Where You Least Expect Them – Micah 5:2-5

A text – Micah 5:2-5

² 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, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
³ Therefore 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.
⁴ 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,
⁵ and he shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land and tread upon our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight rulers.

A reflection:

Micah is prophesying that from the tiniest clan will come the mightiest ruler. As I understand it, Micah ministered in the 700s B.C. He would have known the stories of King David, who had lived around 1000 B.C. and who had come from little Bethlehem as well. But Micah was speaking in the future tense, not of the King David of the past, but of a new king who would come forth from Bethlehem, a king with all the attributes in this passage: an ancient origin, the job of feeding his flock in the strength and the name of the Lord, and the trait of being the one of peace. This king from an obscure place would rule forever.

If you hang around with Lutheran theologians, as I did for almost 30 years, you hear them quote Luther quite often. One of Luther’s famous theological principles that I heard them talk about was that God’s good gifts, God’s glory, even, is “hidden under its opposite” or in Latin, abscondita sub contrariis. So many things about Jesus’s life and death are like that: A God born human and out of wedlock to a poor mother, a holy man doing God’s ministry while living as a wandering preacher, a pure man dying a criminal’s death. To find the glory of God we must continually look under the sign of the opposite of glory. And the glorious is truly hidden under the really ordinary, not romanticized ordinary. It’s mundane and even ugly ordinary. Good and bad, warts and all.

Micah is telling us, and Luther agrees, that the Holy One from ancient days will come forth from a human mother, will grow up to lead his people, feed his people, and be great to the ends of the earth. But don’t look for a crowned king on a steed; look for a working-class preacher on the colt of a donkey. His saving act will be dying in order to rise. His first worshippers will be shepherds living rough in the fields. His preferred companions will be people on the fringes of society. Look for something hidden under its opposite, and you will find God’s gifts. Where you least expect them.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for coming to us in the flesh at Christmas. Thank you for keeping us in mind, for holding us in your favor. Help us to remember that we, too, should look in unlikely places for your good gifts, and share those gifts with folks in unlikely places, too.  Amen.