Luke 2:1-20
“Outside”
It’s cold outside tonight.
And although we are comfortable with our heat and so forth, many of our fellow human beings are out in the cold, shivering, lonely, hungry, and afraid.
I can’t imagine what that would be like, to be so far out on the margins of society that I am out in the bitter cold on Christmas Eve with no one to celebrate with, no presents, no holiday food, no lighted tree, no nothing.
How would you feel if you had to sleep in a tent tonight?
Or under a bridge?
Would you feel forgotten, unloved, less than human?
Would you be able to celebrate anything and be glad?
Homelessness is a big problem in our country and our city.
Do you know that Tennessee is the first state in the country to make it against the law to pitch a tent on public land outside of a designated campsite?
Hamilton County has over 1,000 homeless people.
This year we saw a 153% increase in homelessness in our region due to many factors, including skyrocketing rent.
I wonder if there are people in this situation who feel God has forgotten them or given up on them.
I don’t mean to be a downer on Christmas Eve, but I think God wants us to look out for and think about our fellow humans who aren’t doing as well as we are on this night.
When Jesus was born into this world, His parents were homeless refugees who had no place better to put Him than a manger, a feeding trough for animals.
And the first people to be told the Good News of Christ’s birth were “shepherds living out in the fields nearby.”
You know what that means, right?
The first people to celebrate and witness to Jesus’ birth were homeless.
And that’s because Shepherds were homeless.
They traveled outside with their sheep.
They were lowest on the socioeconomic ladder, typically uneducated, and since they lived among the animals in the elements, they smelled like dirty sheep.
Shepherds were barely tolerated by so-called regular folk.
So, when Luke tells us that shepherds were the first to hear about and see the Christ child, first-century listeners would not have found this endearing but shocking!
I’ve been told that this is still how shepherds are thought of by many people today.
Perhaps this is the very reason that God had an affinity for shepherds.
God, like Garth Brooks, seems to enjoy “friends in low places.”
I’ve also been told that shepherds tend to be humble.
Some of you who have heard me preach several times or for years may think I sound like a broken record—I mention the humble so often.
But this isn’t my theme; it seems to be God’s theme.
And it plays out over and over again in the Christmas story--from the choice of Mary of Nazareth to the choice of a simple carpenter in Bethlehem to the song Mary sang about the way God fills the hungry with good things to the birth in a stable to the choice of homeless shepherds as the first people invited to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
James has this same idea in mind when, quoting Proverbs 3:34, he writes, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
And the response from us that this idea is supposed to produce is found in James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
The Apostle Paul has similar words in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.”
Gary Marsh, one of the founders of an organization that delivers medical supplies and more to impoverished countries and disaster areas, claims to have learned about humility when he visited Mother Teresa’s mission in Calcutta, India.
He and his team arrived to deliver medicine and to care for patients at the Home for the Dying and Destitute.
Gary, stethoscope around his neck, introduced himself to Sister Priscilla as a physician from the United States who was ready to help the sisters.
She said, “Follow me, please,” and started to lead him through the wards of dying people to the kitchen, where there was a large pile of rotting garbage.
She told him, “We need you to take this garbage to the dump.
The dump is several blocks down the street.”
In an instant, the doctor became the garbage man.
As he made trip after trip to the dump, he started to feel sorry for himself, resenting the fact that he had come all this way to Calcutta, delivered millions of dollars in medicine, was a respected physician with a stethoscope in his back pocket to prove it, and yet was hauling garbage.
After doing this for several hours, he noticed a small sign with Mother Teresa’s famous words: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”
Then, he understood why he had been put on garbage duty.
It was God’s way of teaching him humility, servanthood, and love.
The offering we took up this evening goes to purchase food for the Red Bank Community Food Pantry.
The food pantry feeds some of the most vulnerable people in our community, along with hundreds of homeless persons living in tents in various places around our county.
That’s right, a couple hundred bags of food are packed each month and taken to the homeless by folks working for the Homeless Health Care Center.
And hundreds of people are given a carload of groceries right here twice a month by volunteers from our community.
It is a humbling and rewarding ministry to be involved in.
And, it may feel as if we are throwing a tiny pebble that makes the faintest ripple in a never-ending sea…
…but “It is a small thing done with great love.”
And God is in charge of it.
(pause)
I find it interesting that even though—or perhaps precisely because shepherds were considered among the lowest-ranking members of society, God referred to Himself as a shepherd and His people as His sheep.
And when God chose a people for Himself, God chose sheepherders.
For example, when God chose young David to be the great king of Israel, God chose a shepherd boy.
And when God promised one day to send a new king, like David, God described that coming king as a shepherd who would search for the lost sheep.
When the child born in the stable became a man, He would describe Himself as “the good shepherd” who lays down His life for His sheep.
(pause)
The story of Jesus is marked by humility.
And the most humble act in all of history is at the center of it all--God becoming a flesh and blood human being, Who makes friends with the lowest of the low and allows Himself to die the death of the hated and cast out in order that the stain of sin be reversed and we be welcomed back into God’s Kingdom.
Let’s think for a moment.
If God chose to be born in a stable, surrounded by animals, when He could have been born in a castle surrounded by servants instead, and if God chose homeless shepherds to be the first to celebrate His birth, what might God be telling you and me about the attitude of heart God is looking for from us?
How might we go from this place transformed by the love of Christ for other people?
For God so loved the world that He was born into this world.
And those who believe this and allow the child born in Bethlehem, crucified on Calvary and Resurrected into eternity to be King of their hearts, minds, souls, strength and very lives are never the same again.
Let us pray:
Lord, thank You that You humble the proud and give grace to the humble.
Help us to humble ourselves before You this Christmas.
We thank You for coming into our world.
We thank you for loving us so much.
We thank You the life You lived, the death You died and the new life You offer to all Who will believe.
Lord we believe.
We ask to be born anew.
We pray that You will fill our hearts and minds and souls with love for You and all people through the power of Your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray.
Amen.
