Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day

Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:1-20

Luke 2:1-20

¹ In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴ Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵ He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.

  ⁸ Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before 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, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹ to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
 ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
  and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
  ¹⁵ 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.” ¹⁶ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, ¹⁹ and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

. . .

Signs II

Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

After I had settled on the provisional title for these Christmas sermons -“Signs” – I was immediately reminded of M. Knight Shyamalan’s Movie of the same title starring Mel Gibson and Joachim Phoenix. I was like, oh shoot, I will have to come up with something else. Nonetheless, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would make a good icebreaker introduction for yesterday evening’s sermon. Sorry, you will have to check online if you are curious. 

I did, however, come up with something else: Bill Engvall and the guys of the Blue Collar Tour. I know. It did not age well at all! Here is your Sign! That was Engvall Refrain. After every tale told about incredibly stupid things he would witness, people say or do, including his loved ones – nobody was saved with Bill – the Refrain would come out, here is your sign. It became an everyday thing in our young family. Honey, you put Ovaltine in the machine instead of Coffee grounds! Here is your sign! Nobody can do it like Bill, though, who can graciously call you stupid, graciously and still make you laugh!

I don’t exactly know what kind of humiliation and harassment shepherds would undergo in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth. But signs indicating they were not taken very seriously in general were evident. The historical record of the Romans tells us that their testimony in court would not be considered trustworthy. Nobody would hear or believe what they have to say. Scholars debate why that would be. Maybe the isolating nature of their occupation made them socially awkward and weird. Maybe they did not smell too good and were deemed unclean because it would not be possible to be cleansed properly in the rolling hills. Maybe they consumed too much wormwood watching their flocks by night and were constantly wandering around under the influence. We don’t know for sure, but chances are if a group of shepherds were coming down the street towards you, the advice was to move to the other side of the street or avoid them all altogether. Yet, much like the powerless women who were first witnesses of the resurrection, there were the people God chose to be the first witnesses of the birth of his forgiveness, love, and grace into the world, our Savior, Christ the Lord. And exactly like the women at the tomb, they were to go and tell everyone. 

And by the way, God’s beloved, the is the sign given to the shepherds to identify the Messiah—a child, not a king in a gold-adorned palace, born not of honor or abundance, but ashamed and unclean, not in a solid and oiled crib made of cedar, but in an animal feeder, wrapped not in silk, but in rags used to wrap newborn baby sheep. This was the sign that the Lamb of God had come into our world, a sign of good news and great joy for all the people. 

The point is, who is going to believe those guys? The sky opened, and a multitude of heavenly hosts pointed to a child born in an animal feeder. He may be your king, shepherds. Good luck! I will put my trust in something or someone else! And to your God, what foolish, silly, stupid thing! Here is your sign!

In the gospels, God’s beloved, a sign does something more than indicate something. It reveals God’s loving and gracious power to forgive us, restore us, to make us righteous, and set us free. This is not something we can do on our own. Only God can do for us. It is something that assures us of God’s presence among simple and ordinary things and people. It may not always make sense; it certainly sounds foolish sometimes, but a sign is meant to be something that makes us believe. A fully pregnant woman would not have made the 90-mile hike between Nazareth and Bethlehem through hill country and rough terrain. An infant child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger would have likely perished in that environment. I suspect nobody believed the shepherds, but the young woman who said let it be according to His will and the man who risked his reputation and his life to accompany her. The child was only born to do what the child does for us, or, if anyone believed what the shepherds had to say, it is because the full power of the Majesty of God was present in them. 

There may be yet other signs revealing how powerful this story still is. They are everywhere here today, in plain sight for everyone to see, for here we are, sinners made saints, set free, the rod of the oppressing forces in our hearts and minds broken so we can hear the story of God incarnate love for us one more time. Rejoice; our Savior lives. Go and tell. Thanks be to God. Amen.