Hebrews 10.5-10 and Micah 5.2-5a 
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent our Lectionary readings place before us the promise of peace.  It’s curious that the First Reading in Micah presents just three and a half verses, skipping the first verse of the chapter and stopping half-way through the fifth verse.  It’s hard to know why this choice was made, but it begs the question, “What is the context?”  And therein lies the significance of this text, because our text is found in the middle of dark predictions of Israel’s impending military defeat and the suffering that would follow.  It is against such darkness that the promise of peace becomes so bright.  And so it is in our lives.  The gospel shines brightest in the darkness of the pain and suffering of our lives.  And there are few times in the year when this could be more true than at Christmas.  As at no other time, we celebrate the light of Christ in the darkness of our world.  This is why we must not gloss over the darkness.  We must not fall prey to the fake brightness of a Hallmark Christmas. Christ came, incarnate, into our real world.  Jesus, who is our peace, entered our darkness and has given us hope; a hope that begins with a peace with God which he secured through his body, and the hope of peace that will “reach to the ends of the earth".