No passage from Matthew is set among the readings or alternatives for Christmas Day. However, if you're interested, the Genealogy has some interesting margins of its own. Read on:

The apostolic church connects to Jesus' resurrection, not his birth. The birth stories crystalise later. Many think they're a beat up. Even if you sense beat up, don't use that to beat someone else's faith down!
The genealogy wobbles its way along to 'prove' Jesus' royal line & Messiahship, & give him, via  these ancestors, standing in a society described as revolving round poles of honour and shame. [See commentaries by Bruce J. Malina & Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Fortress, Minneapolis.] Both poles are evident in Jesus' line. What about in our own? Are we ashamed of someone, or love to bask in someone's honour? Does one pole colour our story more than the other?

If we could summarise our own genealogy as MT summarises Jesus' in this one verse, would anyone stand out as MT tags Abraham & David here? Do we have a starter, an Abraham? A middle person, a David? Can we identify inheriting anything in our make-up from either? Abraham stands for a faith that dares adventure & journey for God beyond the margins of his day. David for faith with warts on it, that should put him outside the margins of God's Rule if that Rule had  limits. If we don't have an Abraham or a David, not to worry. What's at stake for us is our faith journey, not theirs. The kind of ancestor we become is more important than the kind we inherit.

It takes all sorts to make a family. Nothing illustrates that better than Jesus' family line. MT begins not with Adam, from whom, mythically & mystically speaking at least, we derive both Original Blessing (Fox) & Original Sin (Augustine et al), but with Abraham, the Father of Faith. It's Spiritual Stock that's at stake.

In passing down the male line (with four notable exceptions) Patriarchal tradition sells us short by denying us the women's family snapshots. As Abram becomes Abraham, so Sarai becomes Sarah. The middle-eastern woman's in-towards-the-home centred role complements the man's out- towards-the-world one. [Bruce J.Malina: The New Testament World..Westminster / John Knox 1993] He achieves his only as she achieves hers. Faith becomes more complete when we meet a more complete Abraham & a more complete Sarah when she comes in from the margins. Good (= God) partnerships make for good faith journeys. A & S are both adventurers in faith. What are the landmarks for Abra(ha)m & Sarai(ah) both. An how do they become landmarks for us?

Somewhere, 'Watchman' Nee To Sheng calls Isaac a 'marking time person'. His chief contribution is to stay alive and not be sacrificed so that he can father Jacob. That his half-brother Ishmael is so unceremoniously dumped is a glowing coal that still stirs deep passion in the Middle East. Families have long, long memories. Are there examples of 'dumping', of some kind, real or imagined still smouldering round us, or in us, somewhere?

Jacob, a Twister of the 1st Order meets himself & God at Bethel, then Peniel, & is straightened out. Like his grandfather, he, too, is renamed: Israel = 'God shows his strength' or similar. What in us needs straightening out, renaming, so we become what & whom God needs us to be?

Judah's neither Jacob's eldest son, nor by his chosen wife. Yet he bequeathes his name to the tribe that becomes central in Hebrew story. As Jacob himself predicts (or is it prophesies?) [GEN 49: 8-12] When does prediction become prophecy? We might expect Jesus to descend from Reuben, the eldest, or Joseph who plays such a pivotal role in saving the family & so the future nation. But God chooses whom God will choose. Not necessarily the obvious candidate for any job. If God can use even twisters & tricksters to tell the story on another stage, maybe we can get in on it yet! Faith without hope is as dead as faith without works!

Perez & Zerah are born to Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar as the result of his apparently unwitting incest with her.The family politics & consequences [GEN 38] leading to & from her daring ploy to win justice are a warning to those of us who would lay claim to the high moral ground. Through Tamar & Perez these machinations become part of Jesus' story. Perez's twin, Zerah, is passed over. Being passed over in favour of someone else is a common biblical theme. Being 'slighted' is something we find hard to work through in relationships. Maybe, humanly speaking, Jesus inherits his compassion for women in a predicament through such unsavoury stories as this one. A.McNeile [MT, Macmillan, 1957, p.1] suggests " 'son of Perez' may be a rabbinic expression for Messiah". In which case, what kind of Messiah have we got ourselves?

Hezron, Aram, Aminabad, are like names on someone's junk-mail/email list. Sometimes we feel that's all we are. Would Jesus have featured on anyone's list if he weren't Messiah?

Nahshon may be Aaron's brother-in-law, the first of the leaders to present an offering in the newly consecrated tabernacle. [NUM 7: 12] On the march from Sinai, Nahshon leads the camp of Judah at the head of the vanguard. Hopefully his role at the hallowing  is reward for being a real leader, though the family-tree cynic may still ask whether it's not what you know but whom you know that determines leadership roles.

Like Isaac, Salmon's job is to produce the next generation, in this case, Boaz, so that he in turn can become great-grandfather to David. But look whom he marries. Many writers assume she's the Rahab of JOSH 2, though there's a dating problem. Pun unintended. If she is the same person, so far in Jesus' tree we've met Tamar & her incest, & now Rahab, a whore. Another canker? Or just one more stirring of the acceptance & compassion central to his Messiahship? If it's not the same Rahab, how easily a bad name sticks! What's new about urban - or rural - myths?

Boaz comes across as Mr Nice Guy. A decent, untarnished, character. If his mother is the Rahab instrumental in winning Jericho for the Israelites, Boaz no doubt gets credits for her war effort but debits for her personal life as he grows up among his peers. He, in turn, goes on to marry Ruth, a foreigner & a hated Moabite to boot. Maybe the son of such a mother can't find a wife within the parameters of the prevailing societal attitudes? Is this why he turns outside the margins? Ruth is a good woman, but tongues will wag. Through his experiences, no doubt, good old solid old Boaz gains softer, more 'feminine' traits to pass on to his descendants, One in particular.

Obed's another whose destiny is to be less well known than their parent, child, or, in this case, grandchild. "Oh, so you're So & So's son, mother, etc...?!" Are we known in our own right for who we are, or more through someone else & what they are - or were?

It must be an interesting experience, to say the least, for Jesse to have his sons lined up to have a king chosen from among them. But it's no glass slipper Samuel bears. [1 SAM 16:7]

Commentators play up the mathematical way MT constructs his tree to make it easier to learn & recite. David is the mid point not in number but in stature; the noble stem of Jesse at this stage, but only warming the seat for Jesus. David remains more idealised than ideal. 1 & 2 SAM & 1 KNGS make it clear that the once & future king is still to come.

Through David, a fourth woman, Bathsheba's dragged in. How much dragging it takes is a moot point. In not naming her, except as someone else's wife, MT is dismissive. She, too is well outside decent margins. As Uriah is a Hittite, Bathsheba's already broken bounds by marrying a foreigner. Strike 1! David seduces her - is this more mutual than it seems? - into crossing another border & committing adultery. Strike 2! She becomes a co-conspirator in her husband's murder. Strike 3! Funnily, all this gets her in, not out of the story! One tradition has her as the author of PROV 31, read as advice she gives to Solomon when he marries Pharaoh's daughter. In which case there speaks the voice of experience! All this ancestor business must be food for thought for Jesus. If he ever heard of this genealogy, that is!

Solomon succeeds to the throne. Mother's right in there. Still conspiring. In his judgment between two women fighting over a dead child & a live one, Solomon reflects a God-given wisdom hewn from very human, first hand experience of what kills & what gives life. Where does divine Sophia stop & human wisdom start? In 1KGS 11 Sol's dabbling with foreign women leads to dabbling with foreign gods. To an intergenerational, international, interdenominational melting pot! Sound familiar? But he's still part of Jesus' ancestry, as dabblers in various things are part of ours, too.

Rehoboam first gets a mention in his father's death notice! His name, 'one who frees the people' is one of those delicious divine jokes we should learn to appreciate. Especially when they're on us! If the Lord giveth Wisdom to Solomon, the Lord sure taketh it away from Rehoboam!

Abijah is a warrior, & keeps the would-be usurper Jeroboam at bay. The anti-Jeroboam prophet, Iddo, writes him into his midrash [2 CH 13:22]. He'd not have reached Iddo's margins if he'd been pro-Jeroboam. The side we take often determines the press we get.

Asa(ph) gets mainly ticks, earlier, but ends with crosses on his report card.

Jehoshaphat is credited with 'some good things' [2CH 19:3] but brings himself undone by allying himself with the ungodly Ahab & his son Ahaziah up north. Bad company's not just something to warn the kids against!

J(eh)oram doesn't fare too well. 2CH21 tells a much fuller story than 2KGS 8. One wonders if the text (vv.20-21) of the latter has been left open just wide enough to cover Joram's defeat by Edom & others. Exploring who or what's missing from the Text or margins of life can be a fruitful exercise in probing for truth. 2CH21:20 records that Joram 'passes away unlamented'. Bowel or stomach cancer? He doesn't get a funeral pyre - is he too unclean?- & they don't bury him in the tombs of the kings, either. Funeral goings on, & what we say or don't say in eulogies, write or don't write in obituaries & on headstones reveal a lot about the vibes in today's families, too.

Uzziah comes next, though there's textual confusion over names at this point in 1 & 2 CH. McNeile [St.Matthew, ad. loc.] suggests MT takes advantage of this, leaving out 3 kings in order to stick to his pattern of 14 names in a section. Some people'll stretch anything to make it fit! 2 CH reveals some pretty gory politics in the text, & they flow on into MT's margins later. Uzziah gets into real trouble with liturgical purists. He doesn't have the bishop's licence to 'swing the pot' in the temple. He doesn't just have his non-existent Licence taken away for usurping such a role, but, like Miriam of old, is stricken with a nasty skin disease. Some suggest his offence is a read-back from post- exilic times when the liturgical police have more power. Anyway, he's now unclean, so they can justifiably hustle him, majesty & all, out of the temple & out of their lives. There're more ways than one to skin a king! Eventually they bury Uzziah in the field beside the tombs of the kings, still an outsider, still unfit for the tombs proper, but not un-noticed. For, "In the year that King Uzziah died" Isaiah has his great vision & begins his ministry. 'Uncleanness' of any kind still creates fear among the 'clean', the 'ins' rather than 'outs', the defenders of orthodoxy & the status quo. Still wreaks havoc among those we exclude from our community. Still leaves its mark on our history. Uzziah's descendant, the steadfastly politically & religiously incorrect Jesus, steadfastly cleanses the unclean & brings outcasts in from the cold, raising them to life again, creating a new & different kind of bookmark for all our stories.

Jotham's a successful warrior who keeps out of the sanctuary! He becomes strong because he follows YHWH unswervingly. And, he gets to sleep with his forbears, not just outside in the cold.

Ahaz's copybook is one big smudge. A total failure as king in both internal & external politics. He doesn't get into the tombs of his forbears, either.

Hezekiah redeems the royal line. Cleans up the national act no end. Destroys Nehushtan [NUM 21] the serpent Moses made in the wilderness. Somehow this has been kept in the vestry all these years & led to idolatry, but so far, no-one can bring themself to throw it out. Like a lot of the stuff in our own vestry cupboards & drawers! Hezekiah's spring clean sets the tone for aggressive religious reform. (See what happens if you try it, cf. Jesus in the temple!) Hezekiah's fortunate in having Isaiah as mentor, & with God's help, keeps both Assyrians & Babylonians at bay - for the time being!

Manasseh's a bad egg until, (says the Chronicler, unverified by KINGS) he has a change of heart after being captured by the Assyrians, taken to Babylon, but then freed at YHWH's behest so he can return to Jerusalem. YHWH accepts Manasseh as he humbles himself. Apocryphal sources (those margins again!) attribute the murder of Isaiah to Manasseh [cf.HEB 11:37]  If untrue, what a calumny to perpetuate! Doodle in the margins all you like, but scribble only truths, not fictions! By the way, Manasseh doesn't reach the cemetery let alone the royal vault. He ends up in his own garden. A bit like the dog.

Amos (or Amon) abandons YHWH, doesn't have a change of heart like his father, & is murdered  by his servants. The country people rise against his killers & appoint his son, Josiah, king.

Josiah's a goodie & gets to wear a big white akubra. Does what's pleasing to YHWH, 'following the example of his ancestor, David, not deviating from it to right or to left'. (Someone seems to have conveniently forgotten David's own fairly frequent deviating!) Josiah's the great Reformer. Temple & worship are restored, the Book of the Law (DEUT) found in the process, & a great Passover held to celebrate. All good stuff, but books in themselves don't bring about lasting reform. Not even The Book! Hearts are what count. Scratch some Josiahs & we find a dangerous fundamentalist! Against God's will - how are we to tell this, infallibly? - Josiah battles Neco & is killed. Poignantly, the Chronicler notes that 'Jeremiah made a lament for Josiah'. If we act against God's will, lament is maybe the best we can hope for.

Josiah fathers 'Jeconiah & his brothers'. The latter clearly don't matter. The waters are muddied here. Maybe after the exile other 'lines' lay claim to being Davidic. Try 2KGS & 2CH if you want to untangle it a little. MT marches the line he's interested in on towards Jesus. Even when we muddy the waters, 'our God is marching on', inexorably - but not militaristically. Here endeth the 2nd of MT's 'memory slabs'.

The story resumes after the Deportation to Babylon with Jechoniah's son Salathiel (Shealtiel). Commentaries tell us there's textual confusion here. Better confusion in the text than in the family! Shealtiel's known only through his son Zerubbabel. Some of us, too, may only be remembered through our sons or daughters. Are you OK about that?

The name Zerubbabel, 'Shoot of Babylon', speaks of the ignominy of exile in a foreign land - again! The change of scenery has as ginormous an effect on Hebrew faith, culture, & psyche as captivity in Egypt does long before. What marks do our own captivities to persons, possessions, obsessions etc. make on us? Read EZ, NEH, HAG, & ZECH to view Zerubbabel's leadership role in return from exile. He acquires virtual messianic status [HAG 2:3] & becomes a kind of mini-messiah along the way. But he's not the One who is to come. Nor are any of those we set up as such. Even less when we set up ourself!

Abiud's omitted from the list in 1CH 3:19. The LXX continues with the descendants of his brother. We know nothing of him, his son, Eliakim, or grandson Azor. Unknowns still play their part in the story. If warriors, we even build tombs for them, & make political capital out of them!

Zadok & Achim are in the same boat, as are Eliud, Eleazar, & Mattan. Notable only because they aren't. It's as if MT & his genealogy are racing to a climax. Let there be no distractions.

How appropriate that Joseph's father Jacob, Jesus' grandfather, humanly speaking, bears the name of the one who long ago became Israel, the nation personified. As the genealogy now homes in on the One who personifies the new Israel.

As we reach Joseph & Mary, remember that the genealogy's a claim to legal descent in Jewish eyes. Tittle tattle about Jesus' birth, in his own day or later can't take this away from him. Besides, in fulfilling the Law rather than destroying it, Jesus fulfils all our humanity represented by all our family trees & family ties, including the shonky bits!

MT summarises & tidies up. His format: 2 sets of 7 generations from Abraham to David; another 2 sets of 7 from from David to the Exile; & a final pair of sets from the Exile to Jesus is a convenient mnemonic for those responsible for passing on the tradition without benefit of today's high tech CDRom family search programmes. We should be grateful for their skills in passing on names if not faces. How we remember & pass on the tradition is still important.