Don’t Skip the “Begats”

by the Rev. Katherine Bush

It’s not uncommon to hear someone offering the following counsel about reading the Bible: just skip over the begats. I’ve said it. If you want to read the Bible, especially if you endeavor to read the whole thing – front to back, then it feels okay to give you a free pass to skip ahead whenever you get to one of those pesky paragraphs … “To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael the father of Methushael …”

But I think now I’m wrong. I think that might be bad advice. In Cole Arthur Riley’s book of beautiful prayers, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human, she suggests that God “makes space to name lineages throughout sacred texts [as] an invitation to honor story as it stretches across time and space.” Those lists of who begat whom are there purposefully, and we might not glaze over the genealogical record. And this naming of lineages is exactly what we do with particular intention on All Saints and All Souls, the first days of November, joyful days of remembrance. 

It’s important to emphasize the joyful nature of these days, not because our grief and sorrow for our loved ones who have died is misplaced, but because we can hold contrasting truths in mind at the same time. We grieve, and we celebrate. Mostly, though, in a world that often tells us to rush along and to move along and to get over things, we remember. We call their names aloud, all of our ancestors: those known to us and beloved or those we have only ever heard stories about. 

Sometimes, it may feel joyful, while at other times, it may not. It may feel dutiful; it may be a respectful practice, and it may be hard or easy. It may seem like a thing we do for them, for those saints and souls who’ve gone before us. Consider, though, that it might also be a practice that changes us.

“To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps, to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrows, is always a measure of what has gone before.” Alice Walker 

Remembering and naming our lineages is a spiritual practice that takes our lives and puts them in perspective of the longer, larger story. We are simply the most recent folk to come along with our worries and anxieties, with our hopes and loves. Others have survived and labored and worshiped and laughed and made dinner and voted and wept and dreamed. Remembering and naming our lineages is a gift to those ahead of us on the journey, but it is no less a gift to ourselves as we draw courage and inspiration from the story of their lives. 

Who begat you?