Into the Crises of Our Lives

The Gospel of Luke has a curious pair of accounts of Gabriel entering the world of human beings. Imagine that, an angel bursting in on our human existence. 

Zechariah was an old man, and his wife, Elizabeth, was an elderly woman, and, yet, the angel told him of their coming child.. His response may be typical of a man. Perhaps he was looking for data or information when he asked, "How can I be sure?" So Gabriel told him how he could be sure and to add to it, being mute until the child is born. 

Mary was a young woman, perhaps even a teenager, when the angel appeared to her. Her response may be more typical of a woman, "How will this be?" Gabriel explains how it is to be. 

For both of them, these had to be earth shaking experiences and revelations. 

We admire Mary and perhaps see in her something in ourselves, or perhaps we simply see in her one of the ultimate mysteries of the universe. Seldom do we speak with admiration of Zechariah. Maybe we need to spend more time studying and thinking about him. 

In both cases, the angel of the Lord burst in upon their lives. Were they in crisis? Were they going about doing their routine activities? 

We are in the middle of several crises: health care with the pandemic exploding around us, racial unrest, governmental chaos between parties and the current president and the president-elect, and economic as people cannot go to work because of shut downs. 

And, I am mindful of my friends in the Black Farmer Movement. In 1920 there were approximately 920,000 Black farmers farming roughly 17,000,000 acres. Right now, there are roughly 35,500 Black farms with roughly 4,600,000 acres. Someone deep inside the current administration said recently that there are 17,000 Black farmers on the verge of foreclosure. They are living on the edge, hopeful that The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 will bring them relief. 

How will God burst into our lives with these crises (and perhaps even more, with personal, family, and others) going on around us? Will God ease into our chaotic lives? Will God burst into our lives? 

Or, will we realize that God has been with us all along? 

The coming of the Christ child in the manger in Bethlehem is revealing to us. We have heard it our entire lives. We hear it anew each year. We rehearse the stories of the gospel writers and perhaps finding something new each time, or maybe we find old things made new each time. 

There is no better time for God to make an appearance in the form of a baby than right now. Now is a very good time for God to burst into our world, to rattle our existences, to show Himself to us, than right now.

We are raw, unsettled, troubled, wounded, fearful, and wondering what this time and these events are all about. We could use some good news. In the midst of our friends dying of COVID, we need good news, the birth of a child to give us hope. 

In the midst of our chaos, we yearn for peace and calm and stability. That can come with the baby in the manger in Bethlehem. 

That is when our deepest selves and our deepest yearnings meet up with God's deepest longings for us.