Advent readings, Day 22 - Micah 5: 2-5

But you, Bethlehem, David’s country,
    the runt of the litter—
From you will come the leader
    who will shepherd-rule Israel.
He’ll be no upstart, no pretender.
    His family tree is ancient and distinguished.
Meanwhile, Israel will be in foster homes
    until the birth pangs are over and the child is born,
And the scattered brothers come back
    home to the family of Israel.
He will stand tall in his shepherd-rule by God’s strength,
    centered in the majesty of God-Revealed.
And the people will have a good and safe home,
    for the whole world will hold him in respect—
    Peacemaker of the world!

 And if some bullying Assyrian shows up,
    invades and violates our land, don’t worry.
We’ll put him in his place, send him packing,
    and watch his every move.
Shepherd-rule will extend as far as needed,
    to Assyria and all other Nimrod-bullies.
Our shepherd-ruler will save us from old or new enemies,
    from anyone who invades or violates our land.

This is one of the texts being used today in worship -- Micah's familiar passage that mentions that the Messiah will arrive in Bethlehem.  

We know about Bethlehem. We read about it every year. There's a wonderful Christmas carol written about Bethlehem, so it must be important, right?

In Hebrew, Bethlehem literally means “house of bread.”  If the birth story were found in the Gospel of John Bethlehem would take on added meaning.  After all, in several places in the Gospel of John Jesus calls himself the bread of life in the Gospel of John.  That would preach – the bread of life is born in the house of bread!  But the Gospel of John does not tell the story of Christ's birth, only the Gospels of Matthew and Luke do, and they don't call Jesus the bread of life.

Bethlehem is a 100 miles from Nazareth. Google maps says you could walk it in 34 hours. That seems a bit ambitious to me. Maybe if you just counted walking time, and not the time spent on breaks or eating.  If you were Mary and Joseph, that might have taken a week or more make that journey. In some ways, the point of mentioning Bethlehem in the birth stories seems more geared to explaining how Bethlehem fit into the story when Jesus is really from Nazareth and begins his ministry there.  in fact, in the Gospel of Matthew there is no journey to Bethlehem. Matthew just notes that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the significant part of the story is Jesus and his parents fleeing from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape from King Herod. Then they return to Nazareth. but Bethlehem is where Jesus is born.

From an unexpected place comes and unexpected Messiah, at least unexpected in the sense that they were looking for a great leader and got a baby instead.  Maybe it prepares us for the unexpected things God brings to our life when we choose to follow the one born in Bethlehem.