December 22, 2012
-
Anticipation Advent Week 4
Micah 5:2-6
The Message (MSG)
2-4 But you, Bethlehem, David’s country, the runt of the litter—fromyou will come the leader
who will shepherd-rule Israel. He’ll beno upstart, no pretender. His familytree is ancient and distinguished. Meanwhile,Israel will be in foster homes until the birth pangs are over and the child isborn, and the scattered siblings come back home to the family of Israel. He will stand tall in his shepherd-rule by God’s strength, centered in the majestyof God-Revealed.
And the people will have a good and safe home, for the whole world will holdhim in respect—
Peacemaker of the world! 5-6 And,if some bullying Assyrians show up, invading and violating our land, don’tworry we’ll put them in their place, send them packing, and watch their everymove. Shepherd-rule will extend as faras needed, to Assyria and all other Nimrod-bullies.
Our shepherd-ruler will save us from old or new enemies, from anyone whoinvades or violates our land.Hebrews 10:5-10
The Message (MSG)
10 1-10 Theold plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old“law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followedit. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they neveradded up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gonemerrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead ofremoving awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over andover they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bulland goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy,put in the mouth of Christ:
You don’t wantsacrifices and offerings year after year;
you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
the way it’s described in your Book.”When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he wasreferring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here todo it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’sway—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
Luke 1:39-45
The Message (MSG)
39-45 Mary didn’t waste a minute.She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight toZachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang outexuberantly,
You’re so blessedamong women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, thebabe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy. Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!
Advent is allabout anticipation. The Hebrew Testamentcontains a promise to the village of Bethlehem that it would play a veryimportant role in God’s plan to restore the nation of Israel. They waited for the time when God’s redeemerwould come and lead the children of Israel home and establish the nation ofIsrael as a great power. I imagine thepeople of Bethlehem repeated the words of Micah whenever they would gather,perhaps the words were part of the city’s logo. They must have had great anticipation of the coming Messiah that wouldcome from their city. Then there is thestory of Elizabeth and Zachariah desperately praying for a child and then receivingthe promise of a child. I would expect the anticipation in their home was veryhigh. And Mary, I am told Jewish girlsanticipated they might be the one chosen to bear the Messiah. Mary must have anticipated what it would meanto give birth to and raise the Child of God. So much anticipation by so many people.
Anticipationhas another side to it. Anticipation canmake us weary and it can distract us from pressing matters of the present. This past week there were two eventspredicted for Friday. The first andglobally felt was the anticipated end of the world due to the Mayan calendarending on that date. The second was muchmore local but possibly more significant to those of us affected, it was theprediction of a major winter storm dumping up to six inches of snow on theKalamazoo area. I didn’t believe theMayan’s had any particular insight into the future of the world, after all ourcalendar runs out every December 31. AndI don’t put that much confidence in weather predictors. Even though, I found these predictions to bedistracting. I found myself wondering “whatif?” I did make preparations for thewinter storm by getting out the snow shovels, starting up the snow blower, andmaking sure I had basic supplies to weather the storm. The anticipation for each was different butthey were distractions.
I wouldassume these anticipations were similar to the anticipation of Bethlehembirthing the new leader of Israel and maidens giving birth to the Messiah ascompared to the anticipation of Elizabeth, Zachariah, and Mary of the comingbirths. The first being something alwaysin the background, maybe possible but probably not now and not me. While the second was impending and requiredactions of preparation. I think that itis possible we live with anticipation for a long period of time and we fail tosee that the thing anticipated has actually happened. The sleepy town of Bethlehem seems to havetotally missed the birth of the One long expected. They couldn’t even find a room for him to beborn in. Despite the proclamation of theangels and all the hubbub of stars and signs. And perhaps, in all the anticipation of the end of the world as we knowit, we have missed that the world as we know it has ended. We sit waiting for the world to come to an endwhile all around us the world is changing, the world as we know it is ending,and we are ignoring the proclamations and the signs. I world’s ecology is radically changing andmay soon not be able to support life as we know it and yet we go on as if thereis nothing wrong. Our society is disintegratinginto isolation, selfishness, and fear and we go on as if there is nothingwrong. Occasionally we are confronted bythe stark reality of our isolated culture by events like what happened andSandy Hook Elementary and we weep, and shout but what changes? We watch the catastrophic effects of climatechange and we act amazed as if it were unexpected but nothing changes. There is a story, I do not know the accuracyof it and I do not intend to test it, the story says if you drop a frog into apot of boiling water the frog will jump out but if you put a frog in a pot ofroom temperature water and put it on a burner the frog will sit in the potuntil boiled. We may be the frogssitting in the pot as the water temperature rises and we do not react becausethe change is slow and we are waiting for something dramatic.
Another partof anticipation is we don’t clearly understand the totality of what we areanticipating. We hope for change, we askfor change, and yet we do not like the cost of change. Bethlehem did not know the fulfillment of theprophecy that the redeemer of Israel would come from there would also lead tothe fulfillment of the prophecy in Jeremiah of Rachel weeping for her childrenwhen Herod slaughtered the innocents to try to kill the new born king of theJews. The maidens that hoped to be themother of the Messiah could not have known the suffering Mary would experiencebecause of her pregnancy, her flight to Egypt, and watching her childcrucified. And Elizabeth and Zachariahcould not have known their much desired child would become a social outcast andultimately be beheaded. As we anticipatethe Christ returning to this earth, we tend to think of Christ making the worldright, avenging the wrong, and setting up God’s dominion here on earth. We may be missing the truth that Christ isreturning each time one of God’s people speaks up, acts up, and lives out God’sjustice in their lives and for others. We may also be missing the truth that Christ returning in us does notmean all will be wonderful and we will have a life without struggle andheartache. Christ being born in us meanswe weep for the slaughter of the innocents and we struggle with the Godhonoring response. Responding with a desireto have more weapons of destruction is not God honoring and is not what Jesustaught us. Having Christ born is usmeans we must work for all of creation, Christ is the Word that spoke creationinto being and God said it was good. Wecannot wait for God to do some miraculous thing to fix the world. We are God’s fix for the world and it is upto us to live in a world sustaining way, to live out the life Jesus taught usrespecting each other and the world we have been given. There is no promise this will be easy or willcome without cost. The promise is thatGod will be with us in the struggle.
In thisAdvent season, anticipate the coming of Jesus in your life and anticipate thecost of this, and anticipate the reward of allowing Christ to be born in usagain and again. Amen.
