Daily Worship

A storm of history and politics

Jock Stein December 18, 2024 5 2
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Luke 2: 4 (NRSVA)

4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 

As each verse is read, we glean more detailed information: where Joseph lived, his birthplace in Bethlehem, his descent from David – this is pursued at the end of chapter 3, though different from the table in Matthew 1, which relieves us from worrying about the details – with a character like David it is not surprising that lineage travels by many routes, like those on the move today.

Our lives are shaped by politics and history, as by weather and geography. We rightly seek green solutions, but the colour of our lives and what surrounds us is formed by so many things beyond our control. If we have a strong family line, let us be true to it, but if our roots are wonky or unknown, let us glory in becoming children of Abraham, and members of the household of ‘great David’s greater Son’.

What gleams through this single verse is the light of God’s purpose, focused on two towns, Nazareth and Bethlehem. Our Lord Jesus would grow up in Nazareth, nurtured and formed by Mary and Joseph. Bethlehem would signal his human lineage, whether we trace this through Mary or through his adopted father Joseph. That lineage would remain both a line of blessing and a line of conflict, since both King Herod and later the Pharisees saw it as a threat. And so today, while we see the light of Christ gleaming and gentle and glorious, for others it is something to be avoided, whether seen as blinding or dismissed as out of fashion.

Let us PRAY for unbelievers known to us, and for those who struggle with the challenge of faith . . .

Let us PRAY for those we know of Jewish and Islamic faiths, those other children of Abraham . . .

Let us PRAY for people in broken and breaking families . . .

Let us PRAY for all who seek to know and understand their identity . . . .

Lord God, at the beginning you commanded light to shine out of darkness. Now you have shone in our hearts with the light of knowing your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. May this light be present in the day which is before us, and in those we meet. Amen.