Joy to the mall

#1007 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 14 Dec 2014.

As always, it’s great to see nativity scenes and hear Christmas carols playing in stores and malls across Sydney.

Amid the festivities, and family gatherings, and gift-giving, Christmas is an annual reminder of the greatest gift of all, when God who loves each of us more than we can imagine sent his Son Jesus from heaven to earth with what the angels announced to the shepherds outside Bethlehem as “good news of great joy for everyone,” news from heaven that would bring peace and harmony to a troubled world.

We still need that news today. Now, as then, God delights in surprising us with grace and truth from unexpected sources. God loves to speak to us from the margins. As North American monk and writer Thomas Merton said:

The ox and ass understood more of the first Christmas than the high priests in Jerusalem. And it is the same today.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.