Sermon Notes Lk 1:45-55, Micah 5 12/23

Off and on, I have been working on essays on the Book of the Twelve, the so called Minor Prophets. So we come to Micah. This is one of the earliest linkages of a messiah figure with peace. How I crave peace. I was born after the right after the Korean conflict, so Vietnam dominated our childhood.How I hoped that the new millennium would presage better days, and that was met with 9/11. We are finally out of Iraq and hope to be out of Afghanistan in a couple more years, and we live with a drumbeat of domestic massacres.. I can go with an interpretation that does see peace emerging from the birthplace of David, but it could also be that peace will not emerge full blown from the halls of power, Jerusalem, Washington D.C. or Beijing, but could grow from a small place of little account. After all, it is little Cindy Lou who melts the heart of the Grinch. Peace is both personal and structural, private and public. Seemingly small acts can  help create a more peaceful world.At the same time, how my heart leapt when the last U.S. soldier left Iraq. Even though ti left a sour taste in my mouth, how relieved I was when the last soldier left the seemingly endless struggle of Vietnam.I still thrill to see the old pictures of soldiers sweeping folks up in their arms when WWII was over.    

Mary certainly has an ambivalent reaction to peace. to find some peace, she goes off to visit her expectant cousin Elizabeth.Even Micah might regard them as hillbillies.She avoids the swirl of talk that would accompany a story of a miracle birth.She may well need some peace and quiet to come to grips with the birth. All expectant parents do, as the enormity of the gift hits them, but can you imagine the pressures weighing on her?>

Her prayer is not a peaceful one in the sense of absence of conflict between the classes. She envisions a more peaceful age in the broaders sense of shalom. Not for Mary is the sweet inner peace we so crave. Not for Mary is the pregnant hope that we can all get along. To Mary, she represents a new order for the ages, a slogan on our money. She wants reversal; she sounds like a first century member of Occupy Jerusalem. She sees the child to be born to her as the emblem of people being treated the way they should be: with dignity and respect. Mary seems less enamored of the idea of Scrooge finding generosity than of the Tiny Tims of the world rising up. Major change undergirds this prayer of hers.My guess is that she would see justice being the pre-condition for peace, not peaceful hearts sowing seeds for justice.For Mary the times they are a changing, a train;s a coming.

Still, inner peace too is part of shalom, I think, as a condition for living out the days we have to us in a full way.Surely the path of Jesus Christ is a path of peace.Many Jews hold that Messiah will come to usher in a time of peace, so the First Advent for some of our Jewish spiritual relations reflects our second Advent vision.Mary;s son was committed to peace, even as he seemed to court conflict with his message, and it would lead to the cross. In that sense, the shadow of the cross obscures the light of the manger. All of the bloodshed in our time soaks the hay around the creche. Silent Night beckons, for quiet within,and the guns to be stilled together.