Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
god the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
The passages from the gospel of Luke we read a few minutes
ago invite us to ask a few questions. We’ll find Christian answers for some of
them in the next few minutes, starting with a general question.
Since we can’t see God, can we know where he is? Scripture
tells us that God is everywhere – in the rocks, in the lakes and the forests,
in the crowds at the malls and the crowded Toronto streets. He is in our
neighbors and in people on the other side of the world we’ll never meet. We may
marvel at the beauty and order of creation, and God is there. We may also
conclude that God is present in our consciences. Everyone knows the difference
between right and wrong. Everyone has a guiding inner voice that he or she
ought to listen to because it is trustworthy.
God is present in all these things, yet we cannot really
take hold of him in any one of them. What is God’s nature? Is he on our side?
Does he have plans for our lives? To answer these questions, we have the
guidance of God’s revelation. God is present with us every day and he is
especially present in the Word he sent to us – his Holy Scriptures. That’s
where we take hold of him. His message never changes. The Bible is clear and
consistent; we can rely on it because it always tells us the truth.
The message we take hold of this afternoon by way of God’s
revelation to us is that he is very much on our side. He has a plan for our
lives. Her set his angels and the great host of heaven to a group of shepherds
outside Bethlehem to proclaim peace on earth and good will to all people.
That must have been a wonderful thing to see – greater than
a fireworks display or all the Christmas lights in Toronto. The God who is
hidden from our everyday sight broke into the world of nature with a tremendous
affirmation of his love and his good intentions for humanity.
It happened only once in the last
2000 years and we can’t expect another visible display of God’s power like that
until Christ returns in glory.
Now, here’s another question. We understand why God
celebrated the birth of his Son in a public way, but why did he choose
shepherds to receive the news rather than powerful and influential folk in
Jerusalem? The Heavenly Father knew that the shepherds would listen to him.
They were the sort of people to whom he could safely communicate the good news.
God often acts contrary to our expectations. We expect him
to deal with the highest and mightiest people. Instead, he reveals himself to
very ordinary folks. Shepherds followed a very old calling that had many
traditions. They worked close to the earth. They needed to find grass and water
and to protect their flocks from bad weather and wild animals. Even though the
shepherds Luke tells us about lived centuries ago they are the kind of working
people you and I can understand, loyal, devoted to their callings, trustworthy.
There are millions and millions of people like that in the world and there
always will be. Nations and societies rest on them, so to speak. They are the
guardians of values. God wants them to know that he speaks directly to them and
that they are included in his plan. God offers them an honored place in his
kingdom.
Then, too, in Old Testament times, God referred to himself
as the shepherd of his flock, and Jesus told his disciples that he himself is
the good shepherd. He is our shepherd who guides and cares for us and is
bringing us safely into eternity. It’s fitting, then, for our Heavenly Father
to announce the arrival of his Son in an unforgettable way to a group of
shepherds.
We want to know, as well, why the shepherds were afraid.
They weren’t accustomed to seeing great wonders It’s good for us that God is
hidden from our sight, for a passage in the Old Testament says that no human
can look upon God and live. The presence of God’s angels and the heavenly host
made the shepherds aware of their weakness and shortcomings. The angel quickly
reassured them, however. This is always the way. Because we can’t see him, the
Lord reassures us about his good intentions toward us and toward all people. He
calls us to live in faith and confidence, not in fear. His reassurance is no
farther away than Sunday worship and the promises we find in the Bible.
We ask also what was the purpose of the shepherds’ visit to
Christ and the holy family. Surely there was more involved than idle curiosity.
For one thing, the Heavenly Father wanted the shepherds to visit his son for
the sake of their own salvations. The angel called the infant Christ Savior and
Lord. God wanted the shepherds to receive the benefits Jesus came to bring. He
also wanted them to talk, to spread the word, to glorify and praise God. This
is part of the life of every Christian. We are talking people. We gossip about
God and the gospel. We pass along the good news. If the church as a whole is to
experience a revival, it will take place partly because Christians will share
the gospel with their neighbors in millions of private conversations.
Our culture celebrates Christmas every year, and every year
it is easy to overlook the true reason for the holiday. So we ask another
question. What prompted God to come to earth as an infant?
Somebody said many centuries ago that the human race is so
deeply corrupted by sin that only the power of God can save us from eternal
damnation. We can’t do a thing to help ourselves. At the same time, only
another human being can experience life as we do, with all its ups and downs.
There is no barrier between ourselves and another human the way there would be
between ourselves and a holy and perfectly righteous God. We can easily
approach a God who became fully man. What’s more, since God has made us
responsible beings, our sins must be paid for. It takes a human being to stand
in our place and pay the penalty.
So God set aside his power and majesty and took on our frail
human flesh. He became a servant for our sakes. He suffered humiliation and the
death of a criminal in our place and then rose again from the grave.
This is the most important reason that God came to earth as
a child. Other than that, we also say that God has nothing to do with evil, so
by taking on human life, he shows us that life is good It’s good to be an
infant, good to be a teenager, a grown-up and so on. Our world needs reminders
of God’s love for human life. One of the themes of the culture that surrounds
us seems to be disregard for life. Consider the millions who’ve died in wars in
the last hundred years, how much abortion there is, and the number of people
who are pushed to the sidelines to fend for themselves because they are
different from the majority or can’t keep up with the strong and the aggressive.
Jesus affirms that every life is worthwhile and meaningful.
The old, the sick, members of minority groups, the disabled, folks who are
challenged in one way or another. God loves them all.
Now, let’s look at Christ’s coming in a different way. There
are times when trouble marks our lives. We don’t get discouraged, for we know
that our Savior walked ahead of us along a bumpy road. His struggles were not
in vain. He passed from this life to a glorious new life in eternity that he promises
to share with us. God uses our troubles in his mysterious way to bring honor to
himself and good to us and to our neighbors. The endurance of Christians, our
faith in tough times, gives glory to our Savior. If he hadn’t come to the
earth, the bad side of life would overwhelm us and we would be lost in the
world. Christ is our light, the one who unfailingly guides us to safety.
We won’t stop here, though, for we have one final question.
Is there a connection between us and the shepherds to whom the angel and the
heavenly host appeared? We might not think so at first. The shepherds lived
2000 years ago. They had the special privilege of seeing the heavenly host
first hand and Jesus as he lay in the manger. We don’t expect such wonderful
events to happen to us, at least not on this side of the grave.
We may be
tempted to think that we’ve missed out on something necessary or at least
important.
It’s true that God is hidden. He doesn’t come to meet us
face to face. He asks us to live with him by faith. The shepherds also lived by
faith and not by sight. A week after the wonderful events in Bethlehem, as far
as the shepherds were concerned, they were only events in their memories that
they could talk about. They didn’t happen a second time. They had no
documentary evidence to back up their claims. They trusted, nevertheless, that
some of the people they spoke to would respond to the good news with joy and
faith, so they offered their witness, out of hearts full of faith, glorifying
and praising God.
The Lord brings the shepherds and ourselves together into
one eternal community of faith. No one who has experienced the life of faith
ever claims that it’s easy. God sends challenges to test and refine us. Some
moments will be rockier than others. We expect that.
At the same time, the Lord sends us powerful resources to
help us that the shepherds didn’t have. We have the Bible in full, which tells
us about the later life of our Lord and the work of his apostles. We have the
full story of what God has done for our salvation and also his church, a
well-established Christian community that nourishes our faith.
Faith is difficult but not impossible. God uses our worship
this afternoon to take us away from the
seasonal push and pull and gives us a chance to focus on what’s most important.
Jesus intends our hour together today to build up our faith in the God who is
hidden from our sight. An old prayer puts it this way: the Lord gives us a new
revelation of his glory in the mystery of the infant Christ, the word made
flesh. The writer of the prayer asks that we see God by faith in the person of
his Son so that we love things that are not seen –the God who made us and
redeems us in Christ plus his blessings to us such as the forgiveness of our
sins, his love for us, and our eternal home. We become skilled at trusting what
we can’t see.
This is a good place to stop. The Bible and the church
assure us that the God we can’t see loves us. He sent his Son to prove it. He makes
it possible to us to believe that his love for us won’t end today or tomorrow but
will last forever and has the power to carry us into eternity. So in Jesus Name
we rejoice. AMEN.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts
and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.
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