If you haven’t recently done it, I strongly recommend that you read the very beginning of the first chapter of the first Book of the New Testament.  I strongly recommend that you read the very beginning of Saint Matthew’s gospel.  . . . What you will read is the genealogy of Jesus.  . . . And, like any genealogy, it’s not simply a list of names; it’s an adventure.  It’s an adventure because every name represents at least one valuable story to be remembered; . . . every name represents at least one valuable story and the active presence of God, the Father Almighty, among His precious children.

    For instance, fourteen generations down from Abraham we come to “David the king,” Matthew says.  Fourteen generations down from Abraham we come to a little squirt named David, the youngest son of Jesse, who became so infuriated at the Israelite army meekly accepting the shameful insults and taunts of the Philistine champion, named Goliath, that David took his shepherd’s sling and a smooth rock and beaned Goliath in mid-taunt, and cut off Goliath’s head with Goliath’s own sword.  . . . The Israelite people were so impressed with this . . . that, when King Saul died in battle, they made David king.  . . . And the Lord God Almighty made a covenant with David the king; . . . a covenant which promised an everlasting succession of sons to rule God’s People “as long as the sun and moon endure” . . . we read in Psalm 72.

    At last week’s Wednesday Adult Bible Study someone mentioned an editorial published in “The Daily Star” which asserts that the political process tainted by religion is the cause of all wars.  And history certainly seems to support the writer’s thesis.  This is because there is a difference between religion and Faith.  The Lord God Almighty said to Abraham, for instance, “I will bless you . . . so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you . . . and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”  . . . And Abraham sincerely tried, by Faith, to be an instrument of God’s blessedness.  The Faith of Abraham sought to serve God!  . . . That’s why Abraham is at the head of Matthew’s list.  . . . Religion, on the other hand, expects to use God as justification for pursuing whatever it is that the religionist desires.  So that, where it says, in Psalm 72, for instance, that “All kings shall bow down . . . and all the nations do [our king] service”, . . . the sons of David desired that verse to refer to themselves rather than to the Lord God Almighty Whom the davidic king represents . . . so that the fourteen generations of David’s sons pursued not God’s interests . . . but their own.  . . . Until finally, the Lord God Almighty stirred up the Babylonians, Saint Matthew recollects; . . . the Lord God Almighty stirred up the Babylonians to cut down the majestic but unfruitful tree that God had raised up from the root stock of Jesse, David’s father.  . . . The Lord God Almighty stirred up the Babylonians to make of David’s kingship a mere stump; . . . a mere sacred memory.

    But we know, as does Matthew, from reading the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; . . . we know that fourteen generations after the Babylonians had made a wreck of David’s kingship . . . a mere stump, hardly noticeable among the weeds; . . . we know that from the stump of Jesse came forth a shoot; that a branch grew out of Jesse’s root, . . . and that branch was Jesus.  The active presence of God the Father Almighty reasserted itself; . . . and the shoot which came forth from the stump of Jesse was Jesus; . . . Jesus, upon Whom the Spirit of the Lord rested,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and [piety and] the fear of the LORD.

    And the reason Saint Matthew begins his gospel in this way (begins his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus) . . . is because it’s our genealogy as well!  For, as we read Matthew’s gospel we read of our redemption; . . . that in our Baptism we died with Christ in a death like His . . . so that if we live at all (Saint Paul says); . . . if we live at all, it’s God’s life that’s in us.  We read, in Matthew’s gospel, that the promise of John the Baptizer has been fulfilled:  we have, each one of us; . . . we have each been baptized with the Holy Spirit . . . so that each one of us has the life of Jesus; . . . each one of us has the Spirit of the Lord upon us:  the spirit of

wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and [piety and] the fear of the LORD.

We call these the Sevenfold Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  There is the gift of Wisdom.  God’s Spirit breathes Her Wisdom into each of us . . . so that, having experienced God’s reverence for us in the sending of His Son, . . . we might each go from His altar with a reverent regard for others.  And God’s Spirit breathes Her Understanding into us . . . so that we won’t trust only in what our senses perceive or our reason comprehends . . . but so that we’ll know that there’s more to our flesh than self-gratification . . . and more to this world than devouring its delights.  And God’s Spirit breathes Her Counsel into us so that each of us will know that not all things spiritual are sacred; . . . that even the devil can quote Holy Scripture.  And so, God’s Spirit breathes Her Counsel into us so that we might seek only the tranquil and unmagical spirit of Christ.  And God’s Spirit breathes Her Might into us so that we will be strengthened to resist enticements to sin and desire only Her gifts of Knowledge and Piety, which She breathes upon each of us so that we might discern what is God’s Holy Word . . . and what is a lie; . . . so that we might love God’s Holy Word and hate evil.  And God’s Spirit breathes Holy Fear into us -- not so that we’ll be afraid of God . . . but so that we will be fearful of grieving His Heart of Love; . . . the spirit of Holy Fear makes us insensible to evil because the gift of God’s Spirit fixes our attention upon the enjoyment of God.

    The effect of these Sevenfold Gifts of the Spirit, Isaiah tells us, . . . is that

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion . . . together . . . The cow and the bear shall feed together; . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the ox

By which the Prophet does not mean that it’s the intention of the Lord God Almighty to miraculously redesign all carnivores so that they have teeth and appetites suited to oats and straw.  No, indeed, . . . even though Christ has come and we have been endowed with His Spirit . . . all the wild beasts shall continue as God designed them; they shall have teeth that still rip and tear . . . and appetites to match their equipment, . . . because Isaiah isn’t talking about God’s creatures; . . . he’s talking about God’s children!  The Prophet’s language is figurative so that each animal signifies a type of person.  The wolf signifies the thief, . . . and it is the intent of the Lord God Almighty that His Sevenfold Gifts of the Spirit will cause the thief and the shopkeeper (the lamb, who is commonly fleeced by thieves); . . . it is the gift of Baptism that the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together in peace.  And the leopard -- the murderer -- shall, by God’s Spirit bestowed on His Children in Christ Jesus; . . . the leopard shall live in gentle community with the helpless.  Moreover, the proud lion shall live in quietness beside the humble, . . . and even the gluttonous and profligate bear shall become as simple and thrifty as the cow.  The thief and the assassin and the proud and the glutton will be governed by the Spirit of God’s Life which Christ Jesus came to pour out upon humanity.  . . . By the redemptive presence of the Sacred Spirit of God the Father Almighty . . .

the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD [Isaiah says] . . . the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

    Last Sunday I reminded you that we begin the new Church Year with this Season of Advent because we are an expectant people.  We know that we shall, in all likelihood, die, . . . but we expect that at the culmination of History the dead shall rise to stand with the living, . . . and there will be a reckoning.  The Risen and Exalted Jesus shall gaze upon the hearts and souls of all men and women, . . . and everyone that is in harmony with the heart of God shall be kept, . . . shall enter everlasting felicity; . . . while everyone indifferent to the heart of God shall perish, … shall die the second and final death.  . . . So, if you haven’t recently done it, I strongly recommend you read the very beginning of Saint Matthew’s gospel.  . . . It’s not a list of names, . . . it’s an adventure.  It’s our adventure, . . . and it promises us that there is more to our lives than the events of the day.  It promises us that we live in the company of the active presence of God the Father Almighty, Who breathes His Spirit upon us to give us wisdom and understanding and counsel and might and knowledge and piety and fear of the Lord . . . by which we may know that religion will kill you, . . . but by Faith you shall live; . . .by Faith you shall live and fill the earth with knowledge of the Lord; . . . you shall be a blessing, and by you all families of the earth shall bless themselves, . . . and together we shall all go into everlasting felicity.