Daily Worship

In those days and these days…

Jock Stein December 15, 2024 4 3
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Luke 2: 1 (NRSVA)

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

We register. Often, online nowadays. It’s annoying. It can be difficult. We might have to chase up stuff – a licence, a certificate, a document of some kind. We might have to search a filing cabinet, or a desk, or a computer. But we don’t have to return to our birthplace like Joseph and Mary.

We register the news. News gleaned from media, maybe from phone calls. News of lives torn apart, news of families displaced, news of communities starving, news of nations failing. News of people far away. News of them.

News of us is usually humdrum. And if something dire or dreamy does happen to us, it will likely not affect the empires of media or politics. But this week we think of an ancient registration picked up in God’s purpose, a journey which has hummed and drummed through empires ever since, gleaming with unexpected light.

PRAY

God, we are told to pray for leaders, even those who lead the empires of today – in China, India, Brazil as well as USA, Russia and Europe. Let us do that, and of course we pray for our own Scotland, and for our neighbours in England, Wales and Ireland. Work out your good purposes through the decrees and dictators of our time, and help us to make our own decisions wise and fruitful, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.