Welcome to our service tonight and thank you for coming. Tonight we are re-enacting that night so long ago when Jesus was born. The Scriptures tell us that there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them and announced the birth of the Savior, proclaiming good news of great joy which shall be for all the people.
A multitude of the heavenly host appeared with the angel and sang “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men, with whom he is pleased.” (Lk. 2:14) – ( just like we do every week when we sing the Gloria in our liturgy.) The shepherds took heed of the message and went to see the baby.
Tonight it is as if we all were shepherds keeping watch – that is, you have been observing a time of preparation during Advent. You have fasted and prayed, confessed your sins and asked God to renew a right spirit within you so that you might be ready for the coming of the King. Having heard the message that Jesus is come into the world to save sinners, you have left your homes and traveled through the cold night, coming, as it were, to the cave behind the inn to see the newborn baby and to worship Him.
Our story this night is full of hiddenness – the hiddenness of God partnering with an obscure Jewish teenaged girl to bring His Son into the world, the hiddenness of the Christ being formed in the womb of a hidden woman and protected by a hidden man, Joseph; the hiddenness of the Christ child being born into the world in the midst of darkness in a hidden cave, in a hidden town. Later, Christ would go on to live 30 years in obscurity until his ministry began in earnest. Hidden. Hidden. Hidden…
However, in this story of Jesus’ birth we have a curious paradox. God did not send out an advance team of marketers to advertise that Jesus, the Son of the Living God was being born. He didn’t do what someone did back the early 1980’s, and take out full page ads in world newspapers, saying that the “Lord Maitraya” had arrived. …I never did hear what happened to that guy. Maybe the announcement was premature…Who knows? At any rate:
God did choose to announce the news to the Shepherds, who were the functional equivalent of Internet bloggers of that time. They went and saw the child, and afterwards they became the first evangelists. They went out and made known to everyone what had been told to them and what they had seen. “And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.” And you can be sure that this news spread throughout the region.
And yet, it was ultimately a small region in a small country, amidst a small people.
There is the sense that Jesus has been brought into the world in the darkness, in the hidden place, in order to be hidden - in order for God to manifest himself as DEUS ABSCONDITUS, the hidden God. It’s amazing beyond comprehension that the Lord of the Universe, the Word, the Logos, by whom and in whom and with whom all things came into being was born into the world to be our Savior – and yet He was hidden from the World. Why did God do this?
Perhaps because He wants us to look for him…
The shepherds in the fields that night were watching. They were alert for predators, so they were watchful. They were available to hear the angels’ message when everybody else was asleep. Like them, we need to be awake to God and alert to his call. This is what Advent has been all about – encouraging us to be awake and alert, and to listen for His announcement of the birth of Christ.
When the Angel announced, “Today is born to you in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, the Shepherds’ response was, “Let us go see this thing that God has done.” Like Mary, they said, “Yes, Lord”. Not: “No Way!” Not: “That’s nice…” Not: “I’ll think about it.” But, “Let us go see this thing that God has done.”
This is an implicit acknowledgement of God’s existence, recognition of God’s Sovereign action in human affairs, and a response of Faith that puts legs to belief. The Shepherds responded correctly to God’s revelation by going to worship the babe laid in the manger. They looked with the eyes of their heart, with eyes of faith, - not upon the superficial appearance of a baby in a manger, but rather upon the Savior of the World, Emmanuel, God with Us.
In the purity of their hearts, they believed the angel’s message and they saw God - just as Jesus would later proclaim in the Sermon on the Mount.
In that same Sermon Jesus also said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
In Jesus’ day, Shepherds were certainly the poorest of the poor. Often they lived in the open with only the clothes on their backs and they were frequently shunned because they smelled bad and were uncouth. They may have taken a lamb to offer the newborn King, but it’s certain they had nothing else of value to take with them.
In this way, they represent our essential position before God: Poverty. We are all poor as we approach our God. We have nothing to bring to him that he could possibly want or need. It’s the old story of trying to find something to buy for your father…What are gonna get for someone who literally has everything?
The song “In the Bleak Midwinter” has a wonderful last verse:
“What can I give him? poor as I am. If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man I would do my part, Yet what I can, I give him, give him my heart.”
Tonight we commemorate the birth of the Savior of the world, come to us hidden in the form of a baby, born to a hidden woman and a hidden man, in a hidden town, in a hidden cave behind a hidden inn. You have come here to worship – to give your time and to praise God for sending Jesus into the world. Tonight, don’t so much come with your physical gifts, rather be like the person in the hymn saying, I don’t know what to give, I don’t have anything to give but I’ll give Him myself.
God the Father wants you to come to the manger, to see what He has done in giving us Jesus to be our Savior. But he also wants something from you - yourself. Not Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, but Yourself, the essence of who you are, you - to be available to God for relationship, for friendship. That’s what God wants – You.
Give him yourself. Do it tonight. Do it now.
Let’s recite together the last verse of In the Bleak Midwinter again, and as we do so, make these words your own: “Yet what I can, I give him, give Him my heart” If you do so, it will be the most wonderful Christmas ever. I Promise.
Saying together:
“What can I give him? poor as I am. If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man I would do my part, Yet what I can, I give him, give him my heart.” AMEN.
Post Scipt: During this service, Tony Breece gave his heart to the Lord. Here he is with me and Cindy.
No comments:
Post a Comment