then the disciples understood...

I'm just grateful for the witness of Scripture this morning-- again it reveals that even those people who were actually in the presence of Jesus and heard the words from his mouth often had trouble understanding what he meant.

If "God's messengers tend to be rejected" as Sacred Space claims, then all of us need to be ready to be rejected, or not liked, or disrespected, mocked or even despised.  This is absolutely the opposite of what I want-- being God's messenger means making myself vulnerable to rejection.

And, as Kris has pointed out, this is why we need to be praying for courage and we need to be ready to support one another and to stand together in faith.

God the Holy Spirit has given us to each other to be a community of faith in Christ.  We are not in this vulnerable position of being God's messengers alone.

We are not alone-- isn't that the essential message of Christmas-- Immanuel, God-with-us?