the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight A sermon on Micah's sermon on God's modest theophanies : The lectionary, like the rest of the world , like the weather , has seemingly turned toward Christmas . Today’s prophecy from Micah tells of that great ruler God will raise up from the ‘ little town of Bethlehem.’ And with those words, that old Christmas hymn begins to ring in our ears. Doesn’t it? Now I’ll talk about Bethlehem in a moment. But first, I want to discuss what Bethlehem means . Capital-M means. And to do that, I need to tell you that you’ve been to Bethlehem. Yes, you . However , I have to add you probably didn’t realize you were in that little town at the time. And what’s more , you most certainly didn't want to stay there for very long, either. Honestly, that old Christmas hymn really does get it right , ‘O little town of Bethlehem.’ O LITTLE town. But NOT little as in quaint . No, little as in insignificant . Bethlehem wasn’t like that little AFFLUENT town of Winterse...