Micah 5:2-5a Psalm 80:1-7 Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45
Last week’s prophet Zephaniah was part of the establishment, a direct descendent of King Hezekiah. This week we move about 25 miles south-west of Jerusalem to a very rural spot ‘out in the sticks’, where most of the population were involved in subsistence farming. However, ripples spread outwards from matters at court and in the temple, impacting the livelihoods of those in the rural economy. The religious and political leaders were promising peace but practicing social injustice, and had led the people astray.
And now the enemy stood at the border. Little by little the Assyrian empire had swallowed up the nations as it swept east and south, and the people of Judah must have waited in fear and trepidation. The political response was to try human solutions to procure peace and security in a world torn apart by terror and war; so, successive kings of Judah paid tribute to neighbouring superpowers in an attempt to avert calamity. The land of Judah was also swamped with refugees fleeing from Israel, adding more pressure on limited resources. (And if you really want to know what Micah felt about the governing powers and religious leaders of his day, just read chapters 2 & 3).
Micah’s people saw so much greed and deception in high places. Could they believe with him that the ‘arc of the moral universe bends towards justice’? could they believe that ‘the one of peace’, whose only weapon is gentleness, would win for them security and safety, when they experienced so much violence around them?
Stephen B. Boyd in Feasting on the Word, Year C, volume 4 [ed. David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor]. (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 78
And yet Micah can see hope and speaks hope into a hopeless situation; Micah pointed beyond the immediate crisis, and envisaged a whole new future:
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace. (5:4)
Micah envisages a universal peace, brought about by a leader whose roots are in King David and in Bethlehem. This peaceful ruler is described as the shepherd of the flock, whose strength and power is revealed in service (see Psalm 23).
A ruler who will:
… judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; (4:3)
The God of Israel is a God of shimmering surprises of outlandish innovation and renewal. At precisely that moment when God’s people have determined the shape of the future and have measured themselves according to its dimensions God intervenes and so disturbs our orientation thy we are forced to begin again in the construction of our dreams.
James D. Newsome in Texts for Preaching year C [ed. Charles Cousar et al] (Louisville Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 19940, 30
Fast forward several centuries to a meeting between two women. They are important in this tale because the focus is moving from prophecy to fulfilment through them. God is at work once more: a new era is breaking out with the arrival of two small babies. One who will prepare the way, and the other who will come as the peaceful ruler, descended from King David.
So, Elizabeth and Mary stand at the portal of the new kingdom of peace, the first amongst those to be blessed. The God of Israel is indeed a God of shimmering surprises of outlandish innovation and renewal.
One of my favourite images of Mary and Elizabeth is by the artist Lauren Wright Pittman, and can be found via this link:
http://www.lewpstudio.com/digitalgoods
As I gaze at this image, I am reminded that for these few precious moments, all is peace and calm for these two women. The pain and terror of labour and birth is to come. The agony of suffering and death which will come many years on, in this tale, is yet to be.
And who else could transform the chaotic, messy nature of giving birth – a moment of great vulnerability for mother and child – into one of the most profound tenets of Christian faith, that God became incarnate in Jesus? Who else can transform the chaotic and messy nature of human life into grace and blessing?
Last week Zephaniah provided a song of joy, this week, it is Mary’s great heart-felt hymn of praise that stands in solidarity with the message of the prophets: that God will come to lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things, and pour out divine mercy on all who look to God. Whatever Christmas turns out to be this year, we are reminded that it is only the transforming love of God that changes our chaos into light and joy and peace.
Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21
Worship at home 