THE UNLIKELY
Text: Micah 5:2 - 5
Years ago I was at a little league baseball game. The underdog was behind by eight points by the very last inning of the game. You would have thought that it was safe to go home as if the game was already over. In fact, some did go home. But, the best was yet to be. Imagine the shock of those who stayed to watch out of curiosity, myself included. The underdog came back and won the game by two points. The final score was 10 - 8.
There was another time when I was at a high school football game. The team I was pulling for was winning. I decided to leave with the last three minutes of the game. I was stunned when I heard on the news that they had gone in overtime to break the tie.
There was another time when I was at the circus in 1999. I saw a tight rope walker fall. I thought he was going to fall to his death because there were no safety nets under him. To my surprise the tightrope walker grabbed the rope beneath as he fell and spun around three times and got back on his feet and finished his act.
The outcome of all of these stories seems unlikely. With God all things are possible. The audience of Micah seemed to be an unlikely candidate for the being a recipient of promises in an adversarial atmosphere. Micah prophesied to people in a time and place that seemed doomed to failure. How many times have we known people who have had a pessimistic view about the promise of the future? In spite of the fact that Jerusalem has been under siege and the king of Jerusalem humiliated, God still had a plan.
There are three things that stand out from this passage of scripture. All three of things are unlikely. But, with God all things are possible. There are unlikely places, people and the unlikely hero.
THE UNLIKELY PLACE
Bethlehem was an unlikely place for such a big promise. One theologian (Calvin Miller) called Bethlehem a “one-camel” town. (David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor eds. Feasting On The Word. Year C. Volume 1. Calvin Miller. “The Homilietical Perspective”. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, p. 76). On the Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry was described as a “one-bullet” town. There is a country music song that compares the town’s significance as “one horse” town to illustrate how small and unlikely a place it is.
Bethlehem pales in comparison to other towns that would have more to offer in leadership and land. To the Roman empire of that time, Bethlehem was seen as a source for making money through taxes. “Bethlehem was a quiet and uneventful village, little more than a suburb of thriving, cosmopolitan Jerusalem”. (David Jeremiah. Why The Nativity. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 2006, p. 47). So why was Bethlehem so special to God’s chosen people?
Bethlehem was special to God’s chosen people because of its heritage.
1) Bethlehem was the burial place of Jacob’s wife who died in childbirth.
2) Bethlehem was where Ruth, David’s grandmother met her husband Boaz.
3) Ruth and Boaz begat Obed who begat, Jesse who begat David.
4) The Old Testament prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem in search of a future king. With God’s guidance Samuel found a little shepherd boy named David, after exploring all of David’s other brothers as potential candidates.
5) Many generations later, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. “What began in a stable in little Bethlehem would redefine history---at the perfect time and for all time”. (David Jeremiah, p. 35). Bethlehem was an unlikely place for all of these things, but nevertheless it was the place that God chose in spite of how unlikely it was.
THE UNLIKELY PEOPLE
We often have our usual suspects for doing business as usual. We all need help from time to time with the things that make us vulnerable so we often turn to the trained professionals to address our concerns. (David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor eds. Feasting On The Word. Year B: Volume 4. Nancy Taylor. “The Pastoral Perspective”. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 74 & 76).
1) We always look for the trained professionals when it comes to health issues: medical, dental, chiropractic and so on.
2) When it comes to mechanical issues we turn to the mechanically inclined, heating and air repairman, the plumber, the automotive mechanic.
3) When it comes to looking out for our well-being in areas where we are vulnerable in legal, financial and spiritual matters we turn to who can address our concerns as the needs may be with a lawyer, banker or clergy. Paraphrasing as someone put it, we have a tendency to measure our future circumstances against our present dimensions where hope is lacking. (Charles B. Cousar, Beverly Gaventa, J. Clinton McCain & James D. Newsome. Texts For Preaching—Year C. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, p. 30).
4) How do we measure hope? Do we use worldly standards or God’s promises to measure hope?
God often chooses to work with us in unexpected ways and one of those ways is through unlikely people. The Bible is filled with unlikely candidates through whom God accomplished His work in accordance with His will. Here are just a few examples:
1) Moses was a fugitive and God used him to be His mouthpiece against Pharaoh until God’s people were set free.
2) God used David to defeat the giant Goliath.
3) God used Joseph as a leader in Egypt to save his own family from starvation even though his brothers sold him as a slave.
4) God used Jonah to preach to Ninevah to get them to repent. God used Naomi and Ruth to help each other survive as widows who were trying to help each other rebuild their broken and disrupted lives.
5) “One often sees a sign along the highway, “Danger---Men at Work” However, the real danger is in men not working.” (Leonard Cochran. Man At His Best. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952, p. 121).
6) How does God use as unlikely candidates to accomplish His work in accordance with His will?
THE UNLIKELY HERO
Jesus is an unlikely hero because He is not what people expected. As the Bible points out directly and indirectly, the people were expecting a military type leader who would restore a physical kingdom.
1) What the people got was a baby born in Bethlehem with no room in the Inn.
2) Jesus probably grew up learning the carpenter skills of Joseph his earthly father. Jesus went about the business of His heavenly Father becoming the carpenter for a broken world rebuilding the lives of those who were willing and repairing the lives of those who were broken, bruised, sick, lame, blind or estranged and disconnected from God.
Jesus is an unlikely hero because His death was not the end, it is only the beginning.
1) “””Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the sun of righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings, mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.” (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, third verse).
2) Jesus taught us how to live, love, deny ourselves by picking up our crosses and serve.
3) “There is the story of some co-workers Mike Camp and Ralph Hanahan, who worked in a computer department at a college in South Carolina faced with a devastating situation. One of them was going t o be out of work because of job cuts at the college. Hanahan, 55, had seniority, so he could rightfully keep his job. However, Camp, aged 40, has four young kids, including one who is autistic. In an amazing act of generosity, Hanahan insisted Camp be the one to keep his job. “He told me he didn’t want my family to have to deal with a layoff,” says Camp. “I thanked him from the bottom of my heart.” (Free! Coffee News. Volume 2, No.43, December 7, 2009). Jesus did not want us to have to deal with being separated from His love so He came to demonstrate His love as God in human flesh as He laid His glory mildly by!
4) How well do we proclaim who Jesus is with our words and with our witness? We are God’s unlikely people today who are called to make a difference. What difference are we making that proclaims that Jesus Christ is Lord?
