O antiphon for those who fear

The Rev. Maren Tirabassi

19 December 2016

O antiphon for those who fear

 

O Emmanuel, hailed by clueless Gabriel,
who, as an angel, thinks we can
shake off being afraid,
Come to us in our fear.

We fear the past and the future.
We fear those who are unlike us
in any way,
and we fear family members
who should not hurt us but do.

We fear chemo and COPD,
and any kind of mental illness diagnosis.

We fear heroin.

We fear small spaces and high ones,
food and poverty and bullies,
dirt and death,
dangerous work places, joblessness,
retirement, and being asked to play.

We fear forgetting people,
being forgotten,
not being able to retrieve a name.

We fear labor and delivery
and the impossible responsibility
of being a parent.

We fear naming autism,
claiming a gender identity,
or a recovery, or a religious faith,
not to speak of falling in love,
being late,
or enjoying solitude.

We fear for our children,
and for our parents.

We fear terrorism, injustice, war,
and global warming,
guns in the hands of the unstable,
and we correctly fear angels who invite us
to choose to make a difference.

Come to us in all our fears,
Emmanuel,
so they do not define us. Amen

©Maren Tirabassi

Image Les ‘O’ en Espagne, Wikiwand.

Maren lives in Portsmouth, USA. She is a writer, Minister of Union United Church of Christ in Madbury, New Hampshire and a regular contributor to our Moments page.