Sunday, 28 December 2025
Alleluia
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!
May the name of the Lord be blessed
both now and for evermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
praised be the name of the Lord!
High above all nations is the Lord,
above the heavens his glory.
Who is like the Lord, our God,
who has risen on high to his throne
yet stoops from the heights to look down,
to look down upon heaven and earth?
From the dust he lifts up the lowly,
from the dungheap he raises the poor
to set them in the company of rulers,
yes, with the rulers of his people.
To the childless wife he gives a home
and gladdens her heart with children.
Reflection
Mostly, when Andy sends round the rota for the Daily Devotions, we writers pick a certain day having read the scripture provided or having responded to the challenge of reflecting on a poem or visual art or music. I sometimes pick them based on the date on which they’re to be published. Today is such a day.
The time between Christmas and New Year is a bit of a wilderness in some ways but it does contain the Feast of the Innocents on December 28. This feast has been in the Church’s calendar since the end of the fourth century CE. The children who were killed by Herod’s decree (Matthew 2.16-18) were seen as the first Christian martyrs. The story of the Massacre of the Innocents is only told in Matthew’s gospel and as an historical event is largely discredited for the lack of secular record but it has resonated down the years as a meaningful and poignant day of mourning.
Sadly, as this year comes to a close we are acutely aware of the slaughter of millions of children around the world in places and situations we can all name. These are often justified as the pursuit of a particular set of people with the Innocents being collateral damage as was Herod’s pursuit of Jesus.
So how does today’s Psalm sit alongside today’s theme? Very uncomfortably would be my reply. Connections are not immediately obvious. Yet it speaks of God‘s pre-eminence, of God’s overview of the Earth and it speaks of praise and glory in the highest to the God who stoops down to be alongside us all. It whispers quite gently to those who are hurting and who are bereaved that there can be hope and there can be a future. It brings those who are poor and lowly and overlooked to a point of true recognition, acceptance and love.
Reflective Prayer
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
Malcolm Guite