Perhaps some of you have seen that wonderful play, The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. In the play, the appropriately named Herdman family, full of rowdy children, hi-jack a children’s Christmas pageant, taking all the choice roles by intimidation and force. Needless to say, those Herdman kids want the titles more than anything, and on the night of the performance, the pageant quickly degenerates into chaos. As parents, siblings, and grandparents sit uncomfortably in the audience watching the play unravel, they along with the director, undoubtedly start to wonder if anything good can come from such a mess. Just then, then youngest Herdman, who plays the angel announcing the Messiah’s birth to the shepherds, yells out over the din, “Hey! Unto you a child is born!” It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t exactly right, but still it was “good news.”
Tonight, we celebrate “Good News”; the good news of Christ’s birth, which was shared first with some shepherds in a field not too far from Bethlehem. As we consider the good news of Christ’s birth this evening, I want us to do so through the lens of the angel’s announcement, and the shepherds who heard it. Because here’s the thing, good news is only good news if we receive it as good news.
A few years ago, the late night host Jimmy Kimmel challenged his viewers to give their children a terrible Christmas gift and then record them opening the gift. I want to share with you this evening just a little bit of the video that resulted from that challenge. Let’s watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4a9CKgLprQ Run: 0:39-1:42
You know, “good news” is kind of relative, isn’t it? I bet those little kids were beyond excited when their parents told them they could open up a Christmas gift early. To them, no doubt, that was exceptionally good news; however, once they got the gifts opened, they weren’t so excited. Suddenly, what seemed like good news wasn’t all that great anymore. But did you catch that clip where the kid got the hot dog? He wasn’t all that enthusiastic about it, but the dog sure was! That hot dog was good news for at least one of the little ones in that house!
It may not always be perfect, and it certainly may not come in the ways we expect. But thankfully, the great good news of Jesus’ birth can still cut through the disappointments of our daily lives, the noise of our distracted culture, and even our own restless souls. And what I want us to see and to understand here is that each of us approaches the manger tonight from a different perspective. We come here from different life circumstances, dealing with different difficulties, celebrating different joys, longing for God’s presence in different ways. But still, there is good news for each of us if only we will listen and understand.
As we have prepared for this Christmas Eve, we have taken time each Sunday to hear the songs of praise that people sang so long ago when they first heard the news of the Messiah’s coming birth. Mary sang about how through her son, God would exalt the lowly. Zechariah celebrated the light of God in Christ that would shine and finally dispel the darkness of the world. And tonight, we hear the song of the angels, the great heavenly host. This “first carol of Christmas” is significant for two reasons, because of who the angels first shared the news with, and because of what they said about the child who had been born that night.
The story of that first Christmas night marks the fourth appearance of an angel in the Christmas story. The first three appearances were all announcements relating to Jesus’ coming birth, or that of his cousin, John the Baptist. This fourth appearance is also an announcement, but now the news is that Christ has been born! “Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord.” That’s quite a declaration, isn’t it? It sounds to me like the sort of herald that would go out across an empire upon the arrival of the next heir to the throne. But here’s the thing, when the angel went out to share the news of Christ’s birth, he didn’t go across the empire with a formal herald. He didn’t even go just down the road to the big city of Jerusalem. The angel went out in the fields to a bunch of lowly shepherds, and I do mean lowly. In ancient Israel, shepherds were considered among the lowest in society—they were viewed as dingy and rowdy ruffians. And yet they are the ones to receive the first announcement of the arrival of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The angel says, “I bring good news to YOU—wonderful, joyous news for ALL people.”
Have you ever felt like a shepherd? Maybe you’ve never been a lowly, dingy, rowdy ruffian, but at times we’ve all felt a little “down on our luck,” haven’t we? There are things that happen in our lives that make it feel as if the world is trampling us down. And it’s in those times that we need “good news” the most, isn’t it? So hear this, my friends. The good news of Christmas is good news for YOU. Christ the Savior is born for you, this day. He is born into your brokenness to bring wholeness. He is born into your sadness to bring joy. He is born into your darkness to bring light. Jesus doesn’t favor the mighty, or a select few, or even a single empire. The Messiah comes for ALL people, bringing salvation to the whole world! The good news for the shepherds is good news for each of us too!
But it gets even better! The news the angel shared with the shepherds was so great that after the angel had made the announcement, he was joined by many more angels; a whole multitude of heavenly hosts. It was almost as if they couldn’t contain their excitement as they broke out into song, “Gloria in excelsis deo!” “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” The angels’ song is celebrating the peace of God that Christ brings into the world. Peace. It’s what we all want the most, isn’t it? Peace from all the chaotic noise, peace from the pressure of work, peace from the worries about our ailing family members, peace from the persistent bad news in our community and around the globe. And all we can do is pray for peace, just as people were praying for peace 2,000 years ago. But hear is the good news now. The angels tell us that peace is here, now. Christ is born, Christmas has come, and with it the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Even as we wait for that day when God’s peaceful kingdom will be established once and for all here on earth, we can know the peace of God that Christ makes possible. You see, this peace that the angels so enthusiastically announce in their song refers to something that was once broken but has been brought together again. Peace is the making whole of that which has been broken. While our hearts and lives are fractured in all the ways that the world can break us down, Christ has made us whole again through his peace. And what Christ has done and can do for each of us, Christ will do for the whole world. This is the good news, both the promise and the hope of Christmas.
A couple of years ago, our nation approached Christmas with heavy hearts following the Sandy Hook shootings. We felt collectively in that time the pain that so often strikes us individually. It seemed in those final weeks leading up to Christmas Day 2012 there was only bad news. But then, an interview emerged that told a different side of the story; some good news in the midst of all the sadness. One of the first grade teachers at Sandy Hook recalled the horrible ordeal of December 14. She and her class heard the disruption when Adam Lanza entered the school and started shooting. She quickly herded the 15 or so children in her class into a tiny bathroom. As they waited there, they could hear gunshots echoing down the hallway outside. The children were frightened and they kept crying out, and she was continually trying to calm them and keep them quiet. The teacher said she was sure they were going to die there. As that thought passed through her head, the teacher recalled that another one came right after it, and she said to herself, “I don’t want the last thing these children hear to be the sound of violence.” So as she continued to try and keep the children quiet, she said, “Listen to me. This if very important, I want you to get this. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Isn’t that the good news these angels are singing about to a bunch of bedraggled shepherds in a remote field? In the midst of all the sadness, the disappointment, the darkness, the violence, and the pain of this world, Christmas is God’s resounding declaration. “I want you to get this. I need you to get this. I love you. I love you.”
Hear this good news: God is here. Christ is born in our midst. It doesn’t matter your lot in life. It doesn’t matter what you are facing. It doesn’t matter what is causing you doubt, or fear, or pain. Christ is here for you. And the good news for you and for me this Christmas and every day is that he brings just what we need and want the most; salvation, peace, and the very love of God.
“Look…wonderful joyous news for you and all people. Your savior is born today…He is Christ the Lord…Glory to God in the highest!”
