Micah 6:8 Advent Devotional

Editor's Note - This devotional was published internally at Saint Martin December 4 and was not included on the blog until now inadvertently.

Advent Devotional for Thursday, December 4, 2008

Week 1: PREPARE

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”
- Micah 6:8

Life can be really painful at times. If anyone knew this it was the prophet Micah. A member of the lower class Micah suffered not only financially, but emotionally and spiritually as he watched the nation he loved turn away from God. I’m sure we’ve all suffered this past year whether it’s been emotional or otherwise. We simply can’t avoid pain in this life no matter how hard we try. The cold reality is, the only common experience of humanity is that we all experience pain in one form or another. But that fact may point us deeper into the mystery of why Jesus chose the cross. With open arms and every fiber of his being he said with a resounding cry, ‘I am with you.’

As we prepare this advent season for the coming of our Lord again into our lives maybe we should take a step back, take a deep breath, and allow the Lord to tell us, ‘I am with you.’

Maybe then with the spirit of understanding that Christ is with us will we be able to work for a Kingdom of justice that Micah envisioned: one in which “all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees” (4:4). Maybe then will we again love kindness and treat the person who pours our coffee or hands us our groceries with the same love that Christ showed us. Maybe then will we this advent season hand over all our problems to Christ who asks us to (Mt. 11:28) and humbly realize that without Christ our own vines and fig trees will produce nothing (Jn. 15:5).

We will fail, certainly for as Micah reminds us, we are mortal, but this advent season is time to begin anew with that timeless Christian hope in a better world. It’s true, we will die and we can’t escape that pain that comes with this life. But if Christ has shown us anything it’s not to run away from pain. By accepting the pain, by entering into it to we come closer to the Jesus who accepted the vulnerability of what it means to be human and the Jesus who accepted the fragility of being born in a manger. All of which brings us joyously closer to the resurrected Christ who has conquered death and reconciled us with our God: our God whom through Jesus tells us “I am with you always” (Mt. 28:20).

By Pete Range, Theology Teacher