Sunday Messages

We enter a New Year beginning a journey that is unpredictable, risky, and appearing virtually insane—yet prompted by none other than the Lord himself.

There is a statement that recurs through Scripture like a repeating telegraph signal on a high frequency radio band. Sometimes faint, barely discernable—sometimes strong, clear. Over and over. Paul makes the statement as he was saying goodbye to a group of leaders standing with him on an Asian beach. Several of his friends wept freely, realizing they would never see the missionary again. The aging apostle looked down from leader to leader, holding each one’s eyes for a brief moment.

Then, looking out to sea with his weathered hand pointing south to the stormy skies above the Mediterranean, he voiced these words in Acts 20:22…

"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.”

What an honest admission! I am going…not knowing what will happen…

That’s what this thing called the Christian life is all about as we enter a New Year. Going…not knowing. As Jesus-followers we believe God leads us in a certain direction…or in pursuit of a precise goal. That leading is unmistakably clear. Not necessarily logical or explainable, but clear. At least to us. So—out of sheer obedience—we go. We pack our bags, pull up stakes, bid our friends farewell, and move out. We face a future as uncertain as our leading is sure. How strange…yet how typical!

There isn’t a Jesus-follower who hasn’t walked that path, and struggled with ways to convince others it was right. And endured the frowns and well-meaning counsel of those who tried to point out why the idea was a fluke…even downright foolish. For sure Joseph faced it when he wrenched up his roots from his hometown soil and escaped to Egypt. There he was, a new father led by an angel of the Lord in a dream, loading up his stuff with his wife Mary and child, bound for a land of bondage of his ancestry.

Christmas was over. The shepherds had gone back to the fields. And, for us, Christmas is over. And right now, if we look at the bareness under our Christmas trees or if they’re not already taken to the street for pick-u), we’ll probably find that the festive wrappings are laying about all over the floor, if they have not yet been picked up or already stowed in the trash. And some of the toys that have been given are probably already damaged, if not broken. The decorations are packed away for another year. And what’s more, all that company that came, probably if it hasn’t already left is thinking about leaving.

And so the relative peace and quiet of Christmas and the celebrations of Christmas are just about over. And oh yes. Then there are those bills! They are going to be coming, and they must be paid. That’s the damage that we survey at Christmas Day 2007. No Christmas makes the concerns of life go away. At best, they just postpone them for a little while. For the infant Jesus and his family the quiet of Christmas did give way to the beginning of hardship. We must notice that this tiny baby had come for the express purpose of heaven touching earth.

The Gospel writer puts it straight in Matthew 2:13-15…

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

The escape to Egypt was not especially unusual for a Jewish family. Through the history of Israel, in numerous times of persecution, Jewish people sought refuge in Egypt. In every city in Egypt there was a colony of Jews. As a consequence, Joseph and Mary perhaps had no problem finding associations amidst their own people for the brief period of living in Egypt. But it must be said. Joseph’s task was going…not knowing. He was not a wanderer, but he was a pilgrim on a journey from God.

And so it goes. Who hasn’t stepped off the end of the dock to take a step forward in faith? It is no easy thing to leave a sure thing, walk away from an ace in the hole, and start down a long, dark tunnel with no end in sight. Absolutely frightening…yet filled with unimaginable excitement. Going…yet not knowing. Obeying…yet not understanding. Beginning a journey that is unpredictable, risky, and appearing virtually insane—yet prompted by none other than the Lord himself.

Stepping into the Unknown

Are we on the verge of such a decision as we enter a New Year? Is the Lord loosening our tent pegs today, suggesting it’s time for us to take a drastic leap of faith? Are we counting on God to direct our steps through a future that offers no tangible map? Great!

It seems the pastor's small son was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all that dirt. He refused and complained: 'Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That's all I ever hear around this house and I've never seen either one.'

Sometimes we are like this little boy when it comes to stepping out in faith. We want to take a leap of faith but we can’t see where it is going to lead. So before we take a leap of faith into a new year, God’s Word offers us some assurance through the example of Joseph’s escape to Egypt that our “going…not knowing” won’t injure others or our testimony.

We must be sure of at least three things:

1. We must be sure it’s the Lord who is speaking

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

Joseph was attentive to the Lord’s message. So we have our Gospel, the escape into Egypt. In the middle of the night, Joseph is visited by an angel in a dream. It is difficult to say how anyone could tell that it wasn't just another dream, but Joseph had no trouble understanding that it was the Lord who was speaking. God made him sure that he was to get up right way and flee to Egypt, and the angel told Joseph that someone was planning to search for Jesus and kill him. So, Joseph awakened the whole family, packed up, and left right then, in the middle of the night. The next morning it caused quite a commotion to find that the Magi from the east had departed, and the young family, who had drawn such majestic attention, were gone too. One night the family was there, the next morning, they were gone.

God had protected his Son. But God didn't use any special magic to do it. There were no force fields, no mystical disappearances, and no pillars of fire to rescue his Son. There was just a word given to one of God's willing servants, Joseph. All of the actual work involved in saving Jesus was done by Joseph. God gave him a job, and he obediently listened to the Lord’s messenger and completed it according to God’s intentions.

The captain of a ship looked into the dark night and saw lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north." The captain was angered that his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south - I am a captain." Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north. I am seaman third class." Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south - I am a battleship." Then the reply came: "Alter your course 10 degrees north - I am a lighthouse."

The laws of the lighthouse are anchored upon the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. It is our task today as Jesus-followers to obediently listen to the Lord’s message and complete it according to God’s intentions.

2. We must be sure the motive is unselfish and pure

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod.

Joseph was motivated to obey the Lord’s call. If Joseph had failed, we can be confident God would have worked something else out. God cannot be frustrated in his plan of salvation—except by our unbelief. This unbelief usually is caused by selfish and impure motives. The acronym of S.I.N. represents these motives: Selfishness, Independence, and Negativism. We would never have heard of Joseph's dream, if he had just rolled over and drifted back off to sleep. But he didn't. He acted. When there were easier, more direct and probably more effective means to do the job at God’s disposal, he used a person. God handed out the job assignment, and counted on Joseph to do what needed to be done. That's quite an honor. Fortunate Joseph! He lived in the day when God still spoke to his people, although through angels (a word which means messenger). However, God still gave his people specific tasks to do for him.

Sometimes our motives are selfish and impure. Case in point. A little boy told a salesclerk he was shopping for a birthday gift for his mother and asked to see some cookie jars. At a counter displaying a large selection of cookie jars, the youngster carefully lifted and replaced each lid. His face fell as he came to the last one. He asked, "Aren't there any covers that don't make any noise?” Right motives should accompany right actions.

So wouldn't it be wonderful to have that same opportunity today to be obedient like Joseph to go…without knowing with unselfish and pure motives? Wouldn't we jump at the chance to do a job, given directly to us from God? Can we imagine the honor it would be! We, servants of the Most High, with marching orders from God! Talk about prominence! That's the sort of thing that people just dream of! Just like an Old Testament prophet! God's messenger, God's tool! Specially chosen to do his work for him! The thought is mind boggling!

Now God is giving us a job. God is not offering it. God never does. God has the job and he expects us to fill it. If we choose not to, God may work it out in some other way. Perhaps God will take some blessings from us, or God may just allow it to go undone here—and allow great disaster to our children and grandchildren. They may grow up without the Gospel.

Our job is to be the church, the sanctuary and safekeeping place of the Word of God. Others have had this job and failed to take it seriously, some have refused even to do it. They had excuses, too, but their churches soon became social clubs or places where the preachers talked about politics, or pretty, flowery poetry, or their churches have died out completely. In any case their families have lost the Word of God and become caught up in the pseudo-religion of feeling happy for the moment, and taking the path of least resistance.

3. We must be sure the decision doesn’t contradict Scripture

15 …And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

Joseph was convinced it was the Lord’s will. Joseph was acting upon the Word of God. That step of faith didn’t contradict Scripture. Significantly, Matthew ties the new covenant with the Old Testament from Hosea 11:1. In the original statement, Hosea was referring to God’s act of delivering the nation of Israel from their bondage in the land of Egypt. God’s salvation history moves from the people of Israel to faithful Israel, to the remnant and to the servant of God in Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, Matthew applies this reference to Jesus himself. Matthew projects this passage forward to the birth of God’s Son rather than backwards to the exodus of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.

I’ve used in a previous message the illustration of the “Judas goat.” It deserves mentioning once again. It deals with a documentary on the life of a sheep. The sheep's life ended in the "slaughterhouse", where a Judas goat is used. A Judas goat is a specially trained goat that leads the herd of sheep up the ramp that leads into the slaughterhouse. Step by step the Judas goat leads on, stopping every few steps to look back at the sheep to make sure they're following. Once one sheep starts following the rest do the same, as their herd mentality leads them to their death.

People often behave just like those sheep. We like the security of knowing that we're headed the same way as everyone else. This makes it imperative for us to diligently own our responsibility to make decisions in a positive direction according to the Scriptures. We must make sure we are not following “Judas” goats by making decisions by culture, peer group, or popularity. We like the security of knowing that we're headed the same way as everyone else. However, we need to beware that we are not joining the herd in following a "Judas goat". Jesus-followers need to be discerning and willing to make choices that "cut us off from the herd," yet do so to yield to the Word of God.

Joseph had the escape to Egypt; going…not knowing. We have the great commission; going…not knowing. We each have our jobs to do, given to us by God. Let us be like Joseph. Let us do what God has called us and equipped us to do in the New Year.

Let’s be sure it’s the Lord who is speaking

Let’s be sure our motives are unselfish and pure

Let’s be sure the decision doesn’t contradict Scripture

John Henry Newman, an Anglican Clergyman, wrote the following prayer which affirms our calling forth of God into ministry…

Egypt wasn’t perfect. Neither is the church. Egypt was full of sinners. So is the church. We have a pretty good collection of us right here this morning. In our church sin continues to live, but forgiveness continues to reign. And what’s more, here too unkindness can be known. But here too grace overwhelms it.

Sometimes it helps to remember what God calls us during our short stint on planet Earth: We are strangers and pilgrims. People on the move, living in tents, free and unencumbered, loose and available, ready to roll, willing to break the mold—whenever and wherever God leads. In this New Year, going…not knowing. Regardless! Amen.

As we prepare our spirits, we intentionally spotlight on God’s beautifully simple birth announcement. We will view the extraordinary love gift in a commonplace setting.

For the past three messages in our series entitled When Heaven Touches Earth, God has disclosed to us portions from the Christmas story from Luke 2:8-14. It is a small section of the Christmas story that opens up for us some important points of consideration and contemplating as we once again make this month-long journey to Bethlehem. We ask, what does it mean today and how can we prepare for God’s entry into and through our lives this Christmas? God helps us experience how the divine intersects the daily.

During our first week of Advent we examined keeping watch between the mall and the manger, being attentive to what God might do, to what God is doing now, and to the way in which God keeps being born anew all around us. In the second week of Advent we studied about a message of peace in a time of very little peace. When God is in this place, there is peace with God, peace in God even in difficult situations of aloneness, and the peace that God brings through us, as we become agents of God’s reconciliation and peace. In the third week of Advent we explored the message the angels brought and focused on what it shows about the aspiration and accessibility of the grace of God. Often God chooses to take a different way home to visit us personally. In our fourth and final week of Advent we center on the announcement of Jesus’ birth. The message that came to the shepherds that evening was beautifully simple: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.”

Christmas is that time of wonderment.

We wonder why when we stop believing in Santa Claus is when we start getting clothes for Christmas.

We wonder about the stages of life: We believe in Santa Claus, we don’t believe in Santa Claus, we are Santa Claus, and we look like Santa Claus.

There are currently 78 people named S. Claus living in the U.S. -- and one Kriss Kringle. (We gotta wonder about that one kid's parents).

We wonder why Christmas is in our hearts twelve months a year and thanks to credit cards, it's on our Visa card statement twelve months a year also.

We wonder why some of these new toys are so creative and inventive. This year they have a Neurotic Doll. It's wound up already.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear, but ten extra pounds on hip, thigh, and rear!

Christmas is also a time that is full of surprises. Christmas poses a yearly challenge to those of us who have heard the story since we were children. After we have attended 20 or 30 or 40 Christmas pageants, and after we have listened to at least that many Christmas sermons, and heard (and sung) every Christmas carol a few hundred times, what more is left to be said that hasn’t been said before?

If we know about Christmas at all, we know about Mary and the angel Gabriel, about the dangerous journey to Bethlehem, about Caesar’s decree, about Herod’s insane jealousy, about the inn with a "No Vacancy" sign, about the angels and the shepherds, and about the mysterious Magi from the east, and the last-second escape into Egypt. All of these stories are so well known that when we hear them again, we don’t really hear them at all because we’ve heard them all before. We hear but we don’t really comprehend.

That is indeed a problem. Things so familiar to us can breed, if not contempt, at least a kind of casual disinterest. This is sad because the story of Christmas is indeed full of surprises. There are unexpected miracles on every hand. And after all, it tells the most amazing story: God invaded human history in the form of a tiny, helpless baby born in a manger—treasure in a feedbox.

One of the best ways to fight against the tendency to sleep through a Christmas sermon is to focus on the details. Sometimes it helps to take out the microscope and study just a tiny portion of the story.

The fragment comes from the first Christmas sermon—preached by an angel to some very frightened shepherds in Luke 2:8-14…

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

By looking closely at even a smaller part, we may see the whole thing in a new light. With that in mind, let’s focus our attention on just two verses of Scripture and see what they say to us in Luke 2:11-12… “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

After announcing that a Savior had been born in Bethlehem, the angel tells them how to find the baby. The angel has just declared the best news anyone has ever heard. We forget how utterly unprepared the shepherds were to hear those words—and how awesome they must have sounded. A Savior has been born! The Messiah has come! The Lord from heaven is here! And in Bethlehem, no less!

The Sign

But where in Bethlehem? How will they find the baby? When the angel speaks of "the sign,” he uses a word that generally refers to a supernatural sign from God that no one could miss. Like the parting of the Red Sea or walking on water or (in the ultimate sense) rising from the dead. Those events are "signs” that the God of the universe has intervened in human history.

Several questions come to mind. In what way is a baby a "sign" from God? Why did God choose to enter the human race like this? And why does the text mention the part about "a baby wrapped in cloths"? And what does the manger signify? After all, Jesus was almost certainly not the only baby in Bethlehem that night. We know that later on Herod had all the baby boys under the age of two put to death. So there must have been other infants and toddlers. What’s so special about a baby in a manger? The baby represents God’s extraordinary gift of love in a commonplace setting—treasure in a feedbox.

Jesus could have been born in any circumstances God chose. What is the message of the manger? What is God saying to us? What do we learn about the way God works? About who Jesus is?

Perhaps an illustration will help. Let’s suppose that you have just come to America from another country. You know that our chief executive is called the president, but you don’t know who he is or where he lives. You’d like to meet him if you could but you don’t know where to find him. When you ask for help, I tell you something like this. "Go to Washington D.C. and look for a large building called the White House. Look for a plane called Air Force One. Listen for a band playing "Hail to the Chief.” When you see a man coming out of the White House surrounded by police officers and plainclothes detectives, that’s the sign that you’ve found the president. You’ll know for sure when you see him get in the presidential helicopter and fly away. He’s not hard to spot because he’s always surrounded by cameras and reporters. The "sign” of the president is the pomp, ceremony, security, and publicity that surround him wherever he goes.

And what sign did God choose to signify his coming to the earth? He chose a baby wrapped in strips of cloth lying in a manger. The early church father Chrysostom called it "a tremendous and wonderful sign." He referred to 1 Timothy 3:16, which tells us that "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." He goes on to say that we should love this holy day (Christmas) because it means that the Word was made flesh and came to earth to live in our neighborhood, perhaps to pitch his tent among us.

But somehow the world missed God’s sign. We know that the Jews were looking for a Messiah. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 2:6, 7…

I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. I will proclaim the LORD’s degree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.”

We see that God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus to deliver us from our sin. He was the perfect reflection—the very image—of the Father of all.

So why didn’t the Jews recognize Jesus when he came? They could not see the divine in the ordinary. They missed the treasure in the feedbox. They wanted something spectacular, a political messiah who would deliver them from Roman domination. The Jews wanted "a sign," but they weren’t expecting a baby in a manger. God gave them a sign and they missed it. It was too simple then and for many people it is still too simple today.

Just for a moment, let’s suppose we don’t know anything else about Christmas.

What would we learn from the shepherds about the birth of Jesus if these words proclaimed by the angel were all we had? [Video—the Shepherds]

1. The shepherds learned of Jesus’ humanity

12 …You will find a baby

A baby." That’s all the Greek says. The word means "an infant" or a "newborn child." It is a totally ordinary word used to describe the birth of a child. This tells us that Jesus came into the world just as we all do. Even though we often speak of the virgin birth, it should be remembered that the real miracle occurred at the moment of conception nine months earlier. Jesus’ physical birth was completely normal—or as normal as it could be—given the unique circumstances.

To say that Christ was born as a baby brings us face to face with the truth of the Incarnation. Although he was fully and truly God from all eternity, the Son of God took on true humanity when he was conceived in Mary’s womb and born in Bethlehem. He was not half-God and half-man, but fully God and fully man. He did not cease to be God, although he laid aside the outward glory of his deity. In some way mysterious to us, the Lord Jesus Christ was the God-man, two natures joining together in his one Person.

Many battles have been fought over this basic truth. In the first century the battle raged over his genuine humanity. Did God really become a man? Some people said no. But 1 John 4:1-6 reminds us that to deny the humanity of Jesus Christ is to place ourselves outside the boundary of Christianity. In our day the debate tends to be over his deity. Few people deny that Christ was a man, but many deny that he was also fully God. They believe he was a teacher, a leader, and even a man sent from God but they do not believe he was (as the creeds say) "very God of very God."

The Jews do not believe this, even though many hold Jesus in high esteem. The Muslims do not believe this. They say he was a great prophet sent by Allah, but they vigorously deny he was the Son of God. Such a thought is blasphemy to them. Religions outside of Christianity do not believe this. Jesus might be a god, one among millions of gods, but they do not believe that Jesus is the one-and-only Son of God who is God manifest in human flesh. But this is what Christians believe. And this verse teaches us that the Lord from heaven entered this earth as a tiny, helpless baby.

2. The shepherds learned of Jesus’ helplessness

12 …wrapped in cloths

In that day newborn babies were wrapped in strips of cloth to protect them from the harsh elements. Usually mothers would wrap the arms and legs separately and then wrap the torso until the baby looked liked an Egyptian mummy. This seems cruel, and indeed it severely restricted the child’s movements, but in a world with little medical care, where babies routinely died before their first birthday, it was a way to provide a crude kind of protection.

What do we learn from the binding of baby Jesus? It reminds us of another time, years later, when Jesus would stand before the Jewish authorities, bound and guarded as if he were a common criminal. When falsely accused, he made no reply. When reviled, he refused to answer in kind. He stood before his accusers with his hands tied, awaiting the verdict that would end his life. It is no coincidence that he entered the world as he left it—bound and helpless.

J.I. Packer writes…God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.

Looking at the baby this way, no one can say he came only for the rich and powerful. And no one can say that he used his heavenly privileges to make an easy entrance into the world. Jesus came not for the faith of a few but to be the Savior of all. He was bound that we might be set free.

3. The shepherds learned of Jesus’ humility

12 …lying in a manger

One problem we have with the story is that the word "manger" doesn’t easily communicate a clear image to us. Many of us get our concept of a "manger" from watching the yearly Christmas pageant at church. But the word itself means something like a stable or perhaps a feeding-trough. In the first century, stables were often nothing more than a circle of stones around a hollowed-out cave in the side of a hill.

Is there a hint here of Jesus’ upcoming death? Yes, there is. Even in the feeding-trough, Jesus was already bearing the only cross a baby can bear—extreme poverty and the contempt and indifference of humankind.

In the words of Francis of Assisi…For our sakes he was born a stranger in an open stable; he lived without a place of his own wherein to lay his head, subsisting by the charity of good people; and he died naked on a cross in the close embrace of holy poverty.

This baby lying forgotten in an exposed stable, resting in a feeding-trough is God’s appointed "sign" to us all. This is a true Incarnation. God has come to the world in a most unlikely way. This is what Philippians 2:7 means when it says…"he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."

Nothing about the baby Jesus appeared supernatural. There were no halos, no angels visible, no choirs singing, and even no room for Jesus as recorded by Luke in verse 7, she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. . If we had been there, and if we had no other information, we would have concluded that this was just a baby born to a poor young couple down on their luck. Nothing about the visible circumstances pointed to God.

It was the biggest night of the year in a little town called Cornwall. A town referred to in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. It was the night of the annual Christmas pageant. Since there are no nearby malls or cities to compete with, the pageant is packed out every year. It's an especially big deal for the children in town. They get to try out for the roles in the Christmas story. Everybody wants a part. Which leads us to the problem of Harold.

Harold really wanted to be in the play, too, but he was...well, he was kind of a slow and simple kid. The directors were ambivalent, I mean, they knew Harold would be crushed if he didn't have a part, but they were afraid he might mess up the town's magic moment. Finally, they decided to cast Harold as the innkeeper--the one who turns Mary and Joseph away the night Jesus is to be born. Harold had only one line: "I'm sorry, we have no room." Well, no one could imagine what that one line was going to do to everyone's Christmas. The night of the pageant the church was packed, as usual. The set was in place, and in fact, it was an entire wall with scenes of Bethlehem painted on it, including the door of the inn where Harold would greet--and then turn away--the young Jewish travelers. Backstage, the angels were playing Frisbee with their halos, the shepherds were waiting 'till the last minute to put on their annually laundered bathrobes, and Harold was being personally coached by the nervous directors. "Now remember, Harold, when Joseph says, 'Do you have a room for the night?' you say...you say..." Hesitantly, Harold said, "I'm sorry. We have no room." The directors looked at each other sort of hopefully. They'd done all they could. Well, the Christmas story unfolded according to plan--angels singing, Joseph's dream, we know, the trip to Bethlehem. Finally, Joseph and Mary arrived at the door of the Bethlehem Inn, looking appropriately tired, discussing whether the baby might come tonight. Joseph knocked on the inn door. Backstage, the directors were just out of sight, coaching Harold to open the door now. And wouldn't you know it--the door was stuck! The whole set shook; Harold tried to get that door open. When he finally did, Joseph asked his question on cue: "Do you have a room for the night?" Harold froze. From backstage, a loud whisper: "I'm sorry. We have no room." And Harold mumbled, "I'm sorry. We have no room." And, with a little coaching, he shut the door. The directors heaved a sigh of relief--prematurely. As Mary and Joseph disappeared into the night, the set suddenly started shaking again, and the door opened. Harold was back! And then, in an unrehearsed moment that folks would not soon forget, Harold went running after the young couple, shouting as loud as he could, "Wait! Wait! You can have my room! You can have my room!”

Little Harold may have understood the real issue of Christmas better than anyone else there that night. How can we leave Jesus outside? We have to make room for Jesus. And that may be the issue for us this Christmas Day. What will we do with this Son of God—treasure in a feedbox—who came to earth to find us? This One who trades a throne room for a stable, angel praise for human mockery, this Creator who gives himself on a cross?

The Bible gives us the only appropriate response in Galatians 2:20…the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We look at what Jesus did to pay for our sin on that cross, and we say those life-changing words—“For me."

Let’s go back to our original thesis for just a moment. What if Luke 2:11, 12 were the only verses we had regarding the birth of Christ? What would we know and what could we fairly deduce from this fragment of the Christmas story? Here are a few answers.

We would know …

The depths to which Jesus stooped when he joined the human race.

The disinterest of the world that had no room for him.

The foreshadowing of the cross while sleeping in a manger.

The simplicity of the gospel.

Jesus is at our door this Christmas. Maybe he's been knocking for a long time and maybe he won't keep knocking much longer. All our life--even the events of the last few months--have been to prepare us for this crossroads moment with Jesus our Savior. We must not leave him outside any longer. We must open the door this Christmas.

The central truth of Christianity is that God has entered human history in order to provide for our salvation. What we could not do, he did for us through his Son. Everything else flows from this truth. If he had not been born, he could not have died for our sins. And he would not have risen from the dead. He had to become like us in order to save us. There was no other way—it took Heaven Touching Earth.

So that night in Bethlehem if we had walked by, nothing would have seemed supernatural. Mangers were not the beautiful, clean places we see in our Christmas pageants. They are lonely, dirty, smelly places made for animals. Today, if we are looking for Jesus, we don’t start in the nursery. We go outside to the barn and find the oldest part where the boards need repair and the ground is covered with dirt and the air smells of manure. This Christmas, when we hear the baby’s cry, we’ll know we’ve found the Lord in his humanity, helplessness, and humility. He’s not in the nursery with the rest of the children; he’s out in the barn with the animals—treasure in a feedbox! Amen.

As we prepare our minds, we carefully consider the announcement of the angel’s message. We will explore the availability of God’s grace to all people.

For the past two messages in our series entitled When Heaven Touches Earth, we have been discovering portions from the Christmas story from Luke 2:8-14. It is a small section of the Christmas story that opens up for us some important points of consideration and contemplating as we once again make this month-long journey to Bethlehem. We ask, what does it mean today and how can we prepare for God’s entry into and through our lives this Christmas? God discloses to us how the divine intersects the daily.

During our first week of Advent we examined keeping watch between the mall and the manger, being attentive to what God might do, to what God is doing now, and to the way in which God keeps being born anew all around us. In the second week of Advent we studied about a message of peace in a time of very little peace. When God is in this place, there is peace with God, peace in God even in difficult situations of aloneness, and the peace that God brings through us, as we become agents of God’s reconciliation and peace. Now in the third week of Advent we want to look at the message the angels brought and explore what it shows about the aspiration and accessibility of the grace of God. Often God chooses to take a different way home.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I was coming home from an out-of-town family trip in Auburn, California. It continues to be a time of heightened security. As I walked through the Sacramento International Airport, masses of people were preparing to walk through the security check-point areas. As I approached the security clearance area, I had to stand in a long line, take my cell phone out and place it in a small bowl, and practically undress. Then I had to run my belongings through the X-ray machine before walking through the metal detector. I thought, I can handle this heightened security because I want to be safe. After clearing security, I found out that I still had about an hour before my scheduled flight would take off.

Finally, they called for boarding. I got in line, waiting to get on the airplane. I had my boarding pass and my identification; everything was ready. I approached the gate agent and handed him my boarding pass. Just then a large, uniformed security agent came over to me and said, “Sir, we’re going to have to take you over to the searching area.” I began to grumble internally. At the search area, I had to empty everything out again. Security staff went through my briefcase with rubber gloves. They dug through everything I had. I even had to take my belt off to ensure that it did not conceal a knife. I walked out of there thinking, I thought it was just suspicious, weird-looking people they stopped and searched. But security is for everybody (including the suspicious, weird-looking people like me!).

That was a strange situation. I wouldn’t have thought for one moment that I would have been picked out, taken out, or isolated. I was looking for the people “we’ve got to look out for.” We know—them, not us. We have a tendency to think of ourselves—whoever we might be or from wherever we may come—as “the ones” that are “chosen,” “special,” or “set apart.”

But the scripture has something to say about this particular tendency in Luke 2:8-10…

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."

God let the shepherds know that the message was for all people. And although this message was first delivered more than two thousand years ago, this is still true of God’s message today.

“Choose your audience” proclaims the cable TV industry. Cable television encourages people to consider cable as a medium for their advertising message. The proposed benefit is the ability to spend advertising dollars more effectively by targeting the appropriate market segment. For example, Saturday morning advertising can choose to target the message to young children who can be manipulated to desire the latest toy action hero. The message may be tailored during sporting events directly to fifty-year-old bald guys who watch golf and who are interested in weight-loss products, the stock market, and hair-loss prevention.

In sharp contrast, though, God’s message was targeted to the shepherds. The message is one of joy. Years before this message of joy would be delivered to the shepherds concerning Jesus’ birth, the Prophet Micah records where this future King would come from in Micah 5:2…

But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.

However, as this message was initially targeted to the shepherds on a Bethlehem hillside, it wasn’t for them alone.

A Message for All People

God’s message for all people reaches different people—people who are young, people who are old, people who look different from one another, and people who have grown up in different backgrounds. God’s message is for everyone.

Let’s explore primarily the message given by the angel in verse 10…

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. "

How did this angelic announcement about God’s gift of grace have an impact upon the shepherds? [Video here]

1. God’s grace to the shepherds provided aspiration

10 … “I bring you good news of great joy”

The good news of great joy was proclaimed to the shepherds. Joy ought to be the mark of every Jesus-follower as well. Joy marks that same sense of being free, the aspiration of being delivered because the Deliverer is present. And as we look at Jesus—not as we seek for the feeling or look for the joy, but as we concentrate on the Savior, as we remind ourselves of who he is and what he came to do and what he can do—then we will long for that same wonderful fulfillment of the angel's announcement. We need not be afraid. And there will break upon our hearts and faces a sense of a continuing joy.

Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheistic German philosopher, made this rude remark to some Christians one day; "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, then you've got to look a lot more redeemed."

That is true, isn't it? What is the basis of the Jesus-follower’s happiness this Advent? Christmas is a time of happiness, but Christmas is not what makes us happy. And if our family is all gathered around us at Christmastime, the presence of all our loved ones gives us joy in our hearts. But if that is the sole basis of our joy, what happens if one of those loved ones is taken away? Will our happiness remain?

Our joy does not come through circumstances. We welcome happy circumstances, and we thank God for them. But if we could see what our lives would be like without Jesus Christ for even one moment, we would never cease to praise God for every single blessing that comes into our lives. It all comes from his loving, gracious hands. But what if the loved ones were gone? Would the happiness remain?

No matter what the trial may be, the promise of this verse is that we have a Savior, a Deliverer, especially designed to handle that problem, a Savior who is with us always. If we remember that, and look to him, he will take us through it. He does not promise to take the problem away, but he says he will take us through it. He will strengthen us to face it and will give us courage and peace and joy in the midst of it. Therefore the promise of the angel was…

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy"

The “Grinch” of Christmas will seek to rob us of our joy this season if we are not careful. His tactics are simple, but effective:

Circumstances. Most of us must confess that when life situations are “going our way” we feel a lot happier and we are much easier to live with. But the circumstances of life are not really under our control, so we need to rise above our circumstances and not be driven to live “under” the circumstances.

People. Many of us have lost our joy because of people: what they are, what they say, and what they do. But we have to live and work with people; we cannot isolate ourselves and still live to glorify Christ.

Things. Laying up treasures on earth is harmful to our joy: they are not safe, they do not last, and they never fully satisfy. Yet most people today think that joy comes from the things that they own. In reality, things can rob us of the only kind of joy that really lasts.

Worry. This is the worst thief of all. Many people have been robbed of joy and fulfillment because of worry. While medicine can remove the symptoms of worry, it cannot remove the cause. Worry is an “inside job.” We can purchase “sleep” at the drug store, but we cannot purchase “rest.”

How do we immobilize the Grinch of Christmas and keep him from taking away our joy this Christmas? We must cultivate the right kind of mind. If outlook determines outcome, then the attitude of mind that we cultivate will determine our joy or lack of it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was Professor of theology at the University of Berlin in Germany in 1930’s. Bonhoeffer was among those who could not go along with Hitler’s anti-Jewish, radically German vision. With others he set up an underground church which explicitly refused to ally itself to Hitler’s Third Reich vision. It was dangerous. In 1937 Bonhoeffer was sacked. He flees to London. Two years later Bonhoeffer’s faced with a choice. He’s been offered one of the most prestigious theology appointments in the world— lecturing at Union Seminary in New York or returning to Germany to head up an illegal, underground seminary for the churches that refuse to go along with Hitler. He decides his faith is meaningless if he takes the easy option. He heads back to Germany and finds Hitler so evil that he abandons his commitment to non violence and gets involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The plot fails and in 1943 Bonhoeffer’s arrested. In prison he leads worship services for his fellow prisoners, until the fateful day April 9, 1945 when he’s executed by the Nazis. In the final days of his life, languishing in a Nazi concentration camp waiting for execution, we might forgive Bonhoeffer for being desperately unhappy. Yet this is what he wrote in his last letter: "What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on circumstances; it really depends on what happens inside a person."

This is what Christmas must mean to us. It depends so little on circumstances, people, things, worry; it really depends on what happens inside us. And all the days of the year that lie ahead are to be met by the fact that we have in our midst and in our hearts, if we have come to know him, a Savior, a Deliverer, a Rescuer, Christ the Lord. All authority has been given unto him, in heaven and on earth. No event and no circumstance can come into our lives that will be more than Christ can handle, more than he can take us through. It is that knowledge that gives the heart peace and puts joy upon the countenance.

2. God’s grace to the shepherds provided accessibility

10 … “that will be for all the people."

The message proclaimed to the shepherds was accessible to all people—it most certainly was user-friendly. There is a lot of separation between people, depending in part on their place of origin and culture. God has created us in tremendous diversity. We are very different from one another, but we are all creatures of God’s hand. God’s message isn’t only for me, for “my” people; it is for the entire diverse family. Sometimes, sadly, and perhaps too frequently, we forget this truth.

Considering the ongoing struggle for joy and peace in Israel, the following story illustrates this truth that the message of Christmas is for all people. Peter Arnett was a CNN television commentator and reporter. He tells of a time he was in Israel, in a small town on the West Bank, when a bomb exploded. Bloodied people were everywhere. A man came running up to Peter holding a little girl in his arms. He pleaded with Peter to take her to a hospital. As a member of the press he would be able to get through the security barricade that had been thrown around the explosion scene. Peter, the man and the girl jumped into his car and rushed to the hospital. The whole time the man was pleading with him to hurry, to go faster, heartbroken at the thought the little girl might die. Sadly the little girl’s injuries were too great and she died on the operating table. When the doctor came out to give them the news the man collapsed in tears. Peter Arnett was lost for words. "I don't know what to say. I can't imagine what you must be going through. I've never lost a child.” It was then that the man said, "Oh, mister! That girl was not my daughter. I'm an Israeli settler. She was a Palestinian. But there comes a time when each of us must realize that every child, regardless of that child's background, is a daughter or a son. There must come a time when we realize that we are all family."

This Advent season, the joy of being a part of God’s family, radiates good news of great joy. That joy can only be experienced by those who personally receive Jesus Christ into their hearts and minds. It’s the kind of joy the Christ-child brings—When Heaven Touches Earth.

To become a Jesus-follower…

ADMIT that you are a sinner who needs a Savior.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

BELIEVE that Jesus is the only Savior available.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

CHOOSE to follow Jesus.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

PRAYER: “Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you died on the cross to pay in full for all of my sins. I am sorry for going my own way for so long. I now admit that I am a sinner who needs a Savior. I believe that Heaven is a gift that you alone can give me, a gift that I cannot earn and will never deserve. Help me to become your child—the individual you created me to be as I choose to follow you and become a worldchanger.”

As we prepare our hearts during this Advent season for the coming of Christ, it is important to ask, “What does it mean for that message of good news of great joy to come through us to all people, now? What does it mean for us personally? What does that mean for our church community?”

The direction of that message still has to do with how we prepare to receive as well as how we prepare to reach out. It can be summed up in one word: hospitality. The Hebrew people in the Scriptures were reminded to be ones who welcomed and ones who participated in hospitality because they heard over and over, “Remember that once you were foreigners and strangers. Remember what that was like?”

Paul’s words are a reflection of this hospitality as recorded in Ephesians 2:12-13, 19…

--remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ… 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household.

So we remember what it was like to be outside of God’s grace. We remember that we were once excluded from citizenship and foreigners to God’s covenant of the promise in Jesus Christ. So we welcome the foreigner, and the stranger.

One of my favorite writers is the Russian poet Leo Tolstoy. I’ve referred to his writings often in my messages. Tolstoy wrote a book entitled, Walk in the Light and Twenty-three Tales. Let’s consider one of the tales about Martin the cobbler as we capture the essence of the good news of great joy that will be for all people on this third Sunday in Advent.

Martin is an old man who has become isolated and embittered, even angry with God because of the death of his wife and their last remaining child. Since the time of their deaths, Martin has ceased to interact with the people of the town or to share in their celebrations, and instead he throws himself completely, day and night, into his work repairing shoes. One day Martin hears a voice speaking to him as if in a dream, and informing him that the Christ will be coming to visit him that very day. Martin doesn’t completely believe what he has heard, but nonetheless, he begins to watch and work in a different way.

As he watches for the coming of the Christ, he begins to notice people’s struggles outside his shop window. He notices Stepanitch, a poor old man, freezing outside while trying to shovel snow. Martin brings him in from the cold, offers him hot tea, and treats him with kindness.

Later in the day, Martin notices outside a frail woman with a baby, and both are wearing only summer clothes. Martin brings them in from the cold, gives them something warm to eat and drink, and offers the woman his coat to keep her warm.

Finally, Martin overhears a disturbance outside between a young boy and an old woman selling apples. The boy has stolen an apple from the woman because he had no money and was hungry. Martin breaks up the disturbance and becomes a peacemaker between the two.

Later, as the sun begins to set and the cobbler prepares to stop work for the evening, he again starts to despair. “I thought the Christ was coming to my home to visit me,” he thinks to himself. Just then a voice comes to him and says, “I did come to you, Martin. I was the man whom you brought in from the cold and gave something warm to drink. I was the woman whom you fed and to whom you gave your coat. I was the hungry child to whom you gave nourishment. And I was the old woman and the young boy who were fighting in the street, and to whom you brought peace. Whatsoever you have done unto the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you have done unto me” (Matthew 25:40).

If we watch for people as we would watch for the birth of the Christ-child and realize that in welcoming others we are welcoming Christ, we will be well on our way to living out the joy that is for all people. This is really what Advent is about—not presents and decorations, not even manger scenes, candles, and wreaths. But learning a different way home, to make room in our hearts, minds, lives, and churches to wait and watch, with active anticipation, for the coming of the Christ, who was, who is, and who is yet to come! Amen.

As we prepare our lives, we peacefully allow our lives to be ones through whom God’s hands bring restoration, ones through whom heaven touches earth.

Throughout this Advent message series entitled When Heaven Touches Earth, we’re looking at the ways from a portion of the Christmas story in Luke 2:8-14 in which we can become more aware of and more involved in the divine intersecting the daily around us, in, and through us. It is a small section of the Christmas story that opens up for us some important points of consideration and contemplating as we once again make this month-long journey to Bethlehem.

Advent is a time when we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace. We are preparing, yet we know the truth is that he has already come. Jesus has arrived. Jesus came more than two thousand years ago, he arrived in Bethlehem, and we still celebrate this occasion. It is good to know that God sent the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, to be with us as the price of peace. Emmanuel, God with us. And it shows, too. The Messiah, the Prince of Peace, has ushered in a whole new time of peace. There is peace in the world. There is peace in all of our relationships. There is peace in all of our homes. There is peace all over the place. Isn’t that nice? It is something to celebrate.

But wait a minute. There is not peace. There is not peace all over the world. There is not peace in all of our homes. There is not peace in all of our churches. There is not even peace in all of our hearts. So did the Prince of Peace not bring what was expected?

A man once found himself on a train between two ladies. In this instance it was an unpleasant experience as the two ladies argued incessantly about whether the window should be shut or open. The lady furthest from the window argued that she would die of heat stroke if it wasn’t opened. The other said she would almost certainly catch pneumonia if it didn’t stay closed. When the ticket inspector arrived the ladies appealed to him to arbitrate on the issue. Unfortunately he had no solution. Eventually the man spoke up. "First open the window. That will kill the one. Then close it. That will kill the other. Then we will have peace."

Many people have a concept of peace similar to the man in this story. For them peace is the absence of conflict. However, this perspective falls far short of the biblical concept of peace. Safety consists not in the absence of conflict but in the presence of God.

Let’s consider another example…

The Personnel Journal reported this incredible statistic: since the beginning of recorded history, the entire world has been at peace less than eight percent of the time! In its study, the periodical discovered that of 3,530 years of recorded history, only 286 years saw peace. Moreover, in excess of 8,000 peace treaties were made--and broken.

So in Scripture peace is not the absence of conflict but it is also the presence of love, generosity and grace as the transforming principle of our relationships. [Video Clip—the Christmas Wish]

The biblical concept of peace offers three perspectives:

First, real peace hinges on what’s happening inside us, not around us. We are all tempted to believe the lie that our peace—or our happiness for that matter—hinges on our ability to control what is gong on around us. So if there is an absence of conflict, then everything is at peace. We spend a great deal of time and energy trying to control our environment and the people in it. But real peace has to do with what’s going on inside us, not around us.

Let’s think about peace this way. When we become discontented, the first thing we lose is our peace. But the Bible teaches that peace is apart of the fruit of the Spirit. Its source is the Holy Spirit; he is producing it in us. If we can lose our peace when our circumstances turn bad, the peace we are experiencing is not fruit of the Spirit; it was fruit of good circumstance. To experience peace, we must acknowledge that we are looking to what we cannot control to provide us with our peace. Only then can we begin to look in the right direction for our peace.

Second, peace is need, not want, oriented. God will meet all our needs; God is going to take good care of us. Much of our lack of peace stems from not getting what we want. God has not promised to meet all of our wants according to his riches in glory. As long as our peace hinges on getting what we want, we are on an emotional roller coaster.

God is a perfect heavenly Father, and he has sent to us this Advent season the perfect Prince of Peace. God knows what we need. God knows what we don’t need. God knows what we want. God knows what we can handle. And God is committed to doing what’s best for us. The secret of peace, then, includes distinguishing between what we need and what we want. It means rejoicing over the promise of God to meet our needs.

Third, peace is a matter of trust. If we really trust God—if we really believe God loves us and has our best interest in mind—when things fall apart around us, things don’t have to fall apart inside us. Peace is trusting God even when things seem out of control. A lack of peace, on the other hand, is really a lack of faith in God’s love and concern for us. To express a lack of peace is to suggest that God has lost control, or that God doesn’t care.

Jesus said in John 14:27…

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Jesus talked about a different kind of peace. He also talked about God’s peace that Paul referred to as the peace which transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7). The peace that Jesus gives takes on different forms than the peace that the world can offer. It comes in forms that are evident if we open our eyes and see a type of peace that is beyond normal human understanding. It is a peace that is available to each one of us, a peace that can sustain us, and a peace that can move through us. God gives us the gift of peace, and we respond by both accepting the gift and emulating the giver in sharing and spreading that peace to others.

As we continue our journey into this season, let’s now pay a visit to a multitude of angels who proclaim a message to some shepherds who were living out in the fields near Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago. Maybe we must look more closely at the message proclaimed by the angels in Luke 8:14…

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

There is a breach between One who is “God in the highest heaven” and those of us who dwell on earth. The question is, how is that breach to be healed? How is peace to be restored? It won’t happen by our trying to “get back to God.”

There is an old country gospel song which says…

God came down to our level when we couldn’t get up to him

With a strong arm he lifted us up and taught us what living is

He’ll come down to your level if you open up your heart

He wants to make your life worth living and give you a new start

Our efforts are not sufficient to cross this breach. Healing happens as God comes down to our level in the form of Jesus Christ, the child who entered into the world, born here so that God’s grace and love would cover us, make us new, and restore our hearts to peaceful relationship with the Creator. Peace with God. That’s the first part of peace brought by the Prince of Peace. That is the central message of the gospel.

Isaiah describes peace with God by a time of peace in Isaiah 11:5, 6…

Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

The Hebrew word for peace is “Shalom” and it means complete or whole. So through the angels, God tells the shepherds the meaning of this most significant event in cosmic history. The meaning is peace; Jesus’ birth is to bring peace, shalom, blessedness, fullness. This is the message from the angels to the shepherds and through them to us. Christ’s coming—a little child leading them—means peace. Again, it’s not necessarily the absence of conflict, but a different kind of peace.

Several years ago someone passed along this warning: Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner peace. Here are some of the signs.

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment

A loss of interest in judging other people

A loss of the ability to worry

Frequent attacks of smiling

An increased susceptibility to the love of others and the urge to return that love

This is the peace that we mentioned earlier that grows from the inside out. Contrary to the message of our culture that tells us peace will come on the inside when we have the right things on the outside of our lives. Peace with God is a gift of the Christ-child that begins within and grows outwardly. And we discovered in our last message that the longer we are still, and the more often we listen for it and anticipate it, and the more willing we are to receive, that peace will grow within us.

Know Jesus, Know Peace

No Jesus, No Peace

Peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of trouble, but is rather the confidence that he is there with us always. When we know Jesus, we know peace. But when there is no Jesus, no peace resides.

This peace the angels speak of is not for everyone. The Greek usage used here “to those on whom his favor rests,” refers to those known as “laity.” The laity are not second-class followers of Jesus (with clergy being first-class). The laity are all the people of God. The best translation the Greek scholars have come up with for this message of peace is: Peace among those who are the recipients of God’s good pleasure.” If we are able to receive what God wants to give, the message of peace is for us. Would that it were for all. It is available for all, and when and if we receive what God wants to give us, we have peace.

How did this gift of peace announced by the angels have an impact upon the shepherds?

Let’s look at our text again from Luke 2:14…

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

1. The shepherds experienced peace from knowing they were alone, but not lonely

The shepherds didn’t always experience this peace. We can be sure that even when they felt close to God and experienced God’s good pleasure, they fell down just as hard, if not harder than, before. Perhaps they felt as though things were falling apart all around them. There is no peace when they were in that kind of mess. That’s a feeling of a lack of peace. We too must feel that way even when we experience God’s good pleasure. We must also feel that things all around us are falling apart.

Let’s consider for a moment a child of God, chosen by God, blessed by God, who found himself in a very difficult situation. His name was Jacob. Jacob had a twin brother named Esau. Of the two brothers, Esau was the more rugged. Esau was the hunter, the outdoorsman. As the firstborn son, Esau was due to receive his “birthright” or inheritance, and his father’s blessing. Esau was supposed to be the one who would lead the family upon the father’s death. Jacob, however, had a different plan in mind: Jacob was going to steal his brother’s birthright. He was going to claim for himself the blessing that was due to Esau.

So we might deduce that Jacob wasn’t experiencing peace with God. He took advantage of the fact that his father was very old and was blind. Jacob tricked his father and stole Esau’s birthright, and then he left town in a hurry. For Jacob, there is no peace. There in the desert, alone, underneath the stars, with his head upon a rock, pursued by a troubled past and running into an unknown future, Jacob falls asleep. While he is asleep, God, that same One who much later would pierce the night sky to tell the shepherds of the coming of Christ, pierces the darkness in Jacob’s mind, evoking the image of a stairway where heaven touches earth, where angels are ascending and descending, and the Lord comes and stands besides Jacob and says to him from Genesis 28:15…“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

When Jacob wakes up, he thinks, Even with all of this in my past, even in the face of an unknown future, even with this brokenness right here and right now, with my head upon a rock, I am in the very presence of God, and I didn’t even know it! (See Genesis 25-28)

That knowledge didn’t change Jacob’s situation. It didn’t stop Esau from pursuing him. It didn’t make the rock soft against his head. It didn’t get Jacob a free ride to a certain place of blessing. But it did give Jacob the peace to understand that he was alone, but not lonely. That he was dwelling in the very presence of God, even in the midst of his struggles. Not peace like the world gives, but peace like God gives.

2. The shepherds experienced peace not merely brought to them, but through them

Peace-bringing does not stop with peace being brought to the shepherds. The same God who wanted to restore the breach between heaven and earth, who sent a child to be with them, to give them grace and bring them back into relationship, that same One who pierces the darkness and says, “Even though you are struggling, I am with you,” wants to say “Peace” to all who sit in darkness.

Do we know how God plans to do that? That’s what the shepherds were for. Today that’s what we are for. Feel our hands hold the innocence of a new born baby. Those are the hands that the Creator of the universe wants to use to bring hope and healing to people this Advent season. Feel that beating of the heart. Ours is the heart that God wants to use to stir, to quicken, to bring light to those who dwell in darkness in our very town or community. God is still in the peace-bringing business. The announcement now comes to those who have been redeemed. And that announcement is for each of us who are willing to be recipients of God’s good pleasure.

One of the most powerful experiences of heaven touching earth is found when God enables us to be peace-bringers. This season we have had and still have opportunities to bring peace to others in several ways: the Thanksgiving love gifts that were extended to those in our community; the shoeboxes that were sent to children around the world; the Sugar Plum Tree and Santa Clothes that allow us to give gifts to foster children; Christmas caroling by our children to those who are homebound; the Celebration Handbells who ring peace with God to those in retirement homes. The opportunity to bring a fresh laundered blanket to worship on the Sundays of December 16 & 23 so a special Christmas package can be given to the homeless between Christmas Eve and the New Year. The opportunities to be peace-bringers are endless.

That is what God wants to do through us. The Prince of Peace has come to provide a restoration of that breach between heaven and earth, reminding us that even in difficulty we may be alone, but not lonely. The Prince of Peace has come calling us to bring peace, to be more than we ever could be on our own, to the ones through whom God’s hands touch, ones through whom heaven touches earth.

How can we wait effectively and receive the Prince of Peace today if we don’t allow peace with God to rule in our hearts and minds?

Let’s accept the invitation this Advent season of preparation to once again set aside some time away from distraction, away from noise, away from craziness, just to be peaceful. Perhaps we could simply drink a relaxing beverage (like herb tea) at home, get quiet, and spend five-ten minutes in pure silence, receiving the Prince of Peace afresh and anew.

Charles Wesley writes…I rest beneath the Almighty's shade/ My griefs expire, my troubles cease/ Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed/ Wilt keep me still in perfect peace.

Isaiah 26:3 affirms this perfect peace… You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Maybe we’ve heard the message of peace but haven’t personally experienced its reality in our own lives. Perhaps we are struggling with something we have done, or with something we haven’t done, or with something we keep doing, or whatever it might be, and we wonder, How can we be home with God when we’re dragging all of this brokenness around?

We need to hear this message of the gospel: God knows our lives, and God loves us tremendously. That is why God sent Jesus to bring us peace. It’s there for us. What is required is simply opening our hearts and minds to receive the gift—that gift of grace and the peace that it brings, to allow Christ to come in, to cleanse us, to give us a new beginning.

This Advent season, that is the kind of peace the Prince of Peace brings—When Heaven Touches Earth.

To become a Jesus-follower…

ADMIT that you are a sinner who needs a Savior.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

BELIEVE that Jesus is the only Savior available.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

CHOOSE to follow Jesus.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

PRAYER: “Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you died on the cross to pay in full for all of my sins. I am sorry for going my own way for so long. I now admit that I am a sinner who needs a Savior. I believe that Heaven is a gift that you alone can give me, a gift that I cannot earn and will never deserve. Help me to become your child—the individual you created me to be as I choose to follow you and become a worldchanger.”

This peace is not like what the world gives. It is the peace that can come only through Christ. This is an ongoing process. We receive the grace that has come, but it is not yet fully revealed in and through our lives. Advent is about preparing for and receiving a deepening experience of this revelation of shalom—freedom, blessing, completeness, wholeness. We can confidently say that God is in this place regarding any situation in which we need peace with God. Do we sense his presence this Christmas? The message proclaimed to the shepherds is still a message of peace for us today—peace with God, peace in God, and the peace God brings through us.

Can we say this Advent?—God is in this place! Whatever we are facing…God is in this place!

So let’s close this message with an invitation to peace this Advent from Philippians 4:4-7…

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen!

As we prepare our hearts, we hopefully watch for God’s coming toward us. We will see that this is a time when heaven touches earth.

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting “The Creation of Adam” is a powerful and popular picture because it focuses on a dimension of reality that, as Jesus-followers, gives us our hope. It is a picture of the act of creation—of heaven touching earth. The beautiful event we prepare for during Advent and celebrate at Christmas—the birth of the Christ- Child—is another example of God’s taking initiative and reaching out so that heaven would again touch the earth: the divine intersecting the daily.

Throughout this Advent message series entitled When Heaven Touches Earth, we will be looking at the ways from a portion of the Christmas story in Luke 2:8-14 in which we can become more aware of and more involved in the divine intersecting the daily around us, in, and through us. It is a small section of the Christmas story that opens up for us some important points of consideration and contemplating as we once again make this month-long journey to Bethlehem.

For some reason, people have always looked to the sky as the place from which God would come to touch the world. The sky is so expansive and mysterious…and, even with airplanes, space shuttles, and space probes, still so beyond our reach. It is not in the farthest reaches of the cosmos, however, that we find the activity of God. It is in the activities that take place around us that we are able to see most powerfully the continued touch of God on the world—if we have prepared hearts, eyes, minds, and spirits for it.

Let’s compare the way our current culture celebrates this season to the way in which the church calls us to celebrate this season:

The Mall—on one side we are called to celebrate the season of Christmas, which, according to cultural tradition, starts the day after Labor Day. The beginning of this season is marked by several events. All of the gift items go on sale. All of the decorations go up in the malls and other public places. The background music in the stores changes from standard-issue elevator music to “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” When this season begins, something deep happens within us. When we hear that Christmas music, we find ourselves beginning to be drawn toward an inevitable buying splurge. The culture creates a season of preparation, but it is preparation for something very different from real Advent preparation. It is preparation to buy, to decorate, and to give. Just for the record, $7.3 billion was spent at the malls over Thanksgiving weekend. Last Christmas season $530 billion was spent on Christmas gifts. Cultural preparations for Christmas are not inherently bad, but let’s not get confused and think that this is what Scripture is calling us to do.

The Manger—on the other side we are called by the church to celebrate the season called “Advent.” Advent is a time of preparation. It is the four weeks before Christmas Day. It is a time when we prepare our hearts, eyes, minds, and spirits for the birth of Christ into the world. It is a shared experience that helps us see the reality of living in a time in which Christ has come, but in which he is not yet fully revealed in our hearts, in our eyes, in our minds, and in our world. Advent teaches us the discipline and blessing of waiting on God. Advent is about learning to wait on the God who is constantly reaching out to us—when heaven touches earth.

Therefore, we are in a kind of tug-of-war over Christmas right now and the winner will get to define what Christmas really means. On one end, pulling diligently on the Christmas rope is an extravagant, excessive, retail-driven culture with the hope of defining it very differently from the Christmas story. On the other end, pulling just as diligently on the Christmas rope is a story that starts in Scripture and has evolved through the tradition of the church.

So our Advent preparation falls somewhere between the mall and the manger. If we would take the Advent Litmus Test it may help us to keep watch and prepare appropriately for God’s coming toward us in the appearance of the baby—the Christ-child. What is a litmus test anyway?

Litmus Test =

A kind of indicator used to classify something either favorably or unfavorably

The litmus test for the Advent season classifies our Christmas celebration on a continuum between the mall and the manger.

Mall _______________________________________________________ Manger

At least part of what Advent is for is to give us time to decide which side of the middle we are going to line up on. Advent is a time for us to think about what we want our Christmas celebration to look like, and feel like, and be about. It’s a tug-of-war between the mall and the manger, and the winner gets to say what Christmas will be like. On one side, our throwaway culture preaches the promises of immediate gratification. On the other side, people of faith are saying that this is a time to prepare and to savor.

We don’t want Christmas as Jesus-followers to be defined just by our purchasing power, or just by the tendencies of a consumer culture, or just by the needs of retail stores to move their merchandise. We want the experience of Christmas to be richer, deeper, and more lasting. And so we are invited into this season of preparation to sort out our lives, to identify our real hope, to claim its real meaning. We are invited to take time daily to watch and wait, to cultivate an active hope, to think and reflect, to talk with people around us, so that at least as far as we are concerned Christmas takes on a distinctively Christian witness to God’s love for us all. It brings Christmas back to us!

As we begin our journey into this season, let’s first pay a visit to some shepherds who were living out in the fields near Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago. Our first observation is recorded in Luke 2:8-9…

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

Keeping Watch

What did the Scripture say the shepherds were doing? They were living in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. They had to keep watch in this way because there were no electric fences to keep the wolves away from the sheep, and we can be sure that sheep insurance wasn’t available. If a wolf or some other predator killed their sheep, it would cost the shepherds their livelihood—so they had to watch. They were out there in the fields at night, watching in order to protect the things that kept them alive.

But it is most likely that these lowly Jewish shepherds were also keeping watch with hopeful expectation for the Lord. Perhaps they knew the affirmation from the psalmist. It is recorded in Psalm 130:5, 7…

5 I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. 7 Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.

How did the shepherds keep watch by hopefully waiting for the Lord?

1. The shepherds were actively listening

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

One common image of the shepherds is a picture of them on a hill with a big full moon, stars in the sky, with a light illuminating the field and their surrounding. But they didn’t have halogen lights on their four wheelers. They didn’t have big streetlights. They didn’t have floodlights to keep the wolves away. And at times they didn’t even have the moonlight to rely on. It was dark for those shepherds. So how did they keep watch? They listened.

It wouldn’t have gone well for those shepherds if they all had decided to hang out in the fields with their iPods, passing the time listening to music. Why? Because if they had done that, then when the wolves came and ate the sheep, the shepherds wouldn’t have heard what they were “watching” for! They would have missed it. They could have had their eyes wide open but missed it. Why? Something would have obscured their ability to keep watch with their ears. By filling themselves with noise and information, they might have missed what they were placed in the field to do—keep watch!

We have the same temptation today of distraction. We wake up, turn on the radio, the TV, the CD player, the iPod, or the computer, and as the morning goes on, our ears are filled with whatever happens to be on. At home, we’re talking, checking with the family, doing homework, preparing dinner, making plans for the next day, checking our emails, listening to the news and other nighttime TV shows before getting into bed. If we’re not careful and intentional about it, the only time we get silence is when we go to sleep. And even then, it’s a restless sleep for many in our deafening and distracting culture.

If it had been possible for those shepherds to become distracted from their task, to become unaware of the dangers that were threatening their sheep—if it were possible for distraction or inattention to obscure their silence, causing them to miss what they were waiting for, it is possible that the same temptation can happen to us this Christmas. We will choose the mall mentality over the manger mindset.

How can we wait effectively and hear the renewed coming of God today if we don’t allow ourselves to be silent?

Let’s accept the invitation this Advent season of preparation to see if we can set aside some time away from distraction, away from noise, away from craziness, just to be still. Perhaps we could simply drink a relaxing beverage (like herb tea) at home, get quiet, and spend five-ten minutes in pure silence, listening for God.

2. The shepherds were actively anticipating

9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

We can imagine as those shepherds were keeping watch in the fields that the angel of the Lord came to them, and a bright, glorious light illuminated all around them. As they recoiled in terror, the angel comforted them. In their active anticipation, they were able to have their hearts calmed in the midst of God’s glory. They needed to have their hearts calmed because they would have to make an extra effort to focus so they could see or hear if their sheep were starting to wander off, or if some wolves or other dangers were approaching. The shepherds had to keep a direct watch, a careful watch, an intentional watch, over those sheep. Having a heart that is calm in the midst of chaos is important.

The story is told by a young father who was returning with his family from the Thanksgiving holidays toward the end of one November. Let’s listen as the father shares the following story: As we reached our own our suburb we heard excited cries from the back seat, "It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! Hooray it’s Christmas! Look dad, it’s Christmas!" There were my preschool age daughters, eyes wide with wonder, beaming smiles, pointing to a house ablaze with Christmas lights. So we drove by, and I tell you, if you’ve seen the Griswald Family Christmas, this was a repeat. There was hardly a blank spot on the walls or roof. The entire house was covered with Christmas lights. But what were we to tell our daughters? It was still only the end of November. We had to explain that while the lights meant Christmas time was approaching, Christmas day was still 30 sleeps away. And to preschoolers, 30 sleeps might as well be 30,000 sleeps.

In a similar way, Christ’s coming at the first Christmas to those shepherds was the signal that God’s kingdom was coming. It’s still not here in its fullness, and to our time scale it seems an eternity since Christ promised his return. But though it may be many sleeps away, the signs are there. It is coming. It takes hopeful intentional watching. We do some hopeful intentional watching too. We intentionally watch TV, setting the digital recorder or TiVo to record our favorite shows. We intentionally watch our young children or grandchildren at the swimming pool or the park to keep them from harm. We watch the stock market. We watch for that special piece of mail. We watch for new business opportunities.

Watching is active anticipation, and the way we watch shapes the reality of what we perceive, and the intensity of what we do with our time and schedule. More importantly, watching defines the inner recesses of our hearts and allows us to take the time to intentionally prepare our hearts for the Christ-child to be born afresh and anew in us.

How can we wait with anticipation and prepare our hearts for the renewed coming of God today if we don’t allow ourselves to be silent?

Let’s accept the invitation this Advent season of preparation to see if we can set aside some time away to make ready our hearts, away from the busyness, the hype, hassle and hustle of the season, just to involve ourselves in wholesome activity. Perhaps we could simply trim a candle and our time/schedule toward a more contemplative lifestyle, reading the Scriptures and journaling, anticipating God.

So let’s face it; Christmas is a stressful time for most adults between the mall and the manger. For some it is a time of intense loneliness or crushing grief because of a loved one who is gone. Even at its best, Christmas means parties to plan, numerous trips to the mall to buy gifts, elaborate meals to cook, long trips to take, or out-of-town guests to host. Instead of bringing the preparation of wonder and celebration, Christmas can bring frustration.

I heard a story about a woman who was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before. Her arms were full of bulky packages when the elevator door opened. It was full. The occupants of the elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and hanged!” A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.”

We need to remember who is responsible for the whole Christmas story. It is all about an appointed time in which God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). We choose the manger over the mall!

Paul testifies concerning this set time in Galatians 4:4-5…

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

This “set time” refers to a moment when the world was providentially ready for the birth of a Savior. Religious bankruptcy and spiritual hunger were everywhere. God was preparing the world for the arrival of his Son. The same is true today. In the midst of religious bankruptcy and spiritual hunger, God is still hopefully preparing hearts this Advent season. Let’s actively listen and anticipate the coming again of Jesus Christ. One of the ways we can keep watch is through the remembering of Jesus’ sacrifice through Holy Communion. We celebrate this partaking of the Lord’s Table on the first Sunday of every month at Christ First.the Mall and the Manger

This Advent season we hopefully turn our hearts toward eternity in the Incarnation of Christ-child—When Heaven Touches Earth.

To become a Jesus-follower…

ADMIT that you are a sinner who needs a Savior.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

BELIEVE that Jesus is the only Savior available.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

CHOOSE to follow Jesus.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

PRAYER: “Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you died on the cross to pay in full for all of my sins. I am sorry for going my own way for so long. I now admit that I am a sinner who needs a Savior. I believe that Heaven is a gift that you alone can give me, a gift that I cannot earn and will never deserve. Help me to become your child—the individual you created me to be as I choose to follow you and become a worldchanger.”

Jesus is come, and yet he is not fully arrived. We hopefully wait on God with prepared hearts. As we actively listen to and anticipate God’s touch, we become witnesses to the constant reality of the divine initiative—God coming toward us. As we wait, as we watch, we will see that this is a place and a time when heaven touches earth.

Therefore, Advent season is a time for our waiting between the mall and the manger. But we aren’t the only ones waiting. There is One who is waiting for us. Hopefully waiting to see what we will do with this complex season. Hopefully waiting to see if we will prepare our hearts and open our ears. Hopefully waiting to see if we really want Christmas back! Amen.