Advent Anticipation

Passage for reflection: Luke 2: 1 - 20

Who were the shepherds?

The shepherds above the hills of Bethlehem were despised by the orthodox good people of the day. Shepherds were dirty and smelly, quite unable to keep the details of the law like hand washing and rules and regulations. They were looked down on as very common people. Why does God come to shepherds? Not to our script! William Barclay in his commentary reminds us that in the Temple an unblemished lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God morning and evening. To see that the supply of perfect and unblemished offerings was always available the Temple authorities had their own private sheep flocks, and we know that those flocks were pastured near Bethlehem. Barclay suggests it is likely these shepherds who looked after the Temple lambs were the first to the see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

Have you ever had that experience of being offered something/told something/shown something and said “what me?”    

How does God announce good news? Through angels. What picture in your mind does the scene in Luke 2 create? 

It would have been terrifying wouldn’t it? That’s why “fear not” is used over and over again when angels come. It was not usual for angels to break into our world. The shepherds have a sense of wonder within them. We need this too. 

Nick Fawcett in an old Advent study book called “Lighten our Path” says this re our worship sometimes:

“Familiarity can erode our sense of wonder even in the presence of God. Instead of approaching with a sense of privilege, we take him for granted. Instead of being transported into a different dimension of life, we stay tied down to this world, unable to see beyond our limited horizons. Prayer becomes mechanical, worship a routine, the sense of awe that marked the early days of Christian discipleship tempered by the humdrum business of daily life. Do we still marvel at the glory of God?”

Are there times we simply need to bow down and worship for this is our God? Do we forget the wonder of God coming TO us? Do we need like Job(42: 1 -3) to say “I know that you can do anything, and that nothing is beyond you. I have spoken of mysteries I do not understand, things so wonderful they are beyond my comprehension”? 

How do we respond to the glory of God, and good news for all? 

What do the shepherds do? They make a decision! They go to find the good news, the joy and they return from it, glorifying and praising God for all that they had seen. Not like us “preacher went on too long, didn’t like those hymns, church was cold,” or my mother’s criteria for a good service “they finished at ten to!”          

Jurgen Moltmann’s Theology and Joy is helpful as we approach Christmas in a few days. In this wonderful book, he quotes Psalm 16 verse 11: “You show me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.” And he says the church’s role is to be there if this is true, with others. Christ’s life and death  shows us that he is with us and that we shall be living, laughing and reigning with him IN THE END! Moltmann says you know we are not to simply offer help to a troubled world we are, because of Jesus and what he does, to change it!

Jane Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s wife, a few years ago wrote a lovely little book about angels – she wrote this about the shepherd’s encounter:

“What a privilege for the shepherds, they not only see one angel, who has a message just for them, but they also see the joyful excitement of a flock of singing angels. They must have told the story of that night for years to come. What a good thing there were several of them, one shepherd on his own would certainly never have been believed. The angels are thrilled to be involved in God’s plan and fly across the world singing out the good news. They long for the time when human beings can communicate with God as freely as they can, and they do not have to keep saying, “Do not be afraid” whenever they talk to them. The angels understand that God is working to bring the human world and the angelic world back together, and they are excited to be part of it. 

The shepherds set off to find the baby. They do not ask any of the sensible questions like “why would God send hosts of his angels to tell a bunch of shepherds what he is doing?” They tingle with the excitement of the angelic singing, and run to do as they are told.”       

A final thought: God chooses to come to ordinary, unnoticed people and he can transform them where they are. He does not come as we expect! The shepherdscame, they saw, they were conquered by the overwhelming truth of one whose nativity reconciles, indeed marries, earth and heaven, and begins the story of our redemption.   Like the shepherds we have heard a summons that makes it impossible not to come and see this thing that has come to pass.  And when we stand, like them, at the manger, we know in a way we could not know before, that love is his meaning - the great and wonderful love with which, as St John says, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.  

The holy Child of Bethlehem it seems to me calls out to us to revive our faith.  He re-awakens in us our belief in God's purposes of goodness, and our resolve to live by the hope set before us in the incarnation. Despite the sad world of the end of 2020, we need to know there can be something better and it is that God comes into this world, as it is, and can transform it. 

The Christmas story is the beginning of his work of salvation and he needs us to respond to help him bring it about.   

The angels come to bring news to our world. 

Someone wrote “they roll back the curtain of the real world and open the eyes of people working on earth to a vision of heaven.” That’s the sort of church I try to lead here – giving people a vision of heaven. Christmas is all about the badnews of today’s experience, no matter how bad, soon, unexpectedly giving birth to good news for the world. The angels bring us the news, open our eyes, have a party and then clear off – they do – read the story! They leave us then to work out where we go from here. What difference does this story make to us?