Jesus the Son of Scandal

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. A reading from the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 1.

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The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Ammonadab, Ammonadab the father of Nashon, Nashon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. Now it seems like many families have skeletons in their closets, family secrets that are so shameful that to mention them at a family gathering is a sure way to get yourself written off out of the will or uninvited to any future family events.

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Oftentimes these skeletons involve children born out of wedlock or born to morally sketchy individuals under murky and unclear circumstances.

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I'll give you an example. Imagine my surprise after I had my DNA analyzed by Ancestry .com

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and then I received an email from a woman who was almost the same age as I am, not much older than I am, and turns out she's one of my aunts.

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She was conceived by my maternal grandfather with a woman who wasn't his wife, didn't know about her at all, nobody prepared me for that.

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So imagine the awkward feelings that produced in me, and the bizarre questions that ensued were, let's just say, loads of fun to hammer out.

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Questions like, does my mother and do my aunts know that they have a half -sister?

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Would anyone in the family feel betrayed if I called her and spoke with her? Is she going to be invited to any family gatherings, you know, like Thanksgiving or Christmas?

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And what would I say to her if she was invited and she actually showed up? And then, of course, always the question people want to ask in regards to this, are there any legal implications that we need to consider?

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And so then questions of legitimacy and illegitimacy then surface like monsters from the deep.

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You see, these types of scandals cannot only deeply impact families, it is a scandal of this exact kind that is impacting our nation right now.

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Let me explain. Over the past decade, it has been proven that one of the founding fathers of our nation,

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Thomas Jefferson, that he fathered four children by one of his slaves, a gal by the name of Sally Hemings.

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And people in the Black Lives Matter movement have zeroed in on this scandal in order to claim that the

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United States of America itself and its constitution are illegitimate because of this.

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So what are we to make then of these women who are listed in Jesus' genealogy?

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The details in their cases are scandalous. That's the best way

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I can put it. Consider the account of Judah and Tamar. We find that in Genesis chapter 38.

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Here's how it reads. It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain

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Adullamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw the daughter of a certain

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Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went into her, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name

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Ur. She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name

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Shelah. Judah was in Shezeb when she bore him, and Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was

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Tamar. Now, a little bit of a note here. In the ancient Semitic world, there was a practice known as Karaite marriage.

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And the way it kind of worked was this, is if a son marries a woman and then dies before an heir can be born to him, a son, then the next son, the next brother then is to marry the widow, and the first son that they conceive will be accounted as actually having been born to the deceased brother.

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It's an interesting thing altogether. And the Mosaic Covenant actually puts this practice under the

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Mosaic practices. And even before Moses, though, this was a practice among the descendants of Abraham.

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So Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, her name was Tamar, but Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh, and so Yahweh put him to death.

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Okay, well that didn't work out so good. So then Judah said to Onan, you go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother -in -law to her and raise up offspring for your brother.

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But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he went into his brother's wife, he would waste his semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.

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And what he did was wicked in the sight of Yahweh, and Yahweh put him to death also. Sounds like a great family, right?

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Two brothers put to death by Yahweh himself. So then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter -in -law, remain a widow in your father's house till Shelah, my son, grows up, for he feared that he would die like his brother.

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So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. Again, this is a scandalous story at this point.

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And so now the question remains, will Judah do the right thing and give

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Tamar in marriage to Shelah so that she can bear children for Ur?

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That's the question. So in the course of time, the wife of Judah, Shuah's daughter, died.

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And when Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheep shearers, he and his friend

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Hira, the Edulamite. And when Tamar was told, your father -in -law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is the road to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah was grown up and she had not been given to him in marriage, which is what

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Judah was supposed to do. So he hasn't followed through on his duty to his dead son,

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Ur, and also to Tamar. So when Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

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He turned to her at the roadside and said, come, let me come into you, for he did not know that she was his daughter -in -law.

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And she said, well, what will you give me that you may come into me? And he answered, I will send you a young goat from the flock.

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And she said, if you give me a pledge until you send it. And he said, well, what pledge shall I give you? She replied, your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.

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So he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. You kind of see how this is a scandalous story, right?

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So then she rose and went away and taking off her veil, she put on the garments of her widowhood.

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And when Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Edulamite, to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her.

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So he asked the men of the place, where's the cult prostitute who was at Enayim at the roadside?

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And they said, no cult prostitute has been here. So he returned to Judah and said,

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I have not found her. Also, the men of the place said, no cult prostitute has been here. Does anyone else have an issue with the fact that Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah and Judah just really sounds like morally he's one really messed up fellow?

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Anyway, so Judah replied, let her keep the things as her own or we shall be laughed at. You see,

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I sent this young goat and you did not find her. So about three months later, Judah was told,

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Tamar, your daughter -in -law has been immoral. Now here's the best part. Moreover, she's pregnant by immorality.

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And so Judah said, bring her out and let her be burned. Well that's quite the righteousness on his part.

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And he's about to find out he's the dad. And so, I mean, this sounds like one of those daytime television shows.

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I mean, Maury Povich, is that guy still on the air? You know, it sounds like he's about ready to run a

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DNA test to prove paternity. And so you'll note here that Judah, without even flinching, sitting there going, you know, it would be really hypocritical of me to have her put to death because, you know, cult prostitute lady who

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I can't find. But no, he's just willing to just have her burned to death. And so she was being brought out and she sent word to her father -in -law, by the man to whom these belong,

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I'm pregnant. And she said, please identify whose these are and the signet and the cord and the staff.

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So Judah identified them and said, well, she's more righteous than I, since I did not give her my son,

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Shelah. And he did not know her again. And when the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb.

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And when she was in labor, one put out a hand and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, this one came out first.

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But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, what a breach you have made for yourself, therefore, his name was called

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Perez. Afterwards, his brother came out and the scarlet thread was on his hand, and his name was

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Zerah. Scandalous, indeed. I mean, skeletons in our closet. Here's the weird thing.

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God, in his divine providence, has decided to take this scandalous account and, well, write it into scripture so that we can see just how sinful and messed up Judah is.

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Now, consider Rahab, all right? This woman was not exactly respectable and pious as an

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Israelite woman. Let me explain. In Joshua 2, verse 1, we find out about Rahab.

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It says that Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies saying, go and view the land, especially

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Jericho. And they went and came to the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and they lodged there.

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Now, Salmon, who was a direct descendant of Jesus, who lived at the time of the

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Israelite conquest of Canaan under the command of Joshua the son of Nun, after the fall of Jericho, cast his eye on Rahab.

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Now, can you imagine how awkward it would have been for Salmon to introduce the woman he'd fallen in love with to his parents?

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Mom, Dad, I'd like you to meet Rahab. Oh, well, Rahab, that name sounds so familiar.

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Weren't you one of the people who survived the attack on Jericho? Well, yes, I did. Well, it's nice to meet you.

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So, tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do for a living? Okay.

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Yeah, things are getting a little awkward here. And then there's Ruth. Ruth. And you're thinking, well, that's a great story.

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And there's a whole book of the Bible written about her. But keep this in mind, she was a Moabitess. And there are, see, these are descendants of Lot.

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Yeah, if you're familiar with the story from Genesis, Moabite, they come from Lot. The entire

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Moabite clan came about when Lot's daughters got him drunk and then slept with him and then conceived by him.

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The word Moab is probably one of the ickiest words in all of scripture, at least in Hebrew. It literally means from father.

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Okay, we're talking one messed up family here. And I don't need to remind you of the sort of details of David's illicit relationship with Bathsheba and the subsequent murdering of her husband so that he could marry her and clandestinely cover up her pregnancy.

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Did you notice that Jesus' genealogy doesn't cover up the fact that Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah?

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It even says that. So, let me point this out. It's not a standard feature of Jewish genealogies, especially of the ancient world, to include women.

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This is a very rare thing. And since Matthew thought he'd include some women in Jesus' genealogy, why didn't he pick the more respectable women?

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You know, like Sarah, Rebecca, maybe Leah, you know? Doesn't Matthew understand that scandalous skeletons in Jesus' genealogical closet could call

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Jesus' legitimacy into question, right? All those women that he's listed were clearly sinners.

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And then we can even talk about Judah, too. And David. Yeah, you know, the whole thing just is kind of a messed up situation.

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But have you ever noticed a sneaky thing about people who act all scandalized by stories like the ones we just read and who act repulsed by stories like theirs?

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That those who do this, who act all repulsed, they're acting like they're morally superior to them.

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And the reality is this. When somebody acts like that, we should be scandalized by the deceitfulness of their self -righteous pretenses.

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You see, Scripture says this about all who believe in Christ. Titus chapter 3 says this.

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We ourselves, we were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

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But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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Yeah, and here's the thing. If you don't see yourself as part of that list that Paul gives in the early part of Titus 3, foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions, pleasures, passing our days in malice, envy, hated by others and hating one another, then you don't understand your need for a

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Savior. And so Romans chapter 6 says this about all of us.

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For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

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And here's the thing. It's easy to point out the ungodliness of Judah, of Tamar, of David, of Bathsheba, even the scandalous heritage of the

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Moabites. But the thing is, is that none of us come from any better stock. In fact, none of us are any better ourselves.

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And that's the point. While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, you and I.

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One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare to die. But see,

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God demonstrates. He clearly shows his love for us in that while we were still completely messed up, ungodly sinners,

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Christ died for us. He didn't wait for us to clean up the skeletons in our closet, to clean up our acts.

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No. Christ dies for real sinners. Real sinners like me, like you.

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In fact, Galatians 4, one of the texts that is assigned for Christmas Day says, But when the fullness of time had come,

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God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

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And let me focus in on that word, adoption, for a second here. Because here's the thing. None of us are legitimate.

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Each and every one of us were born dead in trespasses and sins, and in the family of the devil himself.

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Christ says, you are of your father, the devil. So note that we who are in the body of Christ, who are in the family of God, it's not because of how good we are, our great heritage, our clean living, or anything like that.

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We've been adopted as sons because Christ bled and died for us when we were at our worst.

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So let me go back and finish our meditation with these thoughts. I ask the question, doesn't

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Matthew understand that scandalous skeletons in Jesus' closet could call

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Jesus' legitimacy into question? Why didn't he put respectable women in that list instead of the women that he listed?

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Why didn't he have Sarah, Rebecca, Leah? And I think it's obvious, because even in the genealogy of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus Christ is screaming to us from these pages, saying that none of us is so far gone that we cannot be forgiven by God.

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None of us has outstripped the mercy and the grace of God. And you're going to note that among Jesus' own relatives are murderers, adulterers, and prostitutes, and the worst of the worst.

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And the thing is, is that when we recognize that we're in that same company, even if we haven't committed those same sins, because when you break one of God's commandments, you're guilty, according to God, of breaking them all.

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It doesn't matter how clean your course has been. You've broken one commandment. You've broken every single one of them.

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So let us, this last of our midweek Advent services in this penitential season, let us praise

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God as adopted children, as illegitimate as we are, as sinful, ungodly, and messed up as we are, that God the

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Holy Spirit chose to inspire Matthew to write the names of Tamar, of Ruth, of Rahab, and the wife of Uriah.

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Because in doing so, it gives us hope. If they can be forgiven and redeemed by Christ, because Christ did not come to condemn us, he came to save us, then there's hope for even us.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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