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Devotion:
Read Luke 2:8-11.
Our devotions for this week and the sermon on Sunday will explore how Luke shares the good news of Jesus with us. One of the defining characteristics of Luke’s gospel is that it focuses on Jesus’ ministry among the poor, the powerless, and those on the margins of society. There is a danger as we read today’s passage that our minds may easily shift to Christmas programs in which we have seen cute children as shepherds in bathrobes and holding grandpa’s walking sticks. We may think just how sweet this scene with the shepherds and their sheep must have been.
Let’s not miss the extraordinary nature of this first sharing of the good news for all the world. Shepherds were the homeless of Jesus’ day. They rarely owned the sheep in their care but kept others’ animals for meager pay. Often having to handle dead animals, shepherds were viewed in the Jewish faith as unclean and therefore not welcome in faithful society. They were seen as the dregs of society, and yet it was to them that the greatest good news for the world was first shared. There is a powerful lesson in that for us today if we stop and think about those who are marginalized in our own society.
Personal Worship Option:
Are there people today whom you shun? Is it possible that the good news of Jesus is not being shared with them at all? The best way to share that may be to reach out and just be a neighbor to them. Pray for eyes to see them and a heart to reach out.
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