I reread Fred Craddock’s commentary on the Gospel of Luke as I prepared for my Christmas Eve sermon. This point didn’t make it into the sermon, but I still want to share it with you on this, the second day of Christmas. Craddock discusses of the difficulties in how Luke dates the birth of Jesus, but then he moves onto the larger point:

“Beyond any argument as to Luke’s historical sources is his basic conviction that emperors, governments, and laws [sometimes] serve the purpose of God, often without knowing it … Caesar Augustus is more than a date for the story; he is an instrument of God’s will. There does not nave to be a miracle or an unusual event for God to be at work. God works miracles in Luke, to be sure, but God works without them, too.” — Fred Craddock, Interpretation: Luke.

God is at work on this the second day of Christmas and God will be at work throughout the coming year.