Having said yes to Gabriel's announcement that she would have a child, Mary rushes to the home of Elizabeth, her relative, who is also unexpectedly expecting a child. In Elizabeth's embrace, Mary begins to sing. Her song reaches back through the generations, tapping into the great tradition of women's singing of God's liberation. Listening to her song of God's upending of unjust systems, we can find inspiration to join our voices with hers and imagine a world redefined by God's shalom.

Scripture: Luke 1:39-56

Spend time with the story of Joseph in Matthew's gospel and you meet a man whose well-ordered life gets turned upside down. Pastor Nancy suggests we take our cue from Joseph's response, saying, "Embrace the life you've been given--a life with all of its glorious imperfections, with its painful broken parts, with the shadowy valleys that do not quickly fade away. Make room for the unexpected in the ordinary, the everydayness..."

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25

Pastor Nancy engages the story of Gabriel's visit to Mary and imagines what happens in the space between Gabriel's announcement and Mary's response. And then Pastor Nancy invites us to imagine what other annunciations happen in our world, "In the busyness, in the struggles, in our anxieties and with all the clouds of uncertainties, the Sacred walks right in, pulls out a chair, puts both elbows on the table, smiles a big wide grin and says, 'Greetings, favored one! the Lord is with you.' What happens next is up to us."

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Matthew's gospel begins with a long list of ancient names, some familiar others less so. Why start a gospel this way? In her sermon, Pastor Nacy explains, "The genealogy is in some sense Matthew's way of letting us know who Jesus's people are. It's situating Jesus's story into a larger story, one of the history of Israel, and to the larger work of God in the world. So while we may want to skip over the strange names and get on with the real story, Matthew wants us to wander in the groves of the ancient ones, to consider their complicated stories and carry them with us as we move into the good news of the Jesus story."

Pastor Nancy read from First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament.

Allegiances

Dream Big

Not Just for the Few

Seeking and Being Found

God's Plan: A Generational Legacy

On Not Losing Heart