A White Christmas (Micah 4 and 5)

Introduction
Through Isaiah the LORD pleads: “Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...” I’m dreaming of a white Christmas in this sense. I’m familiar with the scarlet landscape of life. I’m also well acquainted with the good life of grace and growth. This Christmas I really want to understand what the Bible calls, “the beauty of holiness.”

Micah, the Minor Prophet whose words rest in our laps all these centuries later, speaks in crosscurrents of optimism and pessimism: peace and war, hope and despair, salvation and judgment. His utterances pertain to his historical context in one moment and to the eternal context in the next. He is, in any given moment, manic and depressed, high and low, gracious and condemning. One minute he pronounces that “Her [God’s people’s] wounds are incurable.” The next minute he speaks of God’s deliverance and redemption.

Our lives are much like Micah’s utterances: optimistic and pessimistic, warring and peace-seeking, humble and proud, forgiving and forsaking, having good motives and bad, in exile and out, enslaved and free, decaying and renewing, sinful and repentant, desiring God, but if we’re honest, it might be better said that we sometimes don’t desire God as much as we desire to desire God.

But most of all, we understand the bi-polar prophecies of Micah by discovering the Kingdom of God, which is at hand (which means available and here), which has come and is coming, which dwells within and without of the domain of your mind, heart, and spirit.

This Kingdom is a forever Kingdom which we’ve barely even begun to understand, but what we do know is very comforting: For better or worse, we are God’s children, and he loves us and is saving us in our good days and bad. This, dear church, is the paradoxical but not whimsical wonder of Christmas.

Amid the pessimistic prophetic promises of a coming judgment and exile, our old friend Micah says some very promising things, like this in Micah 4:10: Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon; [now watch this…] there you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies. I’m sure Micah’s words didn’t make much sense to the Jews as they were being dragged kicking and screaming by the cruel Babylonians. How is this rescue? They must’ve thought. How is this redemption?

Ah, but the difficulty we see now doesn’t mean that God isn’t working. And as we kick and scream through this life, we may do well to remember the Christmas promises of peace: “For I know the plans I have for you” says Jeremiah, “plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Micah explains:

I. Micah’s Peace on Earth
Micah 4:3b: They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

So world peace is on the horizon. War will be no more. There will be no more talk of the glory of it; it is not glorious. Every veteran I’ve ever talked to said that war is evil and words like hell are often used to describe it. But such is the natural course of events in our fallen world—we are ever slouching toward Mordor; but the satanic trend will one day be reversed and the Messianic Promise fulfilled: Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. The war machine will be toppled and a peace machine will replace it: “…for the LORD Almighty has spoken.” (4:4) But how will this come to pass? What will be the mechanism for peace? Better, who will be the Mechanic?

Micah 5:2-5 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.

Even though Micah was mostly inspired by the difficult events of his present context, Micah had an eye toward the transcendent—a Shepherd and certain security for a much larger pasture than a patch of sand in the Middle East the size of New Jersey known as Israel and Judah. Yes, much larger, much, much larger. So Micah writes, “For then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.”

II. Beyond Dreaming: A Truly White Christmas
In our journey toward this fateful new beginning, we determine that despite our ups and downs, goods and bads, we will be transformed, and not just passively, but actively, passionately, and powerfully. We will determine to grow in holiness. We will seek purity before God and with each other. We must. Christmas is about peace for the weary warrior, justice for the oppressed, blessing for the needy, clothing for the naked, and holiness for the sinner. Christmas should make us want to do the right things, like forgive one another, like watch our mouths, like dress modestly, like refrain from excess, like purge our minds of lust, like have compassion, like seek peace with God and man.

World peace will come one day; but in the meantime, we have access to a different kind of peace—the peace of knowing the Prince of Peace, the peace that comes from living holy and devout lives, the peace that comes from living according to God’s words and wisdom. Remember what Micah said: “And He will be their peace” (5:4).

Conclusion
We must rebuke the satanic trends in our lives. We must invoke the Name. We must “cast down imaginations of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” So I’m dreaming or a proactive Christmas. I’m dreaming of a Christmas that makes me different, wiser, humbler, and more obedient.

This is the gift I want: A sanctifying Christmas; a white Christmas over my scarlet landscape. I want Jesus to be birthed in the world of my mind and heart, not just covering my sins but motivating my activity. Not just orthodoxy, but orthopraxy, not just right beliefs, but right practices, right behaviors. This Christmas, as the Bride of Christ, let’s be adorned with the inner beauty that Peter speaks of: “…the purity and reverence… of the inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight….”

Advent Prayer: Lord I ask, please be birthed in the inner world of my heart and mind for the good of the outer world around. I come and I give you all: my perplexity, my plans, my fears, and my dreams. I commit all my relationships to you. I commit my emotional, physical, and spiritual condition to you: Heal that which was previously called, in the words of Micah, “incurable.” This Advent, I look back to your first coming and ahead to your second. Help me lead a proper life; a life befitting a child of God, a life that reflects your existence in my existence. Help me to live an incarnational life and thus a holy life: that Christ in me would exude like a flood of love for my fellow man, whether friend, foe, stranger, or acquaintance. Remind me that people are basically suffering. Remind me that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” So seeing this, help me choose compassion.