We all want to know what’s going on in the world and what it means. Related to this is the very important question of where you get your news. It does make a difference. Even though all news media profess to be objective they do have their biases. Sometimes the bias is toward the political left or right. Perhaps even more often the bias is toward what will increase the number of viewers or readers

Those who watch Fox News get a different slant on things from those who read the New York Times. Viewers of the Arab TV network, Al-Jazeera get yet another take on world events. During the Iraq war, Al-Jazeera focused more on dead and wounded Iraqi children and less on the statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled than did the American news media.

Where do you get the news? Where do you get your information on important events and what they mean?

Thirty years ago I read a sermon by David H. C. Read entitled, “News from Another Network.” I don’t remember much about the sermon other than the title, but the title says it all. We Christians are those who get our news from “another network”, or at least we should.

When one reads the Bible it is immediately clear that it contains a different sort of reporting. Many of its events would not be reported in modern media, except perhaps for the National Enquirer. It is certainly true too that the biblical writers had a different slant on world events than did the rest of the world. While the rest of the world focused on events in Rome and Jerusalem, the gospel writers focused on some small towns in Galilee like Bethlehem and Nazareth. While the rest of the world was talking about Caesar Augustus and Herod, the gospel writers were talking about the girl Mary and the carpenter Joseph. While the rest of the world was focused on the powerful and the popular and the rich and the famous, Jesus said the blessed of the earth were the poor, the meek, those who mourn, the persecuted, and those who hunger to see right prevail. There is definitely a different slant on things here, or as the Bible puts it: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8)

Those of us who are “in the world” but not “of the world” should be listening to another network. Things are not always as they seem to worldly eyes.

©2003 C. David Hess

I am writing these words on a warm sunny, April day, remembering the cold, icy days with which April began. I, like many in the Rochester area, spent several days without electricity (three to be exact). I was semi-prepared for the experience in that I had paid some attention to the forecasts of a possible impending ice storm. I had gone to Wegman’s and stocked up on groceries and some extra batteries for my flashlight. Of course, when the power went off Friday night, it dawned on me too late that I had no idea where my flashlight was. I tried to find it in the dark without success. It then occurred to me that my Palm device would shed enough light to help me search for my flashlight. It worked.

I could cook with my gas stove and use it for a little bit of heat.. I have a gas hot water so I could take hot baths to warm up. I could listen to the radio to catch up on happenings and listen to the Syracuse Final Four basketball game. It allowed me to have some empathy for the people of Baghdad. Of course, I did not have to worry about bombs falling.

The hardest time I had was on Sunday. My hopes were raised when I spotted a repair truck working across the street from the church. I went over and welcomed the repair crew. It was great to see them. They assured me that power would be on shortly for our whole area. Indeed, within twenty minutes power was restored to our church and practically every home in the surrounding area. There were a few exceptions. My house was one of them. Sunday night I could look out the back window of my house and see all the homes in the housing development there with lights burning brightly. My house was cold and dark. The bright warm houses surrounding me only deepened my suffering.

It made me think of the stories I have heard of the torture felt by poor children in other countries looking through restaurant windows watching tourists eat. How hard it is to be on the “outside” viewing the blessings of those on the “inside.” Our world has many of these. I was reminded too of Jesus’ description of those who are to be left in outer darkness at the final judgment. May our sympathies be stirred for all those left out in the dark.

©2003 C. David Hess