Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke
2:1-20)
And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God
and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with
whom he is pleased!”
Prayer: Heavenly
Father, send us the Holy Spirit so that by your grace we may believe your holy
word and live godly lives here in time and there in eternity, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Many of you may know the old Charles Dickens novel,
“Oliver Twist.” The story is about a young orphan boy who runs away from people
who want to use him for their own purposes to London, where he is taken in by a
gang of thieves. In the 1960s there was a musical made of this old story, and
one of the songs is one where the little boy Oliver sits by himself, all alone,
and sings, “Where is love?”
And today, we might look around and say, “Where is joy?”
“Where has it gone?”
People know basically how to have a good time, they know
how to have fun, and they know how to have a party. But they do not know what
joy is. They have not experienced it. We live in a world today where people
smile with their mouths but not
with their eyes.
People live in fear of the future. They worry what’s going
to happen. This is especially felt in young people today. There’s no optimism.
And everyone will have their own opinions about this and
why this is the case.
But it’s strange that while this is the great time of the
year for the church to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it is also the great time
of the year for a rival false god—namely, money, things, and stuff.
Right at the time when the church comes together to
celebrate to birth of the world’s creator in human flesh, who has come to die
for the sin of the world, that same world is gathering to itself everything it
can, except the baby Jesus in its arms.
And whatever people might think of the Queen, whether you
are a monarchist or a republican, when her face is printed on the back of our
coins, she’s no use to you. Her face does not cheer you, her mouth does not
speak to you, and her eyes do not smile at you.
So why is that we spend all our time collecting as many
little bits of metal with her face on it as we possibly can? When we have a
little bit of it, we just want more, and we’re still unhappy.
But economics are not certain. When will the consequences
of the Global Financial Crisis finally hit Australian shores? When will we have
to go without?
And so, when people worship a false god, for many people
Christmas is a time of quite some sadness, as people realise just what a mess
their lives are, and just how helpless they really are in fixing them.
And so we say, “Where is joy?”
At Christmas time, we come to the Son of God, Jesus
Christ’s own church to celebrate his birth. He is both true God and true man.
He is the world’s Creator, and the world’s Saviour, and on the last day he will
judge the world.
But at Christmas time, Jesus puts himself completely at
the world’s mercy. He chooses to be born at a certain time at a certain place,
in the city of David, in Bethlehem, in a stable, wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger.
+++
In our sermon today, I want to particularly focus on what
happened just following Jesus’ birth, which has to do with the angels and the
shepherds, and particularly the words which the angels spoke to the shepherds.
But before we look at these words, we need to remember
that many people don’t believe that angels exist. If that’s the case, then
these words won’t mean a thing to them, and they will continue in their
sadness. They will continue to laugh at God, and say they want proof that he
exists. Christmas will always be a joke for these people, and they will always
mock the convictions of anyone who lived before them. Even the worst science
student, who fell asleep during science at high school, all of a sudden becomes
the most careful scientist when it comes to religion. But if you want to put
God under a microscope, then God has ceased to be God, and you have made
yourself god. If there is one thing that will completely destroy western civilisation
as we know it, it will be our futile desire to want to be in control of
everything, and even to want to be in control of God.
Many people also do believe in angels, but they look for
them in the wrong place. They look for them everywhere except where Jesus has
promised them to be: ascending and descending on him. I’m talking of the New
Age movement here, where people are looking for something supernatural, but in
the end they are only worshipping themselves and their own feelings.
In St Luke’s gospel, we read something magnificent,
profound, and full of joy—such joy as the world has never known.
We read: In the same
region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord
shone around them, and they were filled with fear.
See here how God doesn’t set about to prove himself. He
doesn’t need to: He’s God. He could easily go and make a great display to the
important people in the world: the educated, the wealthy, the comfortable. But
he doesn’t. Instead, he goes to some shepherds. They are simple people, people
of great poverty, people who can’t afford to go to sleep at night because they
need to stay with their sheep (this is the days before fences!). They probably
haven’t been to school, and they have to work hard for a living, and fight hard
against wild animals.
But nevertheless, the angel of the Lord appears to them.
And the glory of the Lord shone around them. And we read, “And they were filled
with fear.”
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring
you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.”
Listen to these words from the mouth of the angel. Take
each word and think about them.
The angel says, “Fear not!” Today, we treat the events of
Jesus’ life like a cute bedtime story, but if we really thought about each of
the things that happens, and how they happen in such a precise order, what fear
it would cause us! If these things happened among us today, we would be
freaking out.
But the angel first of all comes and melts away the
shepherd’s fear. He says: “Fear not.” Now why? What’s the reason why they
shouldn’t fear? The angel says, “Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy
that will be for all the people.”
The task of this angel, his mission, his work is to bring
them good news. And the gift that he brings is great joy! And this gift of
great joy is for all the people, not just for some. It’s not for those who have
their ships in order—it is for all people, not for all good people, for all
people.
The good news is the seed, and the great joy is the plant
that grows out of it. So let the message of Christmas ring out! Joy! Joy! Joy!
Great joy!
But the thing that is so inaccessible to people’s minds is
that this joy does not come from the message or words or preaching of any one
human being, it comes directly from heaven, from an angel of God himself. This
is the great offense of Christmas! This event can’t be examined, or tested. But
it is still objective. The shepherds still say that they saw what they saw, and
we read that Mary, the mother of Jesus, treasured up all these things and
pondered them in her heart.
The joy of Christmas can only be brought to you by the
angel of God. It can only be brought as an invasion from the supernatural realm
into your world. It can only be given to you as a gift from heaven itself, and
as long as we seek and grope for the world’s joy, it will only ever turn out to
be a poor second-best. The angel says: I bring you good news of a great joy
that will be for all the people. The shepherds say later, “Let us go and see
the thing which the Lord has made
known to us.”
And now this angel tells us what the good news of great
joy is: For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign
for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a
manger.
The joy comes from the Saviour who is born in the city of
David. A Saviour is born. A Saviour is someone who saves. This means that you
no longer have to save yourself. You no longer have to fix your own life in
order to be acceptable to God. This Saviour will die for you, and rise again
from the dead for you. This Saviour is not just a human being, but is also true
God, in such a way that his blood spilt on the ground is not like yours. Your
blood does nothing. But his blood will be presented to God the Father as a
perfect offering for sin, and will transcend space and time in such a way that
it will cover you in all your sin and shame. The forgiveness of sins will be
given to you in Holy Baptism, it will be given to you continually every day,
just as Jesus Christ, this baby born in Bethlehem, will be with you in his
flesh every day. You will be helpless, but Jesus will be your help. You may be
weak and sad, but Jesus will be your joy. You may be a sinner, but Jesus will
be your lawyer, your punishment, and your sentence. And you will be free. You
will be forgiven. And he will pray for you every day as Lord of heaven and of
earth.
And if you want proof, here’s the proof. This will be a sign for you: you will find a
baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
And we read: Suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom
he is pleased!”
The word Christmas is made up of two words: Christ and Mass. The angel has talked about Christ, and the now we learn about
Mass. Nowadays, the Catholics are
normally the ones that usually talk about “Mass”. But the word “Mass” means the
Divine Service of the Lord’s Supper. And this is what Christians come together
to do every Sunday: to hear Christ’s own words preached, and to eat and drink
the true body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.
And every Sunday we sing these words: “Glory to God in
highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
And the angels show us the reality of Christ’s own church
on earth. Through the unity of God and man in the one person of Jesus Christ,
heaven and earth are drawn together in such a way as to make one united choir.
Angels come and join in singing with sinners. Angels invite all the shepherds,
all the nobodies, the desperate, the helpless, the shmo-s of this world—just
like you, if you are humble enough to realise it—to sing together with them,
and let your voices be polished and purified together with theirs. Sinners come
to join in singing with the heavenly spirits, the mighty warriors of God’s
heavenly army, the angels of peace, the saints whose joy is made perfect, and
the whole company of heaven. As St Paul says in Colossians: Christ has made
peace through his blood on the cross.
And so all the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest!”
God’s highest glory has been brought down to earth. God’s own Son in his
brilliant, life-giving flesh is present on the earth. God’s glory shines around
the earth. And sinners sing the glory of God in such a way that it reaches the
highest point of heaven, where the cherubim stand beneath the throne of God,
and the seraphim sing God’s holiness above it, “Holy, holy, holy”, rejoicing
over one sinner who repents.
Glory to God in the highest!
And on earth peace!
There is no peace on earth, without the glory of God.
Peace has been made. The peace that Jesus has won on the cross is too strong
for the all the warmongers and hate-mongers of this world. Their anger and
their chaos will soon wear out and will soon burn out to nothing.
And so the preaching of Christmas is spoken by the angel.
And the songs of Christmas are sung by the multitude of the heavenly hosts.
This is the great joy of Christmas! This is the joy that
cannot be overshadowed by all the sadness of the world. It is good news and it
is for all people.
Like the shepherds, say with them, “Let us go over to
Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known
to us.”
Like Mary, treasure up all these things and ponder them in
your heart.
For unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, let the light of your face shine upon
us, and let your face light up the great darkness of this world. Let your
angels ascend and descend in every place where your word is preached and let
every heart rejoice, and every voice sing your glory to the heights of heaven.
Amen.
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