Vision and Vocation in Advent

The prophet Micah utters one of the most iconic prophecies of the Messiah. Too often, in our rush to get to the joy of Christmas, we miss the context - and we sugarcoat what it means to follow the Messiah. Micah’s portrait of the Messiah is laid out in chapter 5. But let’s look at the context in chapters 4 and 6 that bracket that Messianic prophecy.

Micah 4 casts a radical vision for the kind of kingdom this Messiah would usher in: weapons turned into tools to nurture the earth, different ethnic groups laying down all animosity, and everyone experience provision (figs/grapes) and security:

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.
Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,  for the Lord Almighty has spoken. - Micah 4:3-4

Then in Micah 6 is the stunning summary of what it looks like to follow the Messiah by participating in the kind of work that brings the Messiah’s kind of kingdom.

Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8

Those are the bookends for the great Christmas prophecy about Jesus, the Messiah, which we’ll look at more closely tomorrow. This is no vanilla, pie-in-the-sky, “I hope Santa brings me something nice for Christmas” context for the Messianic prophecy. Micah offers a radical vision of a just world and a hard-hitting invitation to join in creating it.

So today, ask yourself: do you have a vision for how the Messiah wants the world to look? And how might you participate in the sort of justice, mercy, and humility that will bring it about?