How Do You Understand Christmas?

Advent 2 sermon by Glynn Cardy focusing on not the historical accuracy of the birth narrative but what the text is trying to say in Luke's genealogy of Jesus. Does it suggest rape and illegitimacy? If so, what is the Gospel message. "However it makes no sense for both Matthew and Luke to sow doubt about Jesus' paternity if Joseph was his actual father. The scandal that accompanied the pregnancy would have diminished if Joseph had owned up. Indeed the pregnancy of a betrothed girl by her fiancé was viewed as more positive than negative, for it was thought to guarantee children and ensure the male line. Although scholarship today is less concerned about historicity than about what the texts actually say, it is possible to assert the following: Firstly that Mary, the mother of Jesus, conceived between betrothal and home-taking. Secondly the circumstances of his conception were scandalous. Thirdly, Mary was not blamed. Fourthly that Joseph, despite not being the biological father, legitimated the child. Lastly, that the child was not accounted as inferior or cursed, like an illegitimate offspring. Rather the opposite." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/?sid=74&id=681