Do You Appreciate the Contrasts of the Season?’
Good Morning Friends,
Today we look at the story of the angels bringing the “good news” of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. (That’s right, the verses from Luke that entered the popular culture through Linus’ speech in the Charlie Brown Christmas story.) In this scripture we see how the fact that God made the announcement to shepherds helps us to understand the real meaning of Christmas. And in understanding, we rejoice that “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son.” Today we also rejoice that God invited a bunch of uneducated, smelly, low-class, religious outcasts to His birth. Every year at Christmas time this great line is drawn. Here are people who are like shepherds and wise men coming to Jesus to worship Him. And there are others like Herod who stand hard and cold, resisting all that God is trying to do in their lives. Today we are warmed by the good news but chilled by the politics of the day. Do You Appreciate the Contrasts of the Season?’
Scripture: And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’
Romans 10:15 (NRSV)
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Luke 2:8-20 (NRSV)
Message: Ever wonder what Christmas means to a homeless person in Haiti or a refugee living in a tent in Germany or a poor Ethiopian woman living in a hut in a drought ridden village or a young Guatemalan child living on the streets of Guatemala City. I am sure it means different things for different people. They, like the shepherds in the Christmas story live at opposite ends of the social strata with all the influential people. Respect, power and prestige elude them. They in many ways are like the shepherds in today’s scripture. The message in the announcement is that God knows each of us regardless of our social status. The message is that we, and the lives we live, are all important to Him. In coming to the shepherds first, scripture implies that those who watch and care for His sheep…the lambs of sacrifice… are important…that the Guatemalan child, the Ethiopian woman, the refugee in Germany and homeless Haitian are important… The message is that those who live by faith, because they have little else, matter. If we do not identify with shepherds…if we identify with the social and religious elite, the gifted, the accomplished, the powerful, then we need to recognize that we do not have a head start with God.
Pray that Christ gets everything He wants for Christmas. Pray that He is born in to our very hearts this day. Pray that we rejoice when God chooses the foolish to shame the wise…when God chooses the weak to shame the strong. Pray that we humble ourselves before God, so that He doesn’t have to do it for us. Pray we boast only in the Lord. Pray that we respond when called. Pray that we are obedient in sharing the good news.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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