Christmas Day Sermon

Luke 2:8-20

The Shepherds and the Angels

 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

  But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 

  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’

 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

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I imagine that you've never been jealous of the life of a shepherd.  Imagine yourself outside in a mid-December night, wrapped up against the cold but unable to afford the warmest clothes.  You're standing around, watching the sheep sleep in the middle of the night, wondering what on God's green earth you're doing this for.  It's not a job for the feint of heart, or for the weak, or for the rich—those who have the ability or freedom to do anything else would choose just that.  But the shepherds are there because they don't have anything else—they haven't turned down lives of luxury because they feel called to a ministry to sheep.  They're shepherds because it puts food on the table.  They're shepherds because it pays, even if it doesn't pay much.

It's not a job they would choose, and it's not a job we would choose.  But it's a job, and in this day and age, that still counts for something—even if it doesn't pay as much as we like, it's still pay.  Some people are shepherds because they have to be, just as people today do jobs because they have to do them, because there isn't anything else. 

It's this crowd to whom God sends the heavenly host of angels to announce the birth of a Savior.  God is always doing strange things like this—he's reaching out to the last people in the world we'd expect him to reach out to.  He's inviting people in to the party who don't seem like the first option on the party invite list.  We'd expect God to show up in a church or a synagogue—instead God shows up in a pasture, with the sheep.

God does strange things.  The Incarnation itself is a bit strange—the Savior of the world being born in a manger in poverty.  But they're not strange to God—to God, it's a chance to show a love for the poor and the needy.  To God, it's a chance to reach out to the world, and God reaches out to everyone, even those people we might leave off the list if we were in charge of making it up.  And so, as a result, a heavenly host of angels show up in the middle of a field of sheep to announce to the shepherds the news that a Savior is born.

So, here we are, two thousand years later, still hearing the story that the angels told on that first Christmas, and God is still reaching out to all of humanity, to the rich as well as the poor, to the greatest and least of these in our minds, because to God we are all equal, each one of us a sinner in need of a Savior.

We don't have the first words of Jesus recorded, but we have some of the last words—Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  We, too, are sent to share the message with everyone.  We're called to go to those the world considers the least—the shepherds of today's world, the poor and the homeless, those so quickly forgotten—and share the love of Christ.  We, too, are called to take this message to fields and plains, to the places we might not naturally go, as well as the places we frequent everyday.  We're called to join with the angels and sing the songs of God's amazing love, so that we might tell the whole world about God's gracious and free love.

Let us pray.