Tony's Christmas Sermon

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Admin suggested that I might like to post my sermon from our main carol service here, so for what it's worth, here it is.

Every Blessing

Tony

The Shepherds (Carol Service 2011)
Reading: Luke 2:1-20
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (2 This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
    3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
    4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
    5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
    6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
    7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
   
The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, 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 Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ 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,   
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.
   15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.
    16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
    17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
    18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
    19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
    20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Luke is one of the 2 gospel writers that give us any detail of Jesus' birth – and even he tells the actual nativity story in a mere– 7 verses in chapter 2 – a single paragraph out of the 1,000 or so that make up his gospel.  This story of Christ's birth – along with the surrounding events of the shepherds and the wise men, are, for many people, their sum total of knowledge of Christianity  -and then often in a garbled version that's more like a fairly story than Luke's  (and Matthew's) down to earth account of the facts.  This evening, we're going to take a brief look at the shepherds – among the more minor characters in the story – but characters that God chose to be the first outside of the Holy Family to hear the good news of salvation.

The shepherds may be relatively small, unnamed characters, but Luke takes almost as long talking about them in his account as he does telling of the actual birth of Jesus.  Their first indication that something unusual was happening was a bright light, and the appearance of an angel.  We don't even know what the angel looked like – the word "angel" derives from the Greek word "angelos", which simply means "messenger".  In all the 300 or so appearances of angels in the Bible, there's only one description in Matthew 28:3 – and all that says is:- "3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow."  So maybe there's something in the nativity scenes of angels in white nighties – but there's no mention of wing, and frequently angels look just like normal human beings and aren't immediately recognised.  Indeed, the earliest pictorial representations of angels in Christianity don't have wings"  It's not until c.380 that wings start to appear.

Anyway, let's get back on track.  Shepherds in that time were among the "lower orders" of society – even though it seems quite likely that the flocks they were caring for were destined for the Temple sacrifices, so maybe these men were a cut above other shepherds – at least in terms of piety – but then again maybe not.  The work of a shepherd – the need for their constant presence with the sheep – made it pretty well impossible for them to observe the Jewish religious ordinances and festivals fully, and as a result, they had gathered a not unjustified poor reputation.  Indeed, they were regarded as unreliable – and were even banned from being witnesses in court cases.  Luke's shepherds may possibly have been devout as befits keepers of the Temple flock – but they were still a despised class – and it was to them that God first revealed the Saviour!  It was to them that the angel came.  Ordinary, working class, men.

The shepherds were frightened by this angelic apparition "they were terrified" says Luke (2:9), and indeed the angel's first words are "do not be afraid..." (Luke 2:10).  Mary had already been told that her child's name was to be "Jesus".  That actually was a fairly common name at the time – in Hebrew it would have been "Yeshua" – the same a Joshua, and means "The Lord is Salvation".  Like all babies names, it says, at their birth, more about the parents than the child!  In this case perhaps Mary & Joseph's faith - and maybe a look backwards to the stories of Joshua.  But the words of the angel change that simplicity – telling us that this name – and this child – is of great significance.  This is no pious naming of a baby, but a positive step by God to bring about salvation – to send the long promised Messiah.  Let's remind ourselves of what was said:-
"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 Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ 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,
  14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests."

The angel says that this is "good news" of "great joy" - God is at work in Salvation – and it's available to "all people". The birth of this baby, in poor circumstances – is a major step in God's plan of salvation.  These words of the angel tell of the uniqueness of the child of Mary:-
1.   He is the Saviour – the only one who can rescue mankind from the mess that we've made of God's perfect creation.  He can deal with the sin, the misery and the mortality that are the results of man's behaviour, and He can usher in God's blessings which will meet every human need.  He will bring "peace on earth" – perhaps a strange, even ironic thing to say as we look at the state the world's in these days – and has been in through the centuries – true peace on earth is still to happen – at Jesus' return and the establishment of the new creation – and that of course is God's work.  God is the creator – so the angel is hinting that Jesus was and is God.

 
2.   This baby is the Christ – "" in Greek – and that's simply the Greek form of the Hebrew "Messiah".  It means "the anointed one".  Christ, or Messiah, is the One God has authorised and appointed to carry out the work of salvation – a work that reached its culmination some 33 years later on the cross of Calvary, and Jesus' subsequent resurrection.  The final triumph over death, sin and Satan.

3.   The Lord – a term used by the Jews as a substitute for the name of God, which they considered too holy to speak out loud.  Hence the angel is explicitly saying that Jesus is God.

Finally, the lone angel was joined by "a great company of the heavenly host" (Luke 2:13) – an army of angels – and the shepherds are given a sign – not just a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem – that wouldn't be too unusual – but a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger – not really an everyday occurrence!  The shepherds had to go and check it out for themselves – and having assured themselves that the angel's story was true – God had indeed acted – they went and told others the good news.  We should follow their example – check out what the Bible says about God and His salvation – and tell others the good news.

[David Pinnegar]

Dear Tony

Thank you so much for posting this - it's a great tonic to the intellectually impoverished service that unfortunately many have to suffer on Christmas day, and leading to declining unstimulated congregations.

This morning upon pondering such matters the thoughts came that many reject Christianity upon finding the Christmas story hard to believe, in fact, and your rigorous looking at the facts is both a tonic to that. But so much of Christ's teachings too are beyond the facts, the facts merely being a parallel narrative to the thought, to the idea, and if one feels that Christmas falls on the facts (  . . . Christ was not born on 25th December), the response must be simply "Get over it . . . ".

The reality is that what we read is an illustration, an illustration of the process of faith. Some might argue that it is the clothes with which St Paul and the Roman heritage (by which I mean the Roman religion arranged in colleges) dressed up the teachings of Christ. For those who want to reject Christianity merely for its clothes, one might usefully look to see whether it is only for the clothes in which it is dressed that they have cause to reject it. Is there really anything that Jesus said, in contrast to merely things and events said about him, that is cause for rejection?

Whatever detractors say about Christmas, it is that time of the darkest winter when we take stock of our lives, gain new things and shed old junk, overtly materially in the tradition of present giving, but in the same way a renewal of our inner spirit. The period between Christmas and New Year is that period empty of time, between the conclusion of 13 lunar cycles of 28 days and the annual new beginning every 365 days, marked from ancient times such as at Stonehenge. The symbolism of Christ, and all he implies, coming anew into our world is deeply symbolic and capable of meaning to all, even beyond the confines of Church.

Best wishes

David P