December 22, Advent 4C (Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:46b-55)

Last year,  my church shifted to observing Advent over seven weeks rather than four. This move, inspired in part by the work of the Advent Project Seminar, pushes up the start of the season to coincide with the eschatological turn the lectionary takes after All Saints’ Day. Extending Advent—without changing any of the assigned readings—helps us (we hope!) reorient our focus within the season toward the yet-to-come full manifestation of God’s reign in the second coming, rather than treating Advent as merely preparation for our yearly commemoration of the first coming in the incarnation.

Nowhere is this shift in focus more fruitful than when we eventually get to the Old Testament prophetic texts assigned for the (original four) Sundays of Advent. Instead of reading these prophetic texts as neat predictions of the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, we might consider each on its own merits, as a word of hope or judgment spoken to an ancient people in a season of disorientation, turmoil, or despair.

This week’s reading from Micah envisions an ideal king who will arise to govern God’s people and to oversee their return from exile. Several things about this king, however, defy our usual human notions of kingship. He shall be known throughout the land as “the one of peace,” not conquest. Rather than being pictured with a raised sword or fist and a gaze focused on the horizon, his kingly posture is one of open-handed provision, focused on the needs of the lambs in his care. Perhaps most striking of all: he will come not from the geographic power center of Jerusalem, but rather from the backwater town of Bethlehem, which Micah describes as one of the “little ones” among the clans of Judah. In The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrases Micah as calling Bethlehem “the runt of the litter.”