God of good news

Daily Reading for December 30 • The First Sunday after Christmas Day

God of good news,

today you begin again to reshape our lives and communities.

You do not start from the outside, but from within.

You begin in the hidden place.

Behind the inn. Before the marriage. At the wrong time.

You invite a handful of guests into your company.

Shepherds. Local children perhaps. Maybe some animals.

You join the community of the invisible ones.

The homeless and hopeless. Refugees, fleeing a tyrant king.

Later, you find fisherfolk. And a tax collector. More children.

The small. The unimportant. The forgotten. The frightened.

These are the people you choose,

as little by little you start sharing

the secrets of a kingdom that will change the whole world.

From within. From the hidden place.

God of good news:

as we celebrate worldwide the tidings of your birth,

as we set the heavens echoing with angel songs,

as we contemplate a new year and pray for peace on earth. . .

remind us of the hidden places, of the forgotten people,

of the starting-points and the time it takes,

of the pace of the slowest and the dreams of the children

and the human scale and the soul of our towns

and the freedom to create secret dens.

Remind us that the great joy promised to the whole people

starts with those who need it most, in places where they hide.

Remind us, with all our seasonal cheer and tinsel,

that some people are left out in the cold;

that it is there, with them, that you are being born into the world again;

that it is there, through them, that you will change the world.

God of good news,

help us to find you again

in the hidden place.

Amen.

From Advent Readings from Iona by Brian Woodcock and Jan Sutch Pickard (Wild Goose Publications, 2000).

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