Hope always remains - 12/29/2019

There are plenty of passages we love to read and reread; but there are also many passages that give us pause, if not downright doubt.    This morning, in our reading of the Slaughter of the Innocents, we encounter one of those passages.   How do we feel after reading what Herod did to the youngest children in and around Bethlehem?  It's ok to be challenged and struggle--and to admit you feel that way.  But what we can realize is that there is always hope in Christ.  We see, in this passage, that God gives us the freedom to respond to God's love in any way we want.  We see one terrible response from Herod.  He denies that grace of God, refuses God's Kingdom on Earth, and does everything he can to protect his own throne.  The question we are left with in this passage, then, is how will we decide to respond?  Will we fight God and fight the love and grace offered to us?  Or will we live into it, showing our neighbors that very same love?

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