Luke 2:1-20
(NRSV)
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all
the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was
taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns
to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to
Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the
house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he
was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time
came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son
and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was
no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields,
keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood
before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were
terrified.But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing
you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a
sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a
manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on
earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and
gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So
they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the
manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about
this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told
them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and
seen, as it had been told them.
(This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.)
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Do not be afraid, she said.
I am bringing you good news of great joy, she said.
Riiiight. As if anything good ever happened in the field in
the middle of the night. The shepherds were just doing their jobs, of course,
trying to keep their sheep safe from wolves, and thieves, and the other things
that lurk in the night, and suddenly, an angel appeared to them, shining like
the sun in the middle of the night, telling them not to be afraid. I don’t care
who you are, that’s funny right there. As if you could encounter an angel in
the middle of the field and just be ok with it. As if nothing was out of the
ordinary.
And then, of course, in the interest of helping the
shepherds continue in their do-not-be-afraidness, just as soon as the angel has
told them not to fear, a whole multitude of heavenly hosts appear in the field,
singing and shining and if I’m a shepherd, I’m thinking to myself I probably
ought to lay off late-night sips of whatever booze I’m drinking to help keep
warm.
As if you can experience this sort of thing and not be
afraid. As if you can come that close to being in the presence of God and not
be completely and forever changed.
I don’t know about you, but while I have never had an angel
appear to me while keeping watch over my flocks by night, I’ve experienced God.
I’ve experienced God in kind words from others, in gifts that are beyond
generous, in beautiful scenery, in a smile from my daughter, in an embrace from
my spouse. I’ve seen people who have no real reason except for sheer trust in
God sell just about everything they have and give the money to the poor. I’ve
seen the church reach out to those who felt like they were excluded. I’ve seen
the church reach out and embrace me. I may not have encountered a multitude of
heavenly hosts, praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest, but I’ve
seen God at work. It is a mystical thing, that kind of presence. It can leave
you speechless, just devoid of any words that can do justice to the magnitude
of the moment.
And so the shepherds faced the angel and said to themselves,
“Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken
place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
And they went and found Mary and Joseph and the Lord himself
lying in a manger, and they told everybody within earshot what the angel had
told them. And then they left, glorifying God and praising God for all they had
heard and seen.
You know, I’ll be honest, there are days when I can be so fed
up at the state of things that I feel like I could be right there with the
shepherds, right smack dab in the middle of the story, and see the angel and
greet the baby and then leave, glorifying God for a minute or two and then
going back to the same humdrum way things always had been. That’s how it
seems to work for me: see something amazing, get excited for a while, then get
over it and go back to my everyday life, as if nothing had changed.
I know I am not alone in this. I’ve been around the church
long enough to know that this is how we are, by and large. We experience the
love of God and our faith heats up for a while, and then we encounter obstacles
and the nonsense that sometimes accompanies church work, and the intensity cools,
until it seems like just making it to church on Sunday morning is more energy
than we can muster.
And yet the shepherds did not go back to their old ways. The
Bible doesn’t suggest that they all became televangelists or anything, but
after they encountered the Christ child, they went back, praising and
glorifying God for all they had heard and seen. They saw the face of God and
were different because of it. They had to journey to get there, and they had to
leave their flocks for a time, but they chose to follow Jesus and they were
different because of it!
This all leads me to ask you a personal question. Let’s just
get down to it, because I know you’ve got reservations at Athens Pizza or places
to go and people to see. How are we different because of our faith? Having seen
what we have seen, having experienced God, how are we different? How are we
following Jesus? Are we really following Jesus at all?
Imagine if we followed Jesus like the shepherds did, praising
and glorifying God for all we have heard and seen. Imagine if we followed Jesus
in such a way that meant that we really
believe that what we do here on Sunday morning and what we do when we leave
here really matters to God and to the
world. What kind of purpose would we discover? What kind of blessing? What kind
of grace?
I say we should give it a shot. Let’s follow, but let’s do it
together, because that is what the church is about. Ours is a journey that
starts in the field, right where we are, but it does not stay there, for we
have experienced good news of great joy. Christ has been born. We have
experienced the love that comes from God, the joy that comes from serving God
and serving others. And if we leave that love right where we found it, what
good is this whole church business anyhow?
The journey starts in the field, but where it ends, I can’t
say, for when you follow Jesus, all bets are off. There’s no telling where we
will end up.
That’s a scary proposition of course. I don’t like going on
trips without an idea of where I’ll end up, but then again, the uncertainty is
no reason not to try, for there is no telling what adventures we’ll embark on,
no telling where we’ll end up, together.
Let’s make 2014 the Year of Following Jesus, just to see what
will happen. Let’s talk about Jesus in worship, let’s think about Jesus as we
serve God through serving others, let’s ask Jesus for help when we are tired. I
want us to even try to think like Jesus in committee meetings, although I am a
little worried about what that means for our committees. Let’s see, together, what
happens when we meet God, face to face. I hope that if this is your first time
here at North Decatur, you’ll join us on the journey, for there’s no better
place to start than at the beginning.
Now, it would be silly to begin a journey without preparing.
So let’s prepare the way. You got two postcards in your bulletin today. One of
them is for you to keep as a reminder of your call to follow Jesus. The other
is stamped. Spend the next few days thinking of who needs that invitation—who
ought to be a fellow traveler on this journey of faith. Who needs the
encouragement, who needs the love, who needs the prodding it takes to get up
off the couch and really follow? That’s the person I want you to send the
postcard to.
Sign it, don’t sign it, it doesn’t matter, but do send it,
because I believe that there is something special happening here, at North
Decatur United Methodist Church. And keeping it to ourselves doesn’t do justice
to the ways that God is being made known here, in this place.
Now, a postcard is no substitute for the journey. You can’t
follow Jesus via correspondence course. But it’s a start. It’s a start.
I am convinced that if we stick together on this—if we really spend a whole year really trying to follow Jesus—not the
fake Jesus we see on TV, nor the white Jesus, nor the sanitized Jesus we
sometimes like to talk about—but the real Jesus we read about in the Bible, if
we actually live like we mean it when we say that Jesus is the one we are
following, we’re going to find ourselves returning to where we started, glorifying
and praising God for all we have heard and seen, as it has been told to us. And
who knows, our encounter with God may be so profound and we may be so unable to
keep our mouths shut about it that people may still be talking about it, two
thousand years later. Dear God, let it be. Amen.
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