One of the few condolences orthodox Christians can take living in secular America comes from turning on a radio every Christmas season, when virtually every radio station plays songs proclaiming the Name and Lordship of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, every format (rock, country, etc.) plays traditional carols made famous by the great vocalists of our recent history: Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, and the like. The fact that the Christmas carols sound older is partly based on tradition but also a reflection of contemporary faith: As America lost its faith, we have produced fewer carols about the birth of Christ. That’s why I was surprised recently to hear the first new Christmas song in a long time — so surprised I wrote down the lyrics:

“Lights are going up. Snow is falling down.

“There’s a feeling of goodwill around town. ...

“People throwing parties; ugly sweaters everywhere

“Stockings hung up by the chimney with care

“It could only mean one thing!

“McRib is here.”

The new McDonald’s jingle interprets the signs of the Christmas season as being fulfilled by the Second Coming of the McRib. I know there are some Americans, like the Magi, whose eyes scan the eastern sky every winter for the appearance of that bright, guiding light of the Golden Arches.

It may be the most American interpretation of history to attribute all the joys of the Christmas season to a discount BBQ sandwich. (Not even a very good BBQ sandwich. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?)

These lyrics serve as an indictment of our nation’s priorities. Jesus once said a rudimentary sign of wisdom is the ability to properly discern the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3). When the world’s most popular restaurant makes the holiday about itself, we are missing the reason for the season. But it is also a commentary on our patience. Americans have such an aversion to self-denial that they have a hard time waiting a few months for the return of a fast food novelty. Imagine the patience of God’s people, who waited countless generations for the coming of their Savior.

Some of the most prominent people of that history are mentioned in the gospel reading which the Eastern Orthodox Church reads on this Sunday before Christmas, which we call the Sunday of the Fathers — a day when we remember the ancestors of Christ. The most striking feature of this gospel reading is something even many die-hard Bible enthusiasts skip over: a genealogy (Matthew 1:1-25).

America’s latest Christmas jingle takes all the things it believes typify the Christmas season — stockings, parties, ugly sweaters — and attributes them to the return of the McRib. The genealogy at the beginning of the Gospel of St. Matthew recounts the great events in salvation history and says they point forward to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. “All the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations,” it reads (Matthew 1:17).

The people hearing this gospel knew Abraham and David were real; they were their relatives. Just as we hand down family stories through generations, the people of Israel shared tales of God choosing Abraham to bring forth a peculiar people for Himself and of King David’s appointment as a forerunner of the Messianic King. They remembered the painful family story when that kingdom divided in two, only to have each piece carried on the wings of idolatry away from God into pagan lands. These were their relatives, too — and too many of them never returned to the Promised Land. That chapter of chastening showed the consequences of sin. Transposing that to the heavenly realm, they knew that sin could take their immortal souls out of their safe haven into a land of captivity far worse than their ancestors ever dreamed, with no hope of return from that exile.

This genealogy of Christ does not count every generation; genealogies at that time included the most prominent people in one’s family history. When the Gospel observed this convention, it found 14 generations separated from each of these important events in Israel’s history. This Gospel highlights the symmetry, because it helps drive home a message: It shows an order and plan in God’s interaction with history. It connects Jesus with God’s mighty acts in the past, showing that He is their telos, their fulfillment. It shows that He is connected to has a place in the great mystery of human experience. It proves that the culmination of all human history is the incarnation and birth of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity.

The writers the Bible calls “the minor prophets” forecast this. Their prophecies added muscle and sinew to the rough skeleton presented by this genealogy.

Minor Prophets, Major Wisdom

As a housekeeping note, the church traditionally calls these writers the “minor” prophets, not as an insult to their prophecy in any way. The term is a transliteration of the Latin language, where “minor” means “shorter.” The major prophets wrote longer books, and the minor prophets wrote shorter books, but each of the 12 minor prophets conveyed great wisdom.

 Four of the minor prophets celebrated during the Nativity Fast made specific prophesies about Jesus Christ:

• The Prophet Haggai (celebrated December 16) said, “The Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory” (Haggai 2:7).
• The Prophet Nahum (celebrated December 1) expressed that longing for Christ’s incarnation by writing, “Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of Him Who brings good news, Who publishes peace!” (Nahum 1:15; see also Isaiah 52:7).
• The Prophet Habakkuk (celebrated December 2), in one translation of the Bible, gave us the name of Jesus Himself, saying: “I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will joy in God my Jesus” (Habakkuk 3:18).
• The Prophet Zephaniah (celebrated December 3) had such confidence in the coming of Christ that he could express it in the past tense: “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.” (Zephaniah 3:15).

Compare Zephaniah’s words to those of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, when his son was born. The saintly priest uttered a hymn called the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79), which says:

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

“And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…

“That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; … that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.”

He had such joy, because “the Dayspring from on high hath visited us” — that is a reference to Jesus — “to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, [and] to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:68-69, 71, 74,-75, 78-79).

The simplest person in Israel reading this simple genealogy — full of foreign-sounding names that mean little to those who are not biblical scholars — could hear this outline and instantly know that through Jesus Christ he had his own place in God’s plan, which stretches from the Garden of Eden to the coming of the New Jerusalem. Jesus came to deliver them from sin, which exiled them from their Father’s house and robbed them of life, giving them eternal life and making them “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4 ). They had a role and trusted in God’s providence. If they held to God, He would fill their lives with meaning and joy and grant them everlasting life.

We have forgotten that in America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the McRib.

American society atomizes us. It pulls us apart into discreet groups, then subdivides us into ever-smaller groups. This makes it easier to market to us — and to divide and conquer. American culture strips us of our place in spiritual reality and tries to replace it with commercialism. It tells us our highest function is to buy and consume, especially at this time of year. Throughout the year, Americans come to identify with sports teams, with our hobbies, our tastes and interests, our passions — sometimes, we come to identify ourselves with our sins — but we do not identify the way the people who read today’s gospel did: by their place in God’s plan.

The question each of us must ask is: What is my place in God’s plan? Do I see God’s hand in the great events in my history? In Christ, we are reunited with God the Father and reinvigorated by receiving divine and abiding life. We also receive a lasting heritage: As members of His church, Christ connects us to the prophets and patriarchs, as well as the apostles, with Himself as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). These figures of faith become our forefathers in the same sense that Americans can call George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin “our forefathers,” although we are not related to them — even if we just took the oath of citizenship.

Can I look at my heart and say Jesus has taken away my darkness, stating confidently, “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation” (Psalm 117 [118]:14)?

Can I say Jesus has taken me out of the shadow of death and given me new life?

Can I say the Prince of Peace has taken away my anger and guided me into the way of peace?

Not to belabor the McRib thing, but there is a reason the McRib disappears every year. The secret is contained in an article titled “Why We Missed the McRib” by Elaine Schwartz, published on December 12. It is because eventually Americans realize it is a mediocre sandwich. Schwartz wrote:

“McDonald’s removes the McRib from the menu because of how we perceive that extra bite. One McDonald’s franchisee tells us that when it first returns, he sells close to 200 a day. However, by the end of the promotion, anticipation plummets and his daily McRib sales drop to fewer than 50.

“An economist would say that McRib eaters are experiencing diminishing marginal utility because each new serving gives them less extra pleasure. Recognizing how unlimited availability could bring marginal utility down to zero and even into negative territory, McDonald’s soon removes the McRib.

“Freakonomics’s Steven Dubner explained that McDonald’s resuscitates the McRib after waiting long enough for him to forget how bad it is.”

The things of the world sell the hype on the front end and try to manage disappointment when they fail to deliver. Jesus never disappoints. He fills our lives with fresh joy — with light and life every day.

This time of year, the world offers us a choice of two meals: The world entices us to continue feeding ourselves on a diet which looks outwardly appealing, which most of our fellow Americans eat as the norm, but which ultimately proves to be perishing and unsatisfying. Fasting is a greater meal than the world offers.

God offers us the perfect meal: the Babe laid in a manger (which is derived from the French word mangier, which means “to eat”). Jesus tells us in a faint form in this genealogy what He would announce boldly before all: “I AM the living bread which came down from Heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

Let us believe and praise. Let us eat and live. Come, let us adore Him!