When love comes down: Compelling hope

Merry Christmas! We are only 19 days away from Christmas Day! We hope you are being filled with the hope of this season.  In our series When Love Comes Down, we want you to experience the powerful vision of God becoming human and dwelling among us.  This was not just so God might learn about humanity.  God created us and knows the weakness of our frame and the limits of our humanity.  God becomes flesh to transform our lives and lift us from the darkness of human nature.  It is not hard to see the power of broken humanity.  It is the violence in our streets and the violence in our hearts.  Where is the hope for all of us?  This week our sermon is Compelling Hope.  When love comes down to all of us, there is an infusion of hope.  It is a vision that lifts us from the broken despair of human existence into the coming Kingdom of light and joy.  Our scripture contains this vision found in Micah 4:1-7.  The day is coming when we pound our swords into plows.  How can this be possible?  Micah was speaking God’s great hope into the desperate and difficult circumstances of this time.  It did not fix everything that was wrong, but it allowed these people to lift their eyes from the darkness of hatred, violence, and destruction to see the brightness of God’s love and purpose.  We pray that as you read this compelling vision, it will speak to your life, your despair, and your difficulty to sense the strength and power of a new day that only God can create in your life! 

Micah 4:1-7: In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. ² Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ³ He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. 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. ⁴ 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. ⁵ All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. ⁶ “In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. ⁷ I will make the lame my remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever. (NIV)