Dev: Dec 2 - Micah 5:2

² “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.”

Micah 5

When I was in high school, the greatest comedian of a generation came to Wilmington.

Bob Hope!

The whole coliseum was sold out.

 

The funny thing is, several decades later, I only remember one thing that he said. In the midst of a joke about small town hicks, Bob Hope mentioned the neighboring borough of Burgaw. Making fun of the country bumpkins just up our own country roads? Now that was funny!

My parents said afterward that Mr. Hope must have had a standard stable of jokes, and his team just helped him fill in a few local references. (And I thought about that. And, you know, what impressed me more than Bob Hope’s humor was this 85-year-old’s memory! He was like a trapeze artist who works without a net. He rattled off town history without any notes … all while standing in front of 20,000 people. And he nailed it!)

Now, here’s the funny thing about today’s prophecy: When the people heard the words of Micah, they must have thought that this prophet was his generation’s greatest comedian. “Yeah, right! The great and coming king will hail from that tiny, hick, back roads, borough of Bethlehem? That’s hilarious.”

Yet that’s what Bethlehem was. A little, hick town. Nothing grand could come from there, right? Well … not unless you’re God of surprises!

Our God constantly shatters earthly pretense. Sing the Magnificat – Mary’s song when she comprehended God’s gift to the world that would come through her. This poor young girl sang: He humbles the mighty. He lifts up the lowly.

Read any page of the Gospels! Our God continually weaves a story that no one could have predicted.

Indeed, no one would have predicted that that peasant girl, riding into Bethlehem on a lowly donkey, would have been part of God’s plan to change the world.

When you’re tired of laughing at the image of a poor teenager changing the world as she rode into the backwoods burg … then fall on your knees and worship! And when you lift your head from worshiping … pause long enough to laugh again!

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who’s more comfortable

in hick towns than mighty cities

(It’s easier to see the stars)