Strangely Perfect

Seeing blessings in the small and strange

Micah 5:1-4A

Thus says the LORD: You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times. Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, and the rest of his kindred shall return to the children of Israel. He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; and they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.

          You know, sometimes we have a tendency to write off people because they are a little strange, or kind of small, or maybe even a little scary. Have you ever done that? I know I have. Let me tell you about the last time I did that. Last Saturday we had our annual pilgrimage of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and about 450 people walked 5 miles from Van Buren, down Midland Ave., to Immaculate Conception Church. Just imagine all these short, brown people, singing loudly and praying the rosary, walking with a huge statue of Mary on our shoulders – talk about small, strange and scary!

          About halfway along the route, a white American lady joined us, but she was acting even MORE strange than we were. She was reading aloud from a small, blue Gideon Bible she clutched in her hands, and occasionally pointing at the sky with a terrified look on her face, as if something horrible was about to happen. Sometimes she would laugh out loud, and at other times she would cry uncontrollably. We didn’t know what to make of her; she scared us! Eventually, she ran through the pilgrimage procession and down a side street, and we never saw her again. Later, a psychiatrist friend of mine explained that she probably suffered from schizophrenia and was really no harm to anyone. Watching her read the Bible I wondered: how did I know she didn’t understand what she read? Heck, how do I know she didn’t understand the Bible better than I did?? I realized that Jesus, the Word of God, symbolized in that little blue Bible, came on earth for everyone: for schizophrenic people, for little brown Hispanic people, and even for little brown Indian priest people. Even though I didn’t understand a word that schizophrenic lady said, she preached an unforgettable sermon to me on the love of God.

          In the first reading from Micah, we see something else small and strange that turns out to be a big blessing, namely, Bethlehem. Listen to the prophet Micah, who prophesies, “You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small (too small!) to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler of Israel.” I am sure that no one in the first century gave Bethlehem a backward glance; certainly not as the birthplace of the Messiah.  And yet Bethlehem is precisely the place of God’s greatest blessing: the birth of his Son. Do you know what the word “Bethlehem” means? Literally it means “house of bread.” You see, the eternal Bread of Life would be born in the “house of bread” and feed the world. How strange! How perfect! You see, when we dismiss the small and the strange, we also miss the mighty and miraculous.

          You know, the more I get to know our current bishop, Anthony Taylor, the more I grow in respect for him. Last week at a meeting, he told us priests a funny story about his own father. When the bishop was a young boy and his family attended Mass, his father would always come home mad. There were two priests at their parish, a foreign priest with a thick accent and an American priest. If the foreign priest had the Mass, his father got mad because he could NOT understand what he said. If the American priest had the Mass, his father got mad because he COULD understand what he said! And what impression do you think that left on the little bishop? You might think he’d grow up and make sure priests said things that people liked. Right? Wrong! Don’t forget the first rule of preaching: a good preacher should always comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable! And so today Bishop Taylor warmly welcomes priests from Africa and India and Mexico. Why? Well, because there is an abundance of priests in those countries. But that’s not the only reason. It’s also because the bishop knows that God works in mysterious ways. When you dismiss the small and the strange – even if they are small and strange priests that you can’t understand, like I dismissed the schizophrenic lady – you have also missed some of God’s best blessings.

          Take a moment to ask yourself: who are the small and strange people in my life who I tend to write off and ignore? Are they like the schizophrenic lady, who are kind of odd or who don’t quite fit in? Are they priests whose homilies you dislike because you can’t understand them, or maybe because you CAN understand them? Are they the poor or the prisoners, the homely or the homeless, the immigrants or the Muslims, the Iraqis or the Indians, an ex-spouse or an ex-convict, your former pastor or your future president? My friends, when Jesus Christ came to earth his very first friends were the lowly and the least, who lived in a back-water town called Bethlehem. And if we want to call ourselves “Christians,” then who should our friends be?

        In 1848, Cecil Alexander wrote the poem called “All Things Bright and Beautiful” to help us see God’s blessings in all things, especially in the small things. Listen carefully:

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings.

The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate,

God made them high or lowly, And ordered their estate.

He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell,

How great is God almighty, Who has made all things well.

The next time you are tempted to dismiss or ignore someone because they are a little strange or kind of small or even a little scary, look again.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!