“Good Tidings of Great Joy!”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. For many families it’s a tradition to see a movie together at
Christmastime. You may remember a popular movie a few Christmases back
called “Enchanted,” a charming Disney film about fairy tale characters who come
to life in the real world. Is that all the Christmas story the children
read a few moments ago from the Gospel of Luke actually is? Just a myth, a
made-up fairy tale? Was Luke the Walt Disney of his day, spinning for us a
charming, but fanciful, story? Or, did it all really happen, just as Luke
records? We’ve heard this old, familiar story so many times, we may not realize
that one of the most powerful indicators of the authenticity of these events is
that Luke records the angels first appearing to “shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.” In the ancient world, shepherds
were as far down as you could get on the social scale: dirty, smelly, outcasts
from society. Among Hebrews, they were also looked down on as
notorious sinners, because they could rarely attend synagogue or the ceremonies
at the temple. So, if you WERE writing a Disney fairy tale version of the Messiah’s
birth, the LAST group that you would cast in the role of the first recipients of
this Good News would be “shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night.” In the entertainment industry, they have a phrase
called “jump the shark,” which comes from an episode of “Happy Days” when Fonzie
supposedly jumped over a shark on water skies. A show is said to
“jump the shark” when the story line becomes so far-fetched that it’s just
totally implausible. The Christmas story is the second of the 24 chapters in Luke’s Gospel,
but for many readers in the ancient world Luke has already “jumped the shark”
when he reports angels announcing the Messiah’s birth to “shepherds abiding in
the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” We today take it for
granted that, “The first noel the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in
fields as they lay.” But, for many in the ancient world reading this story for
the first time, that was a real shocker, totally unrealistic and unbelievable to
them. “Shepherds? You’re telling me that God had the angels
first appear to announce this Good News to a bunch of shepherds? Come on,
Luke, no one’s going to believe that!” Just six miles away from the shepherds that night was the great city of
Jerusalem, with its magnificent temple and royal palace, and lots of priests,
and scribes, and, well, what seem to be “holy” people, the “right kind” of
people, worthy of the Messiah, the kind of people who SHOULD be the first to
hear the Good News of his birth. If Luke WERE making up a Disney fairy
tale version of the Christmas story, THAT’S where the angel choir would appear,
singing not to shepherds abiding in the field near the little town of Bethlehem,
but to a beautiful Disney princess, dancing on the balcony of a palace at
Jerusalem. But, this is a reality show, not a Disney fairy tale. These
events all really transpired, and Luke records the angels appearing to the lowly
shepherds because THAT’S how it really happened. It’s not Walt Disney, but
GOD who’s directing this reality show, and it was for a deeply symbolic reason
that God chose to first announce the Good News to “shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” Jesus puts it this way:
“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” The shepherds symbolize all of us, and our unworthiness. As the
book of Romans says, “There is no one righteous, not even one . . . for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If God was like Santa
Claus, “making a list, checking it twice, going to find out who’s naughty and
nice,” he would never have sent his Son as the first Christmas gift. For,
none of us is holy, or worthy, or deserving. But, that’s what Christmas is
all about. He came to MAKE you holy, and worthy, and deserving of eternal
life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God
did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him.” “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David
a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. . . Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men.” “Peace . . . goodwill.” That is how God feels in his heart toward
the world, that is how God feels in his heart toward you. As the Apostle
Paul explains in 2nd Corinthians: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself, not counting men’s sins against them.” Jesus of Nazareth began his earthly odyssey of some 33 years in that
stable at Bethlehem, and he did it all for you. For, he is the very Son of
God, come down to earth and made man, who by his life, death, and resurrection
from the dead made up for your sin and reconciled you to God, so that YOUR sins
are not counted against you. As Paul says in Colossians: “For in Christ
all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. . . For God was
pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to
himself all things . . . by making peace through his blood, shed on the
cross.” In Dickens’ story “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge’s nephew says Christmas
is “a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.” Many
people think that’s the meaning of those words, “peace on earth, goodwill toward
men.” For a few weeks each year at Christmastime, men show to one another
peace and goodwill. But, the angels’ announcement of “peace on earth, goodwill toward men”
is not about men’s temporary attitude toward one another because of a holiday,
but God’s permanent attitude toward all of humanity, because of his Son.
“Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Christmas means that YOU are at
peace with God. God is NOT angry with YOU! That’s what it’s all about: the lights, the trees, the decorations, the
gifts, the Christmas carols, and nativity scenes. We’re celebrating not a
fairy tale, but the wonderful reality of the Good News announced by the angels
on the first Christmas Eve. The Good News that you are at peace with God,
on account of his Son, born into our world as the Babe of Bethlehem. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. . . Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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