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Christmas Eve 2020: Good news for the poor

In Jesus' day shepherding was not the noble occupation it had once been during the days of Patriarchs. In a mostly agricultural economic system these folks were grazers. And grazing isn't good if you're trying to grow crops. Shepherds existed at the bottom of the social ladder right next to tax collectors and dung sweepers. Yet they were among the first to be told that a new King was being born. Not the socially connected. Not the politically powerful. What good news it must have been for those shepherds. Someone cares. Someone thinks that we aren’t disgusting. And not just someone . . . God.  God has visited us and given us something precious. God has announced good news. Good because it is redeeming, restoring and refreshing. News because something actually happened. 


It is no surprise then that Jesus quotes from the book of Isaiah in Luke 4 “to proclaim good news to the poor.” And by poor Isaiah and Jesus don’t mean some kind of nebulous spiritually poor. They mean the poor. The folks at the bottom of the ladder. Like the shepherds of Jesus day. I don’t know what you found disgusting this past year but I am sure we could all make a long list. Maybe your list might include people who use SNAP or other social programs. Perhaps those on unemployment. Maybe you feel the need to brush your teeth and take a shower after just saying the words Democrat or Republican for all the disgust you feel towards those political parties. 


On my disgust list today, this Christmas Eve 2020, is the current stimulus bill being voted on in congress. And my disgust is directed at how lower income people and the unemployed are being treated. Nobody. Like nobody. Like zero people had any clue about how this year would go. Nobody knew that quarantines and major job losses were just around the corner. 

This bill cost $900 billion and only gives people in need a one time $600 check and gives $300 a week to those on unemployment. I am not even going to get into all of the other money going to all kinds of countries and programs that have nothing to do with helping those in need. Did you know that global poverty could be brought to the point of extinction with $175 billion over 20 years? By the way this amount is less than 1 percent of the combined income of the richest countries in the world, and only four times the United States’ military budget for one year. I guess I am wondering how this is good news for the poor. 


Good news rarely happens on a large stage with lights, cameras and press releases. Good news tends to happen in and among the daily grind of life. So on this Christmas Eve my hope and prayer is that you and I might be a source of good news to those around us. I have little faith in our political parties yet I have all the faith in the world in the church of Jesus. So today church let's be the church. Let us be redeeming, refreshing, restoring good news. A new King has arrived and with it real hope for a world that could really use some. 



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