Today many people all over the world will be sitting down to tables groaning with food with family and
friends, whether they believe in Christmas, or Jesus, or not. Today is a day of
giving and receiving, and of joy and peace. Yet while we’re at our full tables,
thousands will be spending Christmas more like Jesus and his family did that
first night; wondering what the next few days hold for them and praying that
God will provide for them. For many today, even here in prosperous Lacombe, there’s
little money for gifts, sometimes no family to be with, and little joy or
peace, and yet people like these are the ones that capture God’s heart and who
Jesus reaches out to. They understand the glory of God; they understand what
Saviour and Messiah means. We remember this, not to feel guilty, but to be more
grateful for what we have and more generous with what we have.
In the dark of the night, simple,
humble and mostly poor shepherds are in the fields working to
put food on their families’ tables when they’re startled by an amazing sight:
angels fill the sky, shining in the night and bringing news from God. A great
light shines over them, offering hope and probably a little fear as well. The glory of the Lord shines around them; God’s on the
move, breaking into the world, coming close to his people and offering good
news of great joy, not only for Israel, but for all people. Glory is all about
God’s presence. God’s closeness radiates in the angel’s joy as they tell of a
child just born and lying in a manger close by, close enough to visit and see,
close enough to see that the angel’s message that God is doing something
special for his people is true. The angels guide these poor and yet strangely
blessed peasants in the cold fields outside Bethlehem to a humble home in the
town of Bethlehem where God’s love is on display in a tiny child.
“A saviour has
been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” This is no
ordinary child, but one anointed by God for a special calling, to be the Saviour
of his people; a child with power and authority from God himself. Yet what a
strange place for God’s glory to be revealed: to a group of shepherds working
in a field outside of a small, unimportant village, through a baby in a manger,
and a poor couple with a strange story to tell. The meeting place of God with
his people is normally in the temple where the glory of God is experienced in
the Holy of Holies. But instead of meeting his people in the gorgeous temple
that rivalled Solomon’s, or in the palace of the king, or in the court of the
great Roman emperor, we find ourselves late at night going with the shepherds
to a humble home in this small village of Bethlehem. God continues to turn our
expectations of the way things should be upside down. God’s glory and love are
revealed in unexpected places.
When
God comes, he doesn’t visit the emperor, he visits a group of shepherds; not the
rich, but the poor; not the important people, but the insignificant; not the
powerful, but the weak; not the rulers, but the subjects; not the special, but
the ordinary. If Jesus came today, would he be here in our homes filled with
all the comforts of life, or downtown Red Deer with the homeless at the Mustard
Seed, or the Safe Harbour, or the Woman’s Outreach Society? Would the angels be
singing “Glory to God in the highest,” over Lacombe,
or over Maskwacis, or downtown Red Deer where there’s a high concentration of
people struggling with homelessness and addictions? That’s part of the wonder
of the glory of God, the love of God; that he sees the ones we often don’t see,
that he comes to the ones we stay away from. Jesus becomes one of the people
that we don’t want to be. God with us, Immanuel, comes first to the ones who
need him to be with them the most.
The shepherds’ fear changes to joy with
the angel’s message.
The news is glorious; God has sent someone to save them. Anointed with God’s
spirit to lead his people to freedom, the one they’ve been waiting for, for
hundreds of years already. The angels give them a sign, they’ll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. To
show the shepherds that they share their joy, the angels praise God, saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to men on
whom his favour rests.” The response to God’s glory is praise and
obedience. The angels get it and they point to God and to his relationship with
us. The Greek word for peace translates the
Hebrew word shalom, which is peace, but so much
more than peace, it’s about a right relationship with God, healthy relationships
with others, health in our souls and hearts, and experiencing fullness in our
lives. What a blessing, what a gift God gives us by giving us his favour,
showing us his love through Jesus. Jesus leaves his home and comes to a strange
country to bring hope, peace, and the love of God the Father.
We offer the world, the greatest gift of
love when
we share how God has come to us. We can be like the angels offering good news
of great joy, letting the world know that God loves us so much that he came to
be with us, to experience our lives, and bring us his strength and hope. We
share the good news that we’re never alone. When we feel that no one sees us or
cares, God does see us and he does care; he cares enough to come to earth and
be born, experience life, and then die for us on the cross so our sins are
forgiven.
We offer hope to the world in Jesus’ name by drawing close
to the people often ignored or overlooked by most people, by willing to be on
the side of the hurting, the oppressed, the orphan, the widow, and those who
are unable to defend themselves, or take care of themselves. How have you offered joy and hope this
week? How have you been the presence of Jesus is someone else’s life lately?
Have you stopped to offer peace and shalom, stopped to praise God in the
busyness of the season and share the good news of great
joy to someone who needs words of hope and joy?
The shepherds rush off to see the child, to confirm for themselves that the angel’s message is true. When they had seen
the child, they go from there and share with whoever they meet the story of the
angel’s message and the child in the manger. Luke tells us Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her
heart. The angel’s message to her is confirmed in the shepherd’s story,
that she has just given birth to the Son of God! Everyone who hears the
shepherds’ tale is amazed, after all it’s a fantastic tale, a story of hope and
wonder. But it’s the shepherds’ response that grabs our attention. They respond
to God’s glory by going out and telling everyone they meet what God is doing.
It may seem hard to see God’s glory today when we hear about
wars, hunger, job losses, pandemics, injustice
and abuse, and yet God is still breaking into our world today. Everywhere that someone
helps someone else in Jesus’ name; God is breaking into that person, every time
a church preaches the Gospel, God is breaking into the world; every time people
dream new dreams of new ways of helping others and begin to work out ways to do
them, God is breaking in, every time we work for unity and towards others
instead of apart, God is breaking into our world. Finally, every time we open
our hearts to the Holy Spirit and allow God to change our hearts, helping us to
live out love, mercy, grace, patience, perseverance, and obedience, God breaks into
us.
I invite you this wondrous Christmas day, to go from here
and celebrate as the angels did, and as the shepherds did by going to the child
in the manger, by going to meet Jesus. As we look to the child in the manger,
see God’s glory shining through this child, this son of God and son of man. He
came for you and for me; he came to draw us close once again to God our Father,
to bring hope and healing, to bring new life to all of us. Glory to God in the highest and peace to you this day.
Go from here this morning after experiencing and hearing of God’s glory and
grace and share with someone what God has done in Jesus and continues to do
today.
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