Sermon: When Shepherds Hear

As a shepherd, your night started like any other. You meet at the large pen— sheep pen with your fellow shepherds. You count your sheep as they pass by into the pen and mix with the others. They will find you in the morning. They will know your voice when you call them. You are their shepherd, after all. For now, they amalgamate into one churning ball of wool. The other shepherds count their sheep into the pen before joining you in doing what you do every night— take turns protecting the sheep. In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flocks. You're on duty, so you sit across the entrance of the pen, becoming the gate. Keeping the sheep in and the predators out. You carefully listen to the darkness for any sound of trouble nearby or sound of distressed sheep. You look across the moonlit yard along the fence line for any movement that shouldn't be there. Wolves, thieves. It's quiet work. The scene is still. The sheep cluster together for heat and security, safety in numbers. An occasional hoof stomp demands distance between disgruntled sheep. The shepherd who sleeps on— the shepherds who sleep lay on blankets under a nearby tree. Those who can't sleep sit quietly staring into a small fire. You can hear their gentle voices and the random snap of sap in the wet wood. You focus on the sheep, the fence, the silent night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. As you would be. The brightness alone was enough to disorient you. Now, as your eyes become accustomed to this light, you see what can only be an angel. You've heard of them, but you've never seen one. You're just a shepherd. Terrified is an understatement. What is an angel doing here? You look around and realize it's not just the angel that is glowing. There's light everywhere. It's like the air itself is sparkling. The sheep alight like billowy clouds on a sunny summer day, wake as one and stare silently into the light. The angel light. The sleeping shepherds wake with a fright. You all stare at the angel of the Lord. Just like the sheep. The only sound is the sound of your beating heart, and it's loud, fearful, and unsure. But the angel said to them, don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the city of David, a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger. You look through the angelic light at your friends. They are all still staring at the angel in stunned silence, like the sheep. Your mind races. You know this prophecy. You've heard it many times before, studied it when you were a boy in school, heard it read by rabbi after rabbi at synagogue. Many times the The Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, born in the City of David. This is a prophecy everybody knows, a birth everyone has been waiting for, hoping for, for centuries. For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. He will reign on the throne of David over his kingdom. To establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. You know exactly what the angel is talking about— the Messiah. But there's been a mistake. This is certainly not the correct location for a divine birth announcement. A sheep pen? A group of worthless shepherds? The angel of the Lord must be lost. But who are you to correct him? Who are you to hear such an announcement? Who are you at all? Clearly, wrong place, wrong people. Similar doubts play across the faces of your friends. You lift your arm and point in the direction of the City of David, Bethlehem. As you begin to give directions to the angel of the Lord, the sound of your voice is swallowed whole by an almighty noise and a ferocious light that makes The angel of the Lord seemed like a single candle. Suddenly there was a multitude of heavenly hosts with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to the people he favors." Then silence. With the force of 10,000 angels suddenly ceasing to exist, darkness returns to your sheep pen. With a vengeance. It is dark. The echo of angel song returns one last time from the nearby hills, and then it too fades into nothing. Silence. Have you ever been in a sudden, complete darkness? Just a couple weeks ago, I was camping with Jenny, and we were at the lake that you can see Elephant Mountain from, or Elephant Rock, and, um, we were looking across, and then we set our camper up so we could see it perfectly and everything. Well, I'm getting old, so 3:00 AM is when I go to the bathroom. And so I hopped up and I came out and they have beautiful toilet block there. So I walked across with my phone and went in, pressed the timer button and sat down and timer didn't last very long. Suddenly, I mean, it was like this. It was, I had stopped looking at my phone 'cause I was tired. And so I was just sitting there and then suddenly it's just dark and I can't just reach out and press the button again. It's all the way back by the door. I'm sure you've had this happen where you're in a room and the lights go out and it's the middle of night and you can't see the sky because you're inside and it's just pitch black. Or in one of those caves where they turn the lights out and say, "Look, can you find— can you see your hand?" And you try and you can't. And this is how it is for these angels. And now you can see precisely nothing. In the way of many spiritual experiences and how they play out after divine light ends. It is so dark, darker than it seems it's ever been, and so quiet. Then you see the flicker of firelight and your friends' faces come into focus. You check the gate behind you and stumble over to them. Your feet don't seem to work properly. Is this holy ground? What just happened? When the angel had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. Can you imagine what it's like to be a lowly shepherd and have angels visit you? Let me rephrase that. You can imagine exactly what it's like to be a lowly shepherd. We all can. When compared to the glory of a multitude of singing angels, we are all lowly, poverty-stricken shepherds. Who is worthy of that birth announcement? Who among humanity deserves to hear that message? Perhaps only those who know they are lowly, humble, and undeserving. Perhaps you need to know this. The angel's message is for you today, right now. I proclaim to you good news of great joy that is for all people. A Savior was born for you who is the Messiah, the Lord. Why? Because you need him. We all do. This singular announcement stands like the cross, once in time for all time. God came to earth as one of us to save all of us. They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Have you ever been the first person to tell someone about a baby being born? It's, it's special. But can you imagine being the first to tell this story? An angelic singing telegram, the birth announcement of the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, having everyone amazed by your words every time you tell it. You would never be the same. You are seen, you are heard. Since when? A shepherd who people stop on the road to say, tell us again about the angels. And so often when you finish telling the story, they say, "Even now you glow with the angel's light." It's the story that does that. God is so amazing. He could have announced the birth of his Son to any human on earth and they would have been humbled. No one was worthy to hear that message first. But God gave that singular moment in the universe to some tradies on a job site. A nurse doing her rounds. A group of friends laughing around a fire. To you. To me. To us. For unto us a child is born. But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them. For 9 months she's been hiding the bump and fearing the questions. Now the secret is loose. In the world. The truth has been born. And the baby's first visitors said angels sang to announce his birth. The birth of this little baby. Angels sang for him. Luke says Mary treasured these things in her heart. Understatement much? She was bursting at the seams with joy. Have you ever had something happen to you that you had no way of explaining? It might have been too good, or too bad, or just too impossible. When Cyrus, our eldest, was born, my first child, he was born on a Sabbath. And I was— so I was there. I didn't have any— it was when we were at Avondale, and so I didn't have any studies that day or anything. I just got to be there and through the whole process and hold him. And, and then it got dark and I didn't want to leave, and it got later and I didn't want to leave. And finally it's like, I have to leave. And it's 30 minutes back from Newcastle Hospital to Avondale. And so So I'm driving back and I start crying and I start praying and I start singing. I can't even tell you the words of that song. I can't tell you what I prayed. But I can tell you that I treasure that first day with Cyrus in my heart. Some things are beyond words. They define you from that moment forward. The bad ones haunt you. The good ones empower you. And the impossible ones that you know really happened, Well, those ones you treasure deep in your heart and you hold them close for as long as you live. Luke says Mary meditated on all that happened. How could she do anything else but meditate upon Jesus? Everything he did was a prayer. Every breath baby Jesus breathed, every beat of his tiny God-shaped heart was a revelation. Mary's eyes were fixed on Jesus. Nothing else mattered. She loved him. Oh, how she loved him. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told. What else would you do? What else could you do? God had just been born and laid in a manger, just as the angels told you. Of course you would glorify a God who gave you such an opportunity. Of course you would praise a God who sent his angel choir to show you how to to praise him. Of course you would believe all you had been told, because you saw it with your own eyes and you told it with your own mouth over and over and over for the rest of your life. This story is yours too. This story of a heavenly baby born in an earthly way— Jesus the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior— was born for you. He lived for you. He died for you. And he lives again for you. Go tell it on the mountains, over the seas, and everywhere. Invite the world. Come and see what God has done, because God loves you.