THE SONGS OF CHRISTMAS: The Song of the Angels
Luke 2: 8-20
1. Christmas is certainly the season for concerts and musicals! Here is just a very small sample of Christmas events taking place right now in the Seattle area:
• The customary Nutcracker ballet.
• A Christmas Carol at the ACT Theatre. A merry tale of human redemption. One old scrooge’s quest for a heart he forgot he had. Join the Cratchits and Fezziwigs as they help Ebenezer search out the true spirit of Christmas.
• Argosy Holiday Christmas Ship Festival: Join in this Northwest tradition of lights, sights and sounds! Enjoy some of the area’s best choirs as they serenade people gathered around shore side bonfires.
• Holiday Lights Cruise: It’s a Family Christmas Cruise on The Steamer Virginia V. Make this year the year you begin an annual holiday tradition aboard the SS Virginia V. Slow down the pace of the season and enjoy the sights and sounds of the lighted and musical ships on Lake Washington. Seating is “Ferry-style” for this casual, fun-filled family event. Pre-order a boxed dinner ($20 each) or bring your own fare.
• Bob Rivers Show Twisted Christmas Party at Moore Theatre. The Fourth Annual Twisted Christmas Show has something for everyone this year. Caroline Rhea is one of the best-known personalities on TV and onstage. Paul Mecurio is one of the best hot, edgy, explosive comics you will ever see.
• Voices of Christmas. Celebrates the holidays with a musical, multicultural, performance. Voices proclaims that no matter where we live or what our cultural background is, people everywhere take comfort and joy in the same things - music, food, family, community, and the desire for peace.
2. Apart from these hugely publicized and professional performances – some of which will lighten your wallet by a good few bucks, there are some more homey and perhaps less glitzy performances such as the one we had here in Morton last Saturday evening at Plaza Jalisco as we stood in the rain and cold to light the Christmas tree, to listen to the bands and choir, to sing carols, to hear again the wonderful Christmas story while our young children acted out the parts of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, and the wise men, and to light our candles as signs of our commitment to carry the Good News of Christ into our community.
• Those who braved the weather were just ordinary folks – young and older people, some who came and left in their cars and others who walked, some who went away with a deepened awareness of God’s love and some who simply returned to life as usual.
3. The first Christmas concert also took place outdoors – at night, in a field on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and attended by just a bunch of nameless shepherds.
• While there had been no specific advance billing for this concert, providing information on exact date, time and location – there had been some preparatory hints 600-700 years earlier by the likes of the prophets Isaiah who had referred to a “virgin who shall conceive and bring forth a son who would be named Immanuel – meaning ‘God with us’” – and the prophet Micah who had specified that the origin of this one to be born would be “from ancient days”, that he would be “ruler in Israel” and that he would be born not in the Bethlehem in the land of Zebulon (up near the Sea of Galilee) but in “Bethlehem Ephratha” in the land of Judah, approximately 6 miles outside of Jerusalem.
• But what took place that night on the hills of Bethlehem was a surprise of galactic proportions – it was both a surprising Audience and a surprise to them, it was a surprising Message, and it received a Rave Review.
4. It’s a story we have heard over and over and over again every Christmas throughout the years. The moment we hear the opening words, “In that region there were shepherds in the field…” we know exactly what is coming next. Maybe we feel that there is nothing much more that can surprise us.
• Yes, it is a cute story
• Yes, it’s accompanied by a good dose of nostalgia as we long for a simpler, less complicated, and less stressful and troubled time
• But little chance that we are going to hear anything new – anything to surprise and amaze us, unless…
• Unless we hear this story not about nameless shepherds way back there and then, but as our own story – as God’s unique and specific word addressed personally to you and me right here and now.
5. So let’s ask the Holy Spirit to so apply this word to our hearts, to our own personal, present day circumstances, that we hear it again as if it was for the very first time.
A. THE AUDIENCE
1. The audience at that first Christmas concert was certainly not the one many of us would have expected.
• Shepherds didn’t quite make it into the “Who’s Who” list of the rich and famous
• More likely on the list of “the untrustworthy and unreliable”
• They had earned a reputation for having “sticky fingers” and their testimony was never accepted in the law courts of the day.
2. This audience also didn’t just happen to be at the right place at the right time – this wasn’t just a stroke of extraordinary good luck that they happened to be in the location where the angels appeared! Instead, they were the very ones heaven had purposely and deliberately chosen to be the first recipients of the Good News!
3. How different is our customary human approach. If we had been in charge of heaven’s PR we might have figured that to get this incredibly important word out to as many people as possible, it would be best for the angels to appear above the roof of the Temple in Jerusalem at the noon hour of prayer when as many of the religious and others could be eyewitnesses – not in the middle of the night and out in the sticks when most regular folks were fast asleep.
• We might have determined that it was vital that respected, credible and reliable witnesses be the first to see and hear – those whose account of the event would readily be believed – not those whose word you would hardly take even with a huge pinch of salt!
• Who knows, these might have been just a unique and different group of shepherds – a cut above all the rest – not the regular rag-tag bunch - just good, clean living, humble folk, trying to make an honest living as best they knew how or were able.
• Maybe we find it odd that heaven would put on such a massive display of its resources for such a small handful of nobodies. I have known preachers to turn down opportunities to preach in or minister to small rural congregations – believing that their training and talents would be more productive in larger city congregations.
• On the flip side of the coin, I have had members of small, rural congregations somehow feel unworthy or undeserving that they should get a pastor who has come from another country and has served much larger city churches
4. The message I believe this story conveys most powerfully is that heaven chooses to sing for all people – irrespective of who you are, what you have or have not achieved or accomplished with your life or might ever become, irrespective of your station or status in life – you were created in the image and likeness of Almighty God as an original masterpiece and you have the signature of the Creator inscribed at the core of your being and that is what gives you worth and value.
5. And if you would just take the time to still all the other voices and noises that fill your ears – the telephone, the TV, the radio, other people, and your own voice and listen not just with the ears on the side of your head, but the ears of your heart – you too will hear the mighty chorus of heaven proclaiming for you the glory and love of God.
6. These few verses in Luke chapter 2 are the only record we have of these unknown shepherds. This is their one and only moment on the stage of history. We have no idea what change or transformation this experience brought about in their lives – or whether they later just went back to life as usual, until this glorious event in their lives became nothing more than a faded memory.
7. That’s just the nature of God and His dealings among us. He is known to give such unexpected, surprise visitations of His glory – some see, hear, and respond and are amazingly blessed – while others remain blind, deaf and oblivious to what happened – and miss the joy.
B. THE MESSAGE
1. “Glory to God in the heavenly heights and Peace to all people on earth who please him.” What an incredible and relevant message!
• That’s exactly what we need right now in this angry, brutal, and strife-torn world of ours. We need peace! Peace within our families, peace between neighbors in our communities, peace between Republicans and Democrats, peace between “left-wingers” and “right-wingers”, peace in Iraq and Afghanistan…and peace within ourselves as we often feel that our own lives have become a battleground of competing forces, loyalties, and commitments.
• The song “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me” is a favorite of many.
• Peace marches, peace campaigns, peace programs, Peace Corps, Greenpeace, Nobel Peace Prizes – there’s more than enough options out there for everyone to get involved.
2. But we forget that before the angels mentioned the words “Peace on earth” they started out by saying “Glory to God in the heights of heaven” – they exalted God first and foremost. And that’s always the vital, the essential key to “peace on earth”. You cannot have peace without first seeking the Glory of God!
• Is it any wonder that almost all our human efforts at peace have at best been temporary truces – a time to regroup and restock the ammunition before the fighting resumes?
• An attempt to ignore or paper over radical differences that remain unresolved because each side is more concerned with what’s in it for them – what will they get out of the deal.
3. Jesus said in Matthew 6: 33 “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these other good things that you seek and desire will be added to you.” There is a right order and there is a wrong order. And when we seek peace first without seeking the Glory of God – bringing our lives into alignment with His will and purpose, surrendering our wills to His – that is the wrong order and we will never know the blessedness of the peace that He gives as His gift to those who seek Him and please Him first.
• When two or more sides in a conflict are ready to bow their knees before the Almighty in humble submission and adoration of Him, a miraculous change takes place inside the human heart and perspective that allows us to begin seeing and hearing one another with new eyes and ears.
C. THE RESPONSE
1. The concert is over. The dazzling angels have returned to heaven and the night returns to its customary darkness and sounds.
• What happens now? What are we supposed to do with what we have seen and heard?
• I have been at some concerts and performances where the audience was on its feet as the final curtain came down – applauding and cheering and whistling for an encore. MORE!!! MORE!!! Until the artists came back on stage and performed a few more numbers till everyone finally left in happy and cheerful spirits with a warm and comfortable glow inside.
• I remember the almost deathly silence, the quiet sobs and unabashed tears as the packed movie theater in Issaquah sat motionless for what seemed like hours following the movie, “The Passion of Christ” earlier this year. What happens now? What are we supposed to do with what we have seen and heard?
• Do we just allow ourselves some time to get past the emotions so we can go back to life as usual? What are we supposed to do? What is the appropriate response to this kind of concert?
2. After a brief discussion, the awestruck shepherds made the decision to go with haste and see for themselves what the angels had just told them. They ran to the manger to behold their King.
• Can you picture them? Running – perhaps stumbling in the dark – across rocks, loose gravel, shrubs and bushes – looking for a baby in an animal’s feeding trough.
3. As the angels’ concert ends for you and for me. As the glow of heaven gives way again to whatever dark or gray place in which you may find yourself, before life has a chance to just go back to its regular routine. And as the question crosses your mind, “What happens now?” Let me suggest that the response of the shepherds is always appropriate – Run to Jesus!
AMEN
