The lectionary for Advent 4C
begins with verse 2 of Micah chapter 5 and ends before the fifth verse is
finished. Maybe that is because the rest of Micah predicts the “one of peace”
who comes from the little clan of Judah will do some damage to the Assyrians
“and in anger and wrath execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.”
(5:15) It’s not quite the stuff of Christmas carols but then Micah was written
to people who had suffered the kind of carnage that calls for revenge. The
Christ that was born in “O little town of Bethlehem” is nothing like the
Messiah Micah imagined God would send. It will take a prophet like Paul to
realize that God chooses what is foolish to shame the wise, what is
weak to shame the strong and that the reversal of fortune that saves the world
happens when the “one of peace” dies a violent death. Of course that is not the
end of the story because the “one of peace” died in order to do serious damage
to death itself. So while the powers and principalities (Ephesians 6) may have
celebrated on the Friday we call “Good” they were done for good on the Sunday
we call Easter.
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