Monday, January 7, 2013

"Prophets of Promise: Micah"


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Sunday, December 23, 2012
Old Testament Reading:  Micah 5:2-5a

2But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

3Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.

4And 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.

Sermon: "Prophets of Promise: Micah"

Everyone loves an underdog.  Especially us Aggies.

This year in the Southeastern Conference was The Year of the Underdog.  When Texas A&M joined the SEC, we were scoffed at as being a petulant child wanting to play with the big kids.  To be honest, I didn’t expect us to do very well.  But that’s the great thing about underdogs: they never do what’s expected.

We reached ten wins for the first time in over twelve years.  We stunned everyone (including ourselves) by beating the then-number-one team Alabama.  And we broke Heisman history by having one of our freshmen, Johnny Manziel, win that great honor.  It has been our year.  But the real joy of it, the glory of it, is in shattering all of those limited expectations, even our own. 

Now, it might be a tad presumptuous for me to say that God’s favorite colors are maroon and white, that God’s favorite place is College Station, Texas and that on that much-needed seventh day of rest, God sat down in front of a game of A&M football.  Unfortunately, I cannot with all certainty say that God is an Aggie fan.  But I can say that God is a fan of the underdog!

We see this everywhere in scripture: in God speaking through servant girls and tired wanderers, in God calling shepherd boys to be kings and teenagers to be prophets.  In God choosing to be born to a young, brave mother and a dad who worked manual labor to make ends meet.  God’s appreciation for the underdog is clear in the words of the prophet Micah we read this morning:

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel.

To understand these words, we need to know a bit more about what this Micah character was all about.  He was a prophet after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, when the leaders of Judah were bribing those angry Assyrians to stay out by taxing the poorest of the poor.  As the poor were getting poorer, in flooded refugees from the north and from other Assyrian-controlled territories.  Landowners sensed a fiscal cliff, er, economic crisis looming and so they lowered the wages of those who worked on their lands while, at the same time, expanding their territories.  So, the rich were getting richer.  And Micah called them out.  Many false prophets were arising to speak words of validation and prosperity to the wealthy – at a hefty price tag, of course.  Here’s what Micah said to them:

“Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;
the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame.”

He then spoke an oracle of the destruction that the greedy would bring upon themselves.  He called them to change their oppressing ways.  I think we may have heard those words before….

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
 but to do justice, and to love kindness,
 and to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah then promised a ruler who would usher in a new reign over the whole world.  Now, the religious leaders and wealthy elite might not have enjoyed all that “love kindness” babble, but at the mention of a mighty new leader, their ears pricked up with anticipation.

He began by telling them that this leader would come from Bethlehem, that tiny one-camel town that was so easily overlooked.  But the name did ring a bell…wait, a minute!  Wasn’t Bethlehem the hometown of David, that great and glorious king of old?? 

Oh, those leaders began to get excited.  Then Micah continued, saying that this great ruler’s origin was from the good ol’ glory days of their people.  They were practically drooling with anticipation…he had to be talking about one at least as great as King David!  Micah then said that this ruler would, “feed his flock in the strength of the Lord.”  Hey, that sure sounded like a shepherd to them, and what was David’s childhood role?  A shepherd! 
But then Micah said something they did not expect: he said that this ruler “shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.”

The rulers shook their heads, thinking surely Micah was mistaken.  Peace?  What kind of a ruler could this be?  They were expecting a military King, someone like David, to silence the Assyrians once and for all. 

But Micah was very careful about his speech.
In all of his allusion to David with Bethlehem, ancient lines and shepherds, he never once used the word “King.”  This shepherd was never to stop being a shepherd.  And he never promised that this new leader would himself defeat the Assyrians.  He later spoke of others rising up to do that, but not this mysterious leader. 

The more those wealthy leaders got to thinking about it, this “so-called” ruler sounded more like the people they were oppressing: a poor, rural, manual laborer, than the people doing the oppressing, them.  More like a peacemaker than a skilled fighter.  More like a compassionate shepherd than a ruthless king.  In other words, an underdog.

We know that great leader, that shepherd of the sheep, to be our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the epitome of the underdog.   While the Messiah was expected to enter the world as a mighty warrior leader who would forever secure Israel’s place in history, he instead came as a humble servant who questioned the status quo at every turn and brought good news not just to the Jewish people, but to the entire world. 

His mom said it best in our gospel reading this morning,
"God has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." 

This sort of savior might sound a bit harsh- like the caustic words of the prophet did. Sending the rich away empty doesn't sound very festive for Christmas, y'all. But perhaps Mary, like Micah, is reminding us that we have to actually recognize our need for God, a need that runs deeper than the need for money, acceptance or status, and change our lives and world to make room for that God.  Once we acknowledge our need, and throw out those things no longer need: pride, cynicism, bitterness, and materialism, and make room, God comes. God always comes.

When God breaks into this world –and now, more than ever, we need to cling to the truth that God does – it does not seem to happen with trumpets blaring and heavenly armies descending, with sweeping overthrows and violent shows of might. 

It happens instead in the unexpected, easily overlooked ways of the underdog: in the subtle, peacemaking act of sitting alongside those we disagree with and listening to them, not to change their opinions, but to let them know that their voice matters. 

In the quiet, unpublicized effort of silencing our self-obsession long enough to think of what another is going through and how we might support them. 

In the everyday, ordinary commitment to doing more than is necessary to love kindness, more than is comfortable to do justice, more than is easy to walk humbly with our God.

A shepherd is coming to tend us in the ways of peace. 

A King unlike any we have ever known is coming to usher in the possibility of shalom. 

A child is coming to show us the way of joyful humility. 
He will not be what we are expecting.  But he will be exactly what we need.  Amen.

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