Luke 2:9-11English Standard Version
9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Good News, the Glory of the Lord Brings Us Great Joy!
At the time when Jesus was born, life for shepherds was hard.
Their days and nights were spent in the dreary routine of taking care of sheep.
Society looked down on them as dirty, uneducated lowlifes and scoundrels.
Except among themselves, they had little reason to make any room to be joyful.
Except God made room for them, shepherds were the ones to whom the angel brought the good news that would cause great joy: A Savior had been born!
It was God’s way of saying that He identifies with the down and out, those outcasts of society, the undesirables – He has room in the Kingdom of God.
And on that glorious night, whatever cold darkness they were all facing was transformed into the most beautiful light they’d ever seen, as the angels of heaven joined in singing, “Glory to God in the highest. . . .” For those few shepherds out in the cold fields of Bethlehem, life would never be the same.
Perhaps on this Christmas Season you are finding it difficult to feel joy.
Perhaps there will be an empty chair in an empty room at your empty table.
Perhaps you’re thinking about a family member or a friend who lives too far away, who has turned away from the Lord or is no longer a part of your life.
Perhaps you or they have been diagnosed with a terrible illness or are in the process of recovering or rehabbing and neither you or they have the strength.
Whatever the reason, exactly right now, no one really feels like celebrating.
There is no room in your heart or your soul for celebrating the glory of the Lord.
If so, this Advent, Christmas reflection might be, by the grace of God, for you.
You may not be able to envision it right now, in this moment, in this season, but there is definitely good news with great joy also for you – waiting to envelop you!
Why?
Because God has made room for you – right here and exactly right now!
Because God made room in our darkened world: Our Savior came to make things right – He came to heal all the brokenhearted, to bring light into your darkness.
That night, at Jesus’ birth, God lit up the night sky to make His announcement.
Can any of us imagine our sitting in our living rooms, sitting with our feet up in our lounger, in the dark, warming yourself by a fire, tuning our ears to the night sounds when an angel appears before us, then the glory of God fills in the night?
Contemplate how all of the fear the shepherds felt gave way to unspeakable joy.
God had made room in His creation – God lit up the night sky – and God made his announcement to shepherds, the ones responsible for caring for the sheep.
These were the ones no one else made room for, who lived separate and apart from society, the ones who best represent God’s shepherding of all His people.
God’s splashy announcement of the birth of Jesus did two things.
It showed God made room for everyone, not only for kings but for the lowliest of them all—even the shepherd, who was typically the youngest in the family.
During those ancient biblical times, birth order indicated importance.
Each son grew out of shepherding and onto more important labor until the youngest son eventually became the family shepherd.
We see this in King David’s life when Samuel went to Jesse’s house to anoint Israel’s new king, and Jesse only presented the seven older brothers to Samuel.
The youngest was forgotten – except by God and Samuel who told Jesse to get even the youngest of the fields and sheep gates – God has room for everybody!
Second, it reinforced the shepherding concept traced through both Testaments.
In the Hebrew [Old] Testament, we read of Abel, Moses, David, Jacob, and God.
God was a shepherd to every single one of His wayward sheep, the Israelites.
In the New Testament, Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for His sheep – every single one of them – even all those yet unknown.
John 10:14-18 English Standard Version
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
God esteemed shepherds, hence his night sky announcement to them.
The ones who went about their business tending sheep over the same meadows, repeating the same daily cycle, are first to hear the news of the Messiah’s birth.
In all our day-to-day lives, we can each get tunnel vision with what’s before us.
Waiting for Christmas breaks, we drive the same route day after day, cook the same sets of meals, and deal with the same difficulties that don’t seem to end.
Disappointments with our lives overtake feelings of joy, and joy seems lost.
We wonder where our Light of the World is, and we sit alone in some room, wait drearily for dawn like those shepherds did that night when their world changed.
Recall: “Seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added to you,” (Matthew 6:33, ESV).
The Greek word for seek means to be absorbed in the search for something.
This absorption fills our whole attention.
Several years ago, I lost an important sermon I was to preach the next day.
I searched in every nook and cranny, every filing cabinet and box for hours.
Finding the lost sermon absorbed every nook inside my mind and my actions.
It’s seeking God with that kind of self absorbed attention to every room and nook that leads us to unspeakable joy and carries us through long dark nights.
Psalm 23:4-6 English Standard Version
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely[b] goodness and mercy[c] shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell[d] in the house of the Lord
forever.[e]
Yet, we don’t have to wait for God to light up our rooms, make a big, splashy announcement in our lives for us to know God made room for unspeakable joy.
When He called us to Himself, and we responded, we knew joy unspeakable.
He made a way when there seemed to be no way, He made room when there seemed to be no room for us and we remember how he did it and what we felt.
We too can make room, call these remembrances to our mind when we feel like we need to hunker down and wait the night out – Joy comes when we seek Him!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23:1-3 English Standard Version
The Lord Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.[a]
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness[b]
for his name’s sake.
Holy God,
I’m feeling a little joyless today. I’m hunkered down, waiting for this long “middle of the night” to end. Day after day, I get up, go to work, come home to never-ending tasks, and go to bed. I wake up, and the new day is just like yesterday. Real Joy feels foreign. I can’t remember the last time joy flooded my heart. I want to be so thrilled with your joy like the shepherds were that night so long ago that I tell people about what you’ve done in my life. Help me to seek you with my whole being. Give me eyes to see you at work in my life. Let me know joy unspeakable today. In Jesus’ name,
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 