The Gospel According to Matthew begins with a genealogy, naming all the men in Joseph’s line from Abraham to the time when Jesus was born. The genealogy we will share today will have the name of all the mothers of those babies—the names we know, that is. Many women in scripture are not named at all. Why this? Why now? In this genealogy are five fascinating women, whose surprising stories tell us much about how God accomplishes wonders. We will share those stories today.
Please join us for worship on Sunday mornings at 10:30 AM in our beautiful sanctuary at 200 East Main Street, Endicott. Or, you can join our livestream by clicking on the Youtube Video right here. We would love to welcome you as we continue along the journey to the manger.
Third Sunday in Advent
Hope Through the Generations
Ruth 4:11-17; Matthew 1:1-16
Union Presbyterian Church
December 14, 2025
Sharing the Light of Christ, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Liturgist: Kevin Kelley Preacher: Rev. Pat Raube
Welcome
Announcements Kevin Kelley
Prelude Chris Bartlette
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Mark Hayes
©2011, Lorenz Publishing Co., All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
* Call to Worship/ Lighting of the Advent Candle of Joy
Sophie Helgeson-Roode
Now is the time when hope is unfolding,
the dark winter season when hope is waiting to be born.
We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ.
As the Lord has promised, in days to come,
The wilderness shall be glad,
and the desert shall blossom.
Like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
Let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
* Hymn # 159 W & R
“Who is the King of Glory,” Willard F. Jabusch
©1982, OCP Publications, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices.
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.
Who is the King of glory; what shall we call him?
He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices.
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.
In all of Galilee, in city or village,
He goes among his people, curing their illness.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices.
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.
He gave his life for us, the pledge of salvation,
He took upon himself the sins of the nation.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices.
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.
He conquered sin and death; he truly has risen,
And he will share with us his heavenly vision.
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices.
Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.
* Call to New Life
As followers of Christ, we are always on a journey. As we prepare to hear the story of a journey through generations of God’s people, let us confess those places in which we need to grow, so that God can lead us, and give us the new life we long for.
* Prayer for Wholeness and Peace (responsive)
Almighty God, Light of the World, you caused light to shine out of darkness in the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. You continually open us to the ways we are to prepare. We confess our unwillingness to see the light and to walk in your ways. We have closed our eyes to the needs of others, and our feet have wandered from the paths of justice and peace. We ask that the Spirit of Christ be born anew within us, that our hearts may be stirred to celebrate your coming with acts of compassion and service. Amen.
* Words of Assurance
With joy let us draw water from the springs of salvation.
Let us give thanks to the Lord, and call upon God’s name!
In the name of Emmanuel, God-with-us, we are forgiven and made whole.
Thanks be to God! Amen. Alleluia!
* Sharing of the Peace
Let us rejoice! Christ is coming.
May the peace of God be with you.
And also with you.
Let us share a sign of God’s peace with one another.
Scripture Ruth 4:11-17
All the women and men who were at the gate, along the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Faithful God grant that the woman who is coming into your house be like Rachel and Leah; the two of them built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and establish a lineage in Bethlehem; and, may your house, through the children that the Fount of Life will give you by this young woman, be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar gave birth to for Judah.” So Boaz took Ruth as his own for a wife. He came to her and the Source of Life granted her a pregnancy, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Faithful God, who has not deprived you this day of next-of-kin; and may this child’s name be renowned in Israel! He too shall be to you a restorer of life and a provider in your latter years; for your daughter-in-law has given birth to him, she who loves you, she who is more to you than seven sons.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and she fostered him. The neighbor-women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Time for Young Disciples Rev. Pat Raube
Music: “New Songs of Celebration Render” (Public Domain)
Anthem Choir
“In Matthew’s Gospel There Are Five,” Mary Nelson Keithahn
©1998, Abingdon Press
Used by Permission. CCLI License #CSPL068847
In Matthew’s Gospel there are five
Faith-mothers called by name,
All ancestors of Jesus Christ,
Each held in some disdain.
Now who would think such women
Would do all that God had willed?
How strange that they were chosen
So God’s plan might be fulfilled!
If God could find a use for them,
Their faithfulness ignite,
Then surely God can use us too,
As bearers of the light.
Poor Tamar, wife unwanted and
A widow once again,
Determined she would not depend
On whims of faithless men,
So, wily woman that she was,
She did more than complain
And, taking matters in her hands,
Soon turned her loss to gain.
Fair Rahab lived in Jericho,
A woman of the night.
When Joshua sent his men to spy,
She hid them out of sight.
She told the king that they had left
And gone another way,
She trusted that God’s people were
In Jericho to stay.
The widow Ruth, a Moabite,
Left her own land behind.
She went to live in Bethlehem,
And wed a farmer kind.
The son she bore to Boaz caused
Naomi’s heart to sing,
And made this foreign Moabite
Grandmother to a king.
If God could find a use for them,
Their faithfulness ignite,
Then surely God can use us too,
As bearers of the light.
Uriah’s wife was beautiful;
Bathsheba was her name,
King David claimed her as his own,
And loved her, to his shame.
To this unholy union then
Was born a little son
Who carried on the line that led
Unto the Promised One.
Young Mary lived in Nazareth
Where she was to be wed
To Joseph, village carpenter,
But then an angel said,
“Dear Mary, you will conceive
And give birth to a son.”
And Mary glorified the Lord
And said, “Thy will be done.”
In Matthew’s Gospel there are five
Faith-mothers called by name,
All ancestors of Jesus Christ,
Each held in some disdain.
If God could find a use for them
Despite their human plight,
Then we can dare to hope we too
Have value in God’s sight.
If God could find a use for them,
Their faithfulness ignite,
Then surely God can use us too,
As bearers of the light.
Scripture Matthew 1:1-16 “A Genealogy of Jesus Christ”
Compiled by Ann Patrick Ware
A genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of Miriam, the daughter of Anna:
Sarah was the mother of Isaac,
And Rebekah was the mother of Jacob,
Leah was the mother of Judah,
Tamar was the mother of Perez.
The names of the mothers of Hezron, Ram, Aminadab,
Nahshon, and Salmon have been lost.
Rahab was the mother of Boaz,
and Ruth was the mother of Obed.
Obed’s wife, whose name is unknown, bore Jesse.
The wife of Jesse was the mother of David.
Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon,
Naamah, the Ammonite, was the mother of Rehoboam.
Maacah was the mother of Abijam and the grandmother of Asa.
Azubah was the mother of Jehosaphat.
The name of Jehoram’s mother is unknown.
Athaliah was the mother of Ahaziah,
Zibiah of Beersheba, the mother of Joash.
Jecoliah of Jerusalem bore Uzziah,
Jerusha bore Jotham; Ahaz’s mother is unknown.
Abi was the mother of Hezekiah,
Hephzibah was the mother of Manasseh,
Meshullemeth was the mother of Amon,
Jedidah was the mother of Josiah.
Zebidah was the mother of Jehoiakim,
Nehushtah was the mother of Jehoiakin,
Hamutal was the mother of Zedekiah.
Then the deportation of Babylon took place.
After the deportation to Babylon
the names of the mothers go unrecorded.
These are their sons:
Jechoniah, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel,
Abiud, Eliakim, Azor and Zadok,
Achim, Eliud, Eleazar,
Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, the husband of Miriam.
Of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.
The sum of generations is there: fourteen from Sarah to David’s mother;
fourteen from Bathsheba to the Babylonian deportation;
and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Miriam, the mother of Christ.
Response This is a summary of what scripture tells us.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon “Hope through the Generations”
* Affirmation of Faith Scots Confession, Ch. 4: The Incarnation of Christ Jesus
When the fullness of time came God sent his Son, his eternal wisdom,
the substance of his own glory, into this world, who took the nature
of humanity from the substance of a woman, a virgin, by means of
the Holy Ghost. And so was born the “just seed of David,” the “Angel
of the great counsel of God,” the very Messiah promised, whom we
confess and acknowledge to be Emmanuel, true God and true man, two
perfect natures united and joined in one person.
* Hymn # 163 W & R
“All Earth is Hopeful,” Alberto Taulé
©1993, OCP Publications, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
All earth is hopeful, the Savior comes at last!
Furrows lie open for God’s creative task:
This, the labor of people who struggle to see
How God’s truth and justice set everybody free.
People of Israel, you heard the prophet tell:
“A virgin mother will bear Emmanuel”;
She conceived him, “God with us,” our brother whose birth
Restores hope and courage to children of this earth.
Mountains and valleys will have to be prepared;
New highways opened, new protocols declared.
Almost here! God is nearing, in beauty and grace!
All clear every gateway, in haste, come out in haste!
We first saw Jesus a baby in a crib.
This same Lord Jesus today has come to live
In our world; he is present, in neighbors we see
Our Jesus is with us, and ever sets us free.
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Prayer Response # 3 PH (verse 3)
“Comfort, Comfort You My People” (Public Domain)
Make you straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits God’s holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o’er earth is shed abroad;
And all flesh shall see the token
That God’s word is never broken.
Call for Offering
* Doxology # 156 W & R (verse 5)
“On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry” (Public Domain)
To you, O Christ, all praises be,
Whose advent sets your people free;
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Spirit evermore!
* Dedication of Offering
* Hymn # 160 W & R
“Awake! Awake, and Greet the New Morn,” Marty Haugen
©1983, GIA Publications, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
Awake! awake, and greet the new morn,
For angels herald its dawning.
Sing out your joy, for soon he is born,
Behold! the Child of our longing.
Come as a baby weak and poor,
To bring all hearts together,
He opens wide the heavenly door
And lives now inside us for ever.
To us, to all in sorrow and fear,
Emmanuel comes a-singing,
His humble song is quiet and near,
Yet fills the earth with its ringing;
Music to heal the broken soul
And hymns of lovingkindness,
The thunder of his anthems roll
To shatter all hatred and blindness.
In darkest night his coming shall be,
When all the world is despairing,
As morning light so quiet and free,
So warm and gentle and caring.
Then shall the mute break forth in song,
The lame shall leap in wonder,
The weak be raised above the strong,
And weapons be broken asunder.
Rejoice, rejoice, take heart in the night,
Though dark the winter and cheerless,
The rising sun shall crown you with light,
Be strong and loving and fearless.
Love be our song and love our prayer
And love our endless story;
May God fill every day we share
And bring us at last into glory.
* Benediction
Postlude Chris Bartlette
“Joyful Day,” Mark Hayes
©2020, Lorenz Publishing Co., All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
Where an * is indicated, please rise in body and/or in spirit.
“W & R” ~ the red Worship and Rejoice hymnal.
“PH” ~ the blue Presbyterian Hymnal
Scripture Translations are from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year A, by Wilda C. Gafney, unless otherwise noted.
“A Genealogy of Jesus Christ” was compiled by Ann Patrick Ware of the Women’s Liturgy Group of New York. Public Domain.
Call to Worship and Call to New Life adapted from prayers by Ruth C. Duck, Bread for the Journey: Resources for Worship, ed. Ruth Duck (United Church Press, Cleveland, OH). Prayer for Wholeness and Peace adapted from a prayer of Mary Ann Neevel, op. cit. Words of Assurance adapted from a prayer in the “Book of Common Worship,” PCUSA (2018).