Scripture reading: Micah 4:1-5 (Appointed for December 22)
Most of us have probably heard the old Chinese "curse:" May you live in interesting times.
Well, I think it is a fair statement that we are living in those interesting times right now.
I have had the fortune (misfortune perhaps) to have lived through the final years of the Cold War, a time when nuclear annihilation seemed like a very real possibility. I remember Samantha Smith asking the Russians if they were going to blow us up. I remember President Reagan joking about outlawing Russia and that bombing would commence in 5 minutes. I remember preachers talking about the end of the world being just around the corner; that because Chernobyl translates to "wormwood" in English that the accident in the Ukraine was proof that the Apocalypse was nigh. I remember the fear.
Now maybe it's the difference between a child's perceptions and an adult's, but the fear and anxiety now FAR overshadows anything I remember from the 1980s. On one level, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Statistically, you are far more likely to be mauled by a bear, eaten by a shark, or struck by lightning than you are to be killed by the hands of a terrorist. Maybe even all three at once.
That sounds like a nasty D&D monster: The Lightning Bear Shark. Which is fitting since the odds of dying to an imaginary monster is still probably more likely than dying in a terrorist attack. Not that it matters. Perception is almost always more important than reality when it comes to these sorts of things.
But even reality isn't very fun right now. Yes, terrorism is real, but remote. What is more immediate for many of us are other threats, other things that frighten. There's crime, there's economic insecurity, there's disease, there's the death of loved ones, there's the changing demographics of our society. People feel like life is leaving them behind. That leaves us unsettled...nervous...scared.
It may not be a lot of consolation, but this truly is nothing new. The world we live in is an unsettling place. In many ways, we're always out of sorts. What changes is the form that it takes. It's a broken world, broken by sin, death, and discord. Even if we didn't have the teachings of our faith to tell us that, we would know it in our guts and in our hearts. Life just ain't right. We're ALWAYS living in interesting times.
God is, of course, fully aware of this. He knows the world is broken. It wasn't his intention for things to be this way; Genesis makes very clear the world was made "good." But he was there when it went wrong and he's been here ever since, slowly and inexorably putting things back to right.
Time and again, God reveals this intention for our world. He is going to put things back the way they were supposed to be. Our passage from Micah today is one such example. It is a reiteration of the Old Covenant, the purpose of God for the world. The nations will come to God to learn his ways, to put aside their differences, "to learn war no more." Swords to plowshares and peace on Earth and all that.
In this time of year, we see another powerful example of God's intentions for our world in the birth of his Son. It it no coincidence that even in the famous Christmas story, we hear again this purpose of God: Peace on Earth, good will towards humankind.
Those words and the plan and purpose behind them resonate in our day as much if not more so than they ever have. No matter how "interesting" life becomes, God is at work. God is present. God, through Christ, is bringing peace on Earth.
So we'll live through terrorism, cold wars, lousy job markets, and an ever changing and sometimes seemingly darkening world. God remains true to his promise and his purpose. There will come a day when all will be set right. There will come a day when all the nations and all the people will stream to him to learn peace once more. The Old Testament testifies to this. The New Testament testifies to this. Christ brings this through his birth, life, death, and resurrection.
It is coming. Fear not. For this great news for all people...
Merry Christmas.
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