Rev. Zach

First Presbyterian Church - Lafayette, Louisiana December 18, 2011 - Advent (4 B) Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Romans 8:18-25 Luke 2:1-6 Pang - that’s a funny word, isn’t it? Although, maybe not so much if you have felt one. A pang is a sudden, sharp, and indelible experience of pain - often associated with giving birth. Of course it can also be associated with mental anguish like doubt or remorse. Most likely, if you have had one then you know it, and you have not forgotten it. A pang is relatively short lived, although the memory of it can take you back to its origin. So many of our soldiers coming home this Christmas will feel these in the years to come, and our response will be a test of our merit as a society. We tend to think of the initial cause of such pains to be endurable - and certainly they are. One can hardly call it a pang if one does not live through it. Of course in Paul’s day, as in much of the world today, labor was not something everyone lived through. Birth and death...