President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Matthew Harrison has written a profound piece about the travails and trials of Ferguson. You can read his Pastoral viewpoint at Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison BlogSpot by clicking on the link on the right side of this blog.
The Psalmist called God from out of the depths. God rescued Jonah from out of the depths. From the depths of misery he called the people out of Egypt and it seems that is how God works. In the depths and out of the depths God works. We are always busy looking for the mountaintops while God is busy in the depths. From the depths of woe at Calvary comes salvation and forgiveness.
Advent teaches us that lesson. In Luther’s sermons leading up to Christmas he talks about God choosing Mary as a work in the depths. It cannot be perceived by human eyes, but only by the eyes of faith. He writes: “Even now and to the end of the world, all His works are such that out of that which is nothing, worthless, despised, wretched, and dead, he makes that which is something, precious, honorable, blessed, and living.”
Even to this day people make fun of the virgin birth or deny the possibility. Jesus was born to a bad girl and Joseph was too foolish to do the right thing and divorce her. The default position of sinful humanity is to turn the annunciation into a morality play, or make Mary into a co – redemtrix with Jesus. The story from the scripture is much more simple and “in the depths”. All of our moral high ground disappears and our prejudice and unbelief are laid bare. “Thus God’s work and His eyes are in the depths, but man’s only in the height”, Luther says.
I don’t know what God is making out of the mess we have put ourselves in in this country and the world but the message of Advent is that God is in control. In control and still laughing.
