Mixed Blessings for All
So, if I read Micah literally, God will abandon Israel until she has finished giving birth. I don’t know how the ladies in the audience feel about labor pangs becoming a metaphor for national greatness. In the Talmud, this passage was interpreted as a metaphor for Rome being allowed to “enfold Israel for nine months,” or however long it would take before the Messiah appeared; who would be a descendant of King David, which explains Micah’s reference to “Bethlehem of Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah,” but also David’s birthplace. In that same part of the Talmud, the rhetorical questions is asked, “What must a man do to be spared the pangs of the Messiah? Let him engage in study and benevolence.” If only it was always that easy. But in Micah, as in our Gospel, God’s blessings are sometimes mixed blessings. Or as Oprah Winfrey might have said in the famous meme — I get a mixed blessing, you get a mixed blessing, we all get mixed blessings!
— Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb — Elizabeth says to Mary. The Greek word translated here as “blessed” is eulogia, the root of “eulogy,” a formal praising of someone that doesn’t have to reserved for funerals. A less formal translation might be, “Good job.” That’s easier to say when Mary hasn’t started to show, and she isn’t in her hometown of Nazareth, and her betrothed Joseph is a safe distance away. But eventually she will have to go back and face the assumption that she is an adulteress, which could possibly lead to her being stoned to death.
Then, Elizabeth ups the ante in mixed blessings — And, blessed is she who believed that what was said to her from the Lord would be fulfilled — The Greek word that Luke chooses here literally means, “happy,” or “Congratulations.” It’s the same word that Luke and Matthew use to describe Jesus’s beatitudes, from the Latin beatus for “blessings.” But again, Elizabeth is congratulating Mary, that Mary should be happy that this child, when hopefully accepted by Jospeh as his son, will legally become the Son of David that Micah prophesied would come in labor pangs.
But this teenage girl gets it — My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant — Mary is ready and willing to take her part in the most painful deliverance ever that God the Word, who was with God and is God, will undertake for all people — He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever — not Moses, but Abraham. It was Abraham that God called to leave his homeland, and trust God on a journey that his descendants would continue and will end like this — I shall bless those who bless you…and all clans on earth will be blessed in you.
That promise of blessings for all is echoed in our Catechism’s answer to the question, “What is the mission of the Church? The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” Mixed blessings for all is the promise that Mary proclaims, going back to the Greek, not of a job well done, but of happiness and congratulations. Mary makes it clear that the blessings are mixed. The arrogant will have to learn some humility, the powerful will have to give up their domination, the rich will have to go on a diet. Some may have to accept blessings for those they consider undeserving along with their own blessings.
But the story of the Bible, which in one sense starts at Genesis 12:3 with God’s promise to Abraham of blessings for all who can accept blessings for all, is not just the story of one chosen people, though they are not to be forgotten at the end of that story. From Genesis to Revelation, this is the story that Jesus the only begotten Son – of David – has come to give the happy ending to. Like Mary, let us rejoice in mixed blessings for all. Congratulations.
The Rev. David Kendrick
December 22nd, 2024,
4th Sunday of Advent, Year C