Hi St. Mary's,
On the third Sunday in Advent, in Godly Play, we remember the shepherds who heard the good news about Jesus and ran to Bethlehem to meet him.
This Advent, I’ve been thinking a lot about fear. Not necessarily the kind of physical fear that feels front and center in the middle of a pandemic (although that’s there, too), but the kind of fear that keeps us locked up from experiencing (or acknowledging) God’s real love, peace, and joy for us and for our humanity.
When I read the passage about the shepherds I resonate so deeply with their fear. The Message translation says, “They were terrified. But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, world-wide: A Savior has been born in David’s town” (from Luke 2).
So, they left their fields and went to witness the wonder of Jesus. And after their experience of being accepted and invited to be part of such joy that is meant for everybody, they ran out to share that joy. I wonder what would have happened if they had stayed in their fields? If they hadn’t believed the message that they were invited to participate in joy? This good news wasn’t hypothetical. It was for them, and they shared it.
Sometimes I hear the phrase “good news” and think of a different gospel I’ve been sold: that people are so terribly wretched, that God had to smoosh down into the form of a tiny baby (awful!) and suffer and die because God couldn’t stand to be with humans otherwise.
But the real good news is that God’s love is so unfathomably limitless, that God moved beyond time and space to live among us—even once as a beloved child with eyes for the Kingdom, to feel life like a creature, to die like a creature, and to be raised again, like we as creatures will also be someday. Immanuel, God with us, inseparable from us, in all of our humanity.
There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.
Nothing.
God’s love knows no barriers, but I think sometimes we make our own with shame and fear and a false sense of control over getting it right. But what if we were really free to feel loved as we are? I wonder what that would look like?
I wonder if it’s even possible to see the goodness and love of God for others if we don’t believe it for ourselves--to share the good news, as the shepherds did, without first believing in God’s full embrace of our humanity?
“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
I wonder if there is really nothing at all that can separate us from Love?
Peace,
Flo