This is the second Sunday of Advent. Today we light the candle of Peace. But today’s story has lots of dysfunction and unrest in it. It is the story of Tamar and Judah from Genesis 38. It is a virtual soap opera of backstabbing, maligning, malicious, behaviour. At first glance it seems anything but peaceful. Tamar’s life is made miserable by the family of Judah in whose family line we trace the lineage of Christ. Talk about having skeletons in our closets. But In this story justice finally wins. It wins with Tamar and it wins with us and it wins with the family history of Judah. His peace is paid retroactive, in the present and it is paid forward.