December 14 devotional

At last! The assigned readings for this coming Sunday are beginning to look like Christmas. Of course, it is about time; this Sunday is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. This week we get to read about Mary, and the anthems begin to talk about pregnancy and birth.

Unfortunately, when I read the lessons this morning to begin working on Sunday's sermon, it wasn't a manger scene that came to mind. What I thought of was a teenage African-American girl who rode my bus when I was in school. She was pregnant and probably about Mary's age. Living in the South, she probably would qualify as a peasant living at the edge of society.

What sticks out in this memory is how she was treated by the teachers. Even African-American teachers held her in contempt. Her fellow students ridiculed her behind her back, and even those with kindness looked at her with pity for one who had done something dumb and had no idea what she was getting into.

Today, teenage pregnancy is much more common, of course. No one beyond the family gives it much thought. I'm not sure that is progress. What does the church do about this? Do we sit in moral judgment as though this act for which there is proof is somehow a worse sin than all those secret acts of passion that leaves no evidence behind? Or do we simply shrug our shoulders at a sign of the disintegration of the family and society at large?

The truth is this is still a big deal. I don't mean teenage sex. I mean the lives involved. The teenage mother's life has been altered in ways her undeveloped consciousness is incapable of comprehending. And what of the life she bears? Americans disdain the government getting involved with child-rearing, but we all bear responsibility for who this child will grow up to be or what they will grow up to do.

No, the government might not have a role, but we do. The church and people of faith must care about teenage mothers and their children. If we don't, we just might miss the birth of One who might save us. Maybe not from our sin, but at the very least this child may grow up to be the one who gives us CPR or discovers the cure for cancer. Like God, we, too, must believe that a child is the only hope for eventual salvation.

Blessings,

Rev. Michael Piazza, co-pastor of Virginia-Highland UCC, Atlanta, GA