by Marcia Mount Shoop
Luke 1:26-38
“We are staggering toward Bethlehem this year–heavy with grief, activated by anxiety, numb from relentless death and shattered lives, and paranoid from all the lies that come at us and move through us–all the ways we’ve been used to prop things up we didn’t consent to, all the ways we participate in our own demise.
We limp toward Bethlehem compromised beings.
And on the treacherous road, this angel’s voice cries out and says, don’t be afraid and God has chosen you and things you can’t even imagine will come true and nothing is impossible with God.
This angel tells us that God is not constrained by our suffering or our social position or limited vision or our doubt or even by our imagination.
That’s the God we’re waiting for, my friends, my siblings, my beloved community.”