The Call to Worship will be based in this passage from Isaiah.
The Scripture Reading will be Luke 2:1-20
The Meditation title is Good News
Early Thoughts: We could really use some Good News this year.
There is an adage in journalism "if it bleeds it leads". That tends to mean we hear a lot of bad news on a daily basis. But there is always Good News out there. We just have to look and listen carefully.
It strikes me that the good news stories often seem to come in from the sidelines, from the edges of the picture. They don't often seem to be front and center. That may be in part due to the adage I mentioned above. It may also say something about how God works.
In our Scripture stories it often seems that God is using marginal people to share God's Good News with the world. We have Moses, a man wanted for murder and running for his life, who ends up being the liberator of his people. We have David, the youngest son, out with the sheep, thought to be unimportant, who is anointed as the next king. Multiple prophets were not from the center of society -- and even those who were often found themselves pushed to the side when their message was not welcomed.
Then there is our Christmas story. We have Mary, a poor unmarried peasant girl who is chosen to bear a son. We have shepherds out on a hillside who are the first to hear this wondrous news.
God seems to work at the margins, working inward to change the center.
So let us look out to the edges of our world and see what flickers of good news are out there. In the midst of all the bad news that fills our news media, what Good News is out there? Where is God breaking into the world today?
--Gord
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