there is only a book of life… remember the story of the rich man… he kept stepping over Lazarus the poor man… the dogs were licking his wounds… trust me that was in there too… the point I’m trying to make is they die on the same day… as a result of it there’s a great chasm that that the rich man can’t cross… and he’s yelling out to father Abraham… how would he know his name that’s a thousand years before his time… because before the gates of heaven are opened where does Elijah, Moses, John the Baptist, Jeremiah and St. Joseph go… Abrahams Bosom… he’s telling Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger and put it on is tongue… we don’t know his name… because there is no book of death… it’s irrelevant… my brothers and sisters in Christ do you not understand… on the day that you and I die… if God allows that we may get to heaven… do you know what’s amazing… my brothers and sisters in Christ if family members do not make it… you and I will never know… because their names will not be part of our memory… because you cannot be sad in heaven… so therefor you and I will have no recollection of them…for there is no book of death… there Is only a book of life… my brothers and sisters in Christ what I’m trying to tell you is that’s the power that he’s bringing to the table… he’s trying to tell you that your name must be in the book of life… my brothers and sisters in Christ listen to what I’m telling you… it’s telling you why… because what you and I need to do is make sure our name is in the book of life… listen to what I’m telling you… you’ve got to do the right thing the right way… at the end of the day the only thing that matters is that you and I make it to heaven… nothing else matters… the money does not matter… your 401K doesn’t matter… the camp doesn’t matter… the cars and the house do not matter… the only thing that matters is that your name… my name… is written in the book of life… because some day we’re going to stand before him… my brothers and sisters in Christ it’s paramount that you and I do the right thing the right way… it’s paramount that you and I learn the commandments… because I can assure you that your not going to learn the commandments after you get there… you’re going to have to learn them before you get there… because some of them preclude you from making it… my brothers and sisters in Christ if you want to know if your doing the right thing the right way… ask yourself before you respond in an email… before you respond in a text message… before you write or send something or you respond… I’m begging you to make sure you take the time to do the right thing the right way… the past has no string on you… it never did… don’t you see… the devil uses the past to keep you walking backwards through life… hitting everything in the way so that you don’t turn around and face where you have to go… the past does not dictate your future… every saint has a past and every sinner has a future… don’t you see… the devil has got to get you to turn your back… he’s got to get you to look backwards… what happened last week… last month… ten years ago… five years ago… as if somehow or another he’s got a string on you… he’s never had a string on you… he hates you… all he wants to do is distract you so your name is not in the book of life… man if you know the commandments and you keep the sacraments you’re going to end up doing the right thing the right way… that’s what sets the table for the future… my brothers and sisters in Christ it doesn’t matter what goes on in the world per se… the only thing that matters is how you and I respond to what goes on in the word…
- You know Mother Theresa was right… in so many ways… but not least of which when she wrote the poem “Anyway”… how appropriate is it today… people are unreasonable… illogical… and self-centered… forgive them anyway… if you are honest people will cheat you… be honest anyway… if you are happy people will be jealous… you be happy anyway… if you are successful you will win false friends and true enemies… you succeed anyway… if you build something and spend a lifetime doing it and somebody destroys it overnight you build it anyway… because it was never between you and them… it was only between you and him anyway…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ I leave you with this… on the day of our judgement… the nanosecond you and I pass… we will stand before him and you and I will only hear one of two statements come from his mouth… welcome home my child to the table of all of my children… welcome I have waited for you… I knew your name in your mothers womb… I counted the hairs on your head… I brought you through everything… I brought you to it and I brought you through it… welcome I have waited for you… to the table of all of my children… or he will turn his back and say depart from me… I don’t even know your name… right thing right way… we got one job… and that one job is to get to heaven… and your name and my name and our families name in the book of life…
