As I have driven along Preston Road, recently, I have noticed a sign outside one of the churches which proclaims “God makes miracles out of messes and mistakes”.

I probably wouldn’t have put it like that – still I understand the sentiment. This weeks readings show this to be so. There is Elizabeth, seemingly barren, but now pregnant despite her apparent old age. And Mary, an unwed teenager who has been told she is carrying the savior of the world, not to mention Micah who has been speaking against the sins and corruption rife in Jerusalem and Judah. He speaks vividly of God’s judgment upon the people toward the end of chapter 4 describing Jerusalem as a woman writhing in labour. The woman in labour will give birth and there will be joy in that. The one who is to come “will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord”. And his new people “will live secure, for from then on he will extend his power to the ends of the land”. And, very significantly, “he himself will be peace, shalom”.

Inherent in these readings is the deeper reality that with God there can be hope in the unexpected reversal of circumstances. Such a reversal is a vital element in many Old Testament texts, especially in the prophets. With God, we encounter the unexpected and the paradoxical. Hope arises out of devastation. Suffering embodies salvation.

It challenges everything we know about power and position to encounter the stories for today about “one of the little clans of Judah” and two women who carry the promises of God within themselves. The powers that be have been well and truly displaced.

We can wonder what our relationship to the powers that be might be; what needs to get turned on its head in our own thinking so that we are more open to the real ways that God enters our world and make fewer assumptions about how we think it ought to happen. Someone right beside us, or even we ourselves, might be carrying an insight that seems so unlikely but is nevertheless transformational. Will we take care to recognise and celebrate it?

Blessings

Reverend Shan