They say that familiarity breed contempt. But what familiarity also breeds is comfortableness, as people are attracted to things that are familiar, and when things are familiar to us, and comfortable for us, we also tend to think we know them really well, so much so that we might stop paying attention to the details in the story. I think the same is true for the Christmas story. Most of us have probably heard that passage from Luke about the birth of Jesus for what seems like hundreds of times. I mean even if we only heard it every year in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, as it’s what Linus quotes from when he wants everyone to know the meaning of Christmas, we could have heard it at least 56 times since it’s debut in 1965. And when we stop paying attention because we know it, we can overlook things or even add things to it because it just has to be there, because we know it’s there. So, for example, we talk about Mary riding into Bethlehem on a donkey, but there are no donkey’s in the story, and definitely not Dominic the donkey. We have other barnyard animals in our nativity set. No mention of them in the story. We have three wise men arriving, and some of you may remember their names as Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar, but not only are they not named, but we don’t even know how many there were. We say three because there were three gifts, but let’s be honest that men are not always the best at getting social etiquette correct, and so it’s entirely possible that some of them went in together on gifts, or maybe even had the temerity to show up without a gift at all. And then there are the parts of the story we just want to skip over all together.
For the season of Advent, which are the four weeks leading
up to Christmas, we have been talking about the angels announcements about the
coming birth not just of Jesus, but also of John the Baptist. But there is a
consistent and constant refrain and that is the angels saying “Do not be
afraid.” And perhaps those that the angels greet have every reason to be
afraid. First of all, its not every day that an angel appears to you, and so
perhaps they are afraid simply because its so unusual, so outside of what they
expect that maybe fear is the right response, or at the very least complete and
total surprise. But the other factor that plays into these interactions is
their expectation of, experience with, and understanding of God. and fear
definitely plays a role in that. In fact, the very first interaction we are
given between God and Adam that we are told about is about this very issue.
Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and
that familiarity thing definitely impacts the normal interpretation of that
story, which has little to do with what it actually says, but God comes looking
for them and when God cannot find them, God calls out “where are you?” and Adam
responds “I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid,” and as they
say, the story goes downhill from there. Now there is a perception, not some much
from familiarity, but more from unfamiliarity, that the God of the Old
Testament is an angry, vengeful God and people have every right to be afraid of
God, whereas the God of the New Testament is a God of love and forgiveness and
so fear goes away. That’s not actual accurate, but we do clearly get a
different perspective, or perhaps understanding is a better word, of God’s
desire for relationship with humanity and how we are to relate to God, and it
begins with those angelic messages.
So imagine you’re a shepherd, and you’re out in the fields
minding your own business, tending your flocks at night, when the predators are
most active, and it’s dark when suddenly that darkness is shattered with a
bright light and an angel of the Lord appears to you. You too are probably
going to be frightened, regardless of what you think about God, and you may
even think to yourself, and perhaps even say out loud “I’ve got a bad feeling
about this.” Nothing good is going to come of this, you probably think. And
those shepherds who hear the first pronouncement of the birth of Christ had to
have been thinking and saying exactly the same thing. There is absolutely
nothing in their background or in their knowledge that would make this a
positive sign. In fact, everything is playing against the angel at this point,
and it begins with the fact that this is happening at night.
In scripture, goodness is represented by light and evil is
represented by the darkness. Whenever you hear someone described in as coming
at night, that’s a problem. In the gospel of John, Nicodemus comes to Jesus as
night and so our senses should be on high alert, although he will change later
and help prepare Jesus for burial. And think of Jesus’ arrest at night. And so
really this announcement to the shepherds happening at night should fill us
with a sense of foreboding, and make us wonder whether anything good could
possibly come out of this. But, this story, just like the rest of the story
about Jesus turns the world and its expectations upside down. Instead of
bringing bad news or being something scary and troublesome, instead the angels
first tell the shepherds “do not be afraid.” And the reason they are not to be
afraid is because the angels have news. But not just any news. It’s good news;
and it’s news of great joy; and it’s news that’s for all the people. So, not
only should the shepherds not be afraid, but in fact, they should be filled
with joy.
Each Sunday of Advent we light a candle, and three of those
candles are purple and one is pink. The one that’s pink if the candle
representing joy, and as such it stands out as being different from the others,
and one of the names for this candle is the shepherd’s candle. Advent is a time
of preparation, and like the season of Lent, which leads up to Easter, it has
some penitential aspects to it, although we have largely lost these, but as
such the pink of joy helps us to remember that we can have, and need to have
joy at all times in our lives. And so when we lit that candle two weeks ago, we
said that having joy is a choice we can make because we have Christ, the good
news, and that should always be joyous for us. and so that, I think, is the
part of this story that we so often miss. Because it’s not just that the angels
tell the shepherds not to be afraid, as they tell that to everyone else, but
that they are also to be joyful. And so what we should hear then in this final
pronouncement in Luke about Jesus’ birth is that fear is not the appropriate
response to the coming of Christ, the incarnation, God made flesh. Instead the
appropriate response is joy. The first words out of Adam’s mouth were “I was
afraid,” but the first words about Jesus birth are “do not be afraid for I
bring you good news of great joy”
Now as I said when we talked about not living in fear as
part of our Advent series, there is nothing necessarily wrong with fear. And so
while Roosevelt said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, he should
have also said we should fear spiders, and perhaps snakes, and maybe lions and
tigers and bears. Because being afraid of those things helped our ancestors
survive to bring us here today. And if scientists who study the brain are
correct, fear is an involuntary reflex and because it’s a primal feeling, it’s
much easier to trigger than other emotions like love. That’s why fear is used
so often to try and motive us to do things, and why we respond so strongly when
it gets triggered, even if it’s not all that rational. It’s why we all stocked
up on toilet paper when Covid hit, because what were we going to do if we ran
out of toilet paper? We knew rationally that we didn’t need 2000 rolls stocked
up, but our fear of not having it available made us a little crazy and so we
had to get it. I remember being in the store the day after it was announced
that school was closing, which was a mad house, but one guys cart was filled
with mountain dew and corn dogs. Now that’s someone who probably should have
been stocking up on toilet paper, but apparently that’s how he was going to
make it through. But, just because fear is primal and is such a strong
motivator, does not mean that it has to be our prime motivator. We can choose
to act and live differently. It’s a choice we get make. It’s a choice we can
make. And the shepherds show us that choice.
So there they are, the shepherds are out abiding in the
fields when suddenly their world is shattered by a bright light and the
appearance of an angel who fills the sky with the glory of the Lord, and then
an entire multitude of the heavenly hosts join in singing praises to God, and
the angel says to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good
news of great joy that shall be for all the people, to you is born this day in
the city of David a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Now the part of this
story that’s easy to overlook, because we take it for granted, is that not only
do the shepherds hear the angel’s announcement, but they decide to do something
about it. They act on the message. They don’t tell the angel that they’d like
to go and see the babe lying in a manger, but first they have to find someone
to watch their flocks by night. Instead they immediately decide to go and see
what has been told to them, to seek out the promised one. And notice that the
angel doesn’t actually tell them to go to Bethlehem, the angel simply tells
them that they will find the child there. They decide to go and see this thing
that has taken place. They leave the only safety and security they have in
their lives, their flocks, and they go to Bethlehem. And when they get there,
they tell everyone what they have seen and heard. Did anyone else believe them?
Mary did. But it doesn’t matter what others think, they continue to spread the
good news.
I’ve always wondered if the shepherds were around when Jesus
began his ministry some 30 years later. Were some of them among his followers?
Because what the shepherds show us, and they are among the first, is the
example of discipleship and what it means to hear God’s call and to get up and
follow. Notice that none of the inn keepers, or store owners, or anyone else
from Bethlehem is recorded as being there, only the shepherds. How many others
received word of the birth of Christ that night? To how many others did the
angel appear? As I when we heard Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel when she
is told that she will carry Jesus, there is a legend that Mary was not the
first one to be asked to do this task, but she was simply the first one to be
willing to say yes. To make the choice to be a servant of God.
If the news that the angels are declaring is truly good news
that shall be for all people, surely they could not have just made the
announcement only to the shepherds right? I have to imagine that they were
flying all over the place that night, shattering all kinds of darkness, telling
all sorts of people not to be afraid and to by joyful for the good news of the
birth of a savior, the Messiah the Lord. But those others don’t go. Only the
shepherds leave their flocks and make their way to the manger. The others are
too caught up in their own issues, their own lives, their own situations to
look up for even a moment to see the joyful event that has taken place and
therefore they miss the experience that will change the world forever. And what
about us. The angel’s announcement says “I am bringing you good news of great
joy for all the people, for to you is born this day in the city of David a
savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” The angel doesn’t say yesterday, or 2000
years ago, the verb is present tense. This day. To you and me is born this day,
today. Christmas is still happening.
And like the others, we have all sorts of reasons why we
can’t go. They said, I’d like to go, but…. I’d like to see the baby, but… I’d
like to follow the angels, but… sure I saw the star, but… sure I’d like to know
this joy, but… We have all big butts that keep us from following, that keep us
from seeing the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, that keep us from knowing
the good news of great joy. The theologian and world-renowned author Henri
Nouwen said that the greatest challenge of faith is not about belief in God, in
Jesus, the Bible, miracles or any of the other thousands of things we debate
and argue about. Instead, he said, the greatest challenge of faith is to be
surprised by joy, which also was the title of CS Lewis’ autobiography. The
greatest challenge of faith is to be surprised by joy, because joy is something
that we can experience and know regardless of what is going on in our lives. No
matter what we are feeling or doing, we can still be surprised by joy. And that
is what this night is about. The angels tell everyone they encounter do not be
afraid. Why? Because they have good news of great joy.
All those buts that we use to keep us from answering the call also keep us from being surprised by joy, keep us from experiencing joy, keep us from knowing the good news of great joy that is for all people. And we cannot live vicariously through the joys that others have experienced in the past. Instead, we should see ourselves as those shepherds keeping watch of their flocks by night, on this night, and to hear the angels announcement for us. For to us a child is born on this night, and, if we choose to get off our butts, big or otherwise, to set aside our fears and to open ourselves up to the hope and peace and joy and love available and given to us through the gift of Christ, then we too can be recipients of this message. We too can be surprised by joy. That is the call to us in the Christmas story, to hear the message given to us, to accept it in our hearts, to drop what we are doing and go to Bethlehem in order to see the sign that has been given, for there we shall see a child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And then being surprised and filled with that joy, we tell everyone we know glorifying and praising God as we sing with the heavenly chorus “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace.” I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment