Micah 5.2-5a; Hebrews 10-.5-10; Luke 1.39-55

Micah 5.2-5a; Hebrews 10-.5-10; Luke 1.39-55

The prophet Micah ends today’s first reading with a pledge. “He shall be the one of peace.” Yet when Micah wrote, there was little reason to believe the world would be peaceful, permeated by human flourishing and well-being. In seven short chapters, this Old Testament prophet describes estrangement with family and friends, dishonesty among religious leaders, and corruption infecting the nations. It’s bad. In one place he says, “Put no trust in a neighbor, no confidence in a close friend, guard what you say to your beloved.” In another, “The hands of the governing authorities are skilled only to do evil.”

Part of the power of the Bible is how ancient texts still sound contemporary, speak to our heart and lives as we know them. When Micah looks at the world around him and tries to make sense of it all, he’s like a doctor making a diagnosis. “The wound is incurable, fatal.” That’s the background of today’s first reading. Yet Micah also knows that even when we are beset by sin, sorrow, and death, there is hope. There is hope in God. In spite of human failure, God is faithful. A child will be born. “He shall be the one of peace.”

To picture this child, Micah brings together a number of Old Testament themes in a collage of images. First, the child will be from the house of David, fulfilling God’s covenant promise that kings from the house and lineage of David would rule God’s people forever: a king. Next, the coming one will be a shepherd feeding his flock, the Old Testament pledge that one day God—as God—would shepherd and care for the people: a shepherd. Micah adds more images. The child will be the saving presence and power of God whose “origin is from old, from ancient days”: eternal. And Micah describes God’s coming rescue in terms of a woman giving birth, “until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth”: born for us. In this collage of images—king, shepherd, the Eternal One, born for us—the gospel writers saw how Micah gives us a picture of Jesus. “He shall be the one of peace.”

And all of this, Micah says, will take place in Bethlehem. Now we’re so used to the gospels telling us of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem that this detail may not surprise us. But Bethlehem, Micah says, is “one of the little clans of Judah.” Bethlehem may have been King David’s ancestral home, but by the time of Jesus, it was completely off the map for movers, shakers, and headline-makers. The capital city was Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. When the Wise Men went in search of the “child born King of the Jews,” their celestial GPS took them to Jerusalem. Where else would you go but to a king’s palace to find a newborn king? But GPS makes mistakes, as you know. It was an old-school paper map that redirected the Magi to Bethlehem—the paper map of scripture. From you Bethlehem, one of the little clans, shall come the One who is to rule. This should be as surprising as it would be if today’s news coverage, so focused on Washington DC, missed out on the fact that true center of world-changing news was not inside the beltway but in a nearby, unknown town like Chantilly VA, for example. That’s Bethlehem, one of the little clans. The Kingdom of God comes not in imposing power but in far-reaching grace.

And no less surprising than out-of-the-way Bethlehem is God’s choice of Mary to be the mother of our Lord, to bear the Son of God in the world. In so many ways, Mary is an unlikely candidate: too young, too poor, unwed, not powerful but lowly. Why did God choose Mary? The scriptures are silent about this. She herself, as you know, was completely perplexed that God would have something in store for her. Yet God sought her out in an act of sheer grace.

This is the way God works throughout the Bible. In a reflection on today’s scripture readings, Anthony Robinson reminds us that, “God chooses little, out of the way places. God chooses people who are too young or too old, too this or too that, the little, the least, and the lowly.” This is the meaning of the virgin birth. God once made the world out of nothing and now remakes the world out of nothing that Mary has done. God makes something out of nothing, somewhere out of nowhere, somebody out of the least expected. Not imposing power, but far-reaching grace.

And this means that you and I in our lives—improbable, imperfect, and ordinary as they are—can be bearers of Jesus in the world. St Paul talks about this in the New Testament when he says, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are.”

That is what Mary sings about in her Magnificat, today’s canticle between the first and second readings. “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.” Lowliness. Mary sings about the fullness of God filling empty people and places. God “hath scattered the proud…and exalted the humble and meek.” Her song echoes other biblical texts. “The Lord takes no pleasure in human might,” says one of the psalms; “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble,” says an Old Testament proverb in a passage repeated by the New. In Jesus, a new day is dawning, “the dawn of redeeming grace,” to borrow words from Silent Night. And Mary’s song about how God works in the world isn’t only about human well-being for her place and time. Mary sings of God’s faithful love extending age-to-age for all who fear him, from generation to generation, even to us in our lowly lives and unlikely circumstances. God’s life coming alive in us makes us bearers of Jesus in the world.

This year I came across some history about a part of our church building that was new information to me. The bell in the tower has a name: Mary. Bell Mary. The bell came to us as this building was under construction and as St Mary’s Church in Guelph was closing; we named the bell Mary in that church’s honor. What that means for us here is that, at the beginning of every worship service, Mary rings out her song and calls us to join our voice and our lives to her praise in worship. Each worship service is a sign of God setting the world right in Jesus: seeing the overlooked, humbling the proud, lifting the lowly, feeding the hungry with good things; of God’s heart for the poor and poor in spirit—not an imposing show of power but in far-reaching grace that extends through time and space to you. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoice in God my Savior.” That sound not only rings out from this church, it can ring out in your life.

The prophet Micah, when looking deep into the heart of human failure, sin, and brokenness, has hope because God is steadfast and gives new life. In spite of human failure, God is faithful. A child will be born. In Jesus, God enters human life with all its dimensions of regret and joy, failure and wonder, heartbreak and delight. Speaking of Jesus entering our world, today’s second reading says, “A body you have prepared for me.” The Son of God enters our life for our sake. Jesus is the meeting place between heaven and earth, the king whose servant life confounds human authority, the shepherd who leads us from death to life, the eternal Son of God born to make your life new.

In the most unlikely and unexpected people and places, God is at work. God chooses little Bethlehem, chooses Mary, comes to you in your lowliness with divine grace and peace. May your soul magnify the Lord and your spirit rejoice in God your Savior—now and in the days to come. Because in a far-reaching revelation of grace, God has looked with favor on you in Jesus. And for you, he shall be the one of peace.