Merry Christmas to all. It has been a long time since I have posted anything and it is appropriate that I take a moment or two to type an entry.
Today is Christmas Day. This year, I had the pleasure of penning the words which glued our choir’s Christmas Cantata’s songs together. After considerable prayer and seeking, I entitled the work, “The Greatest Gift of All.” During the work of pulling it together and in introduction for the song entitled “Fear not! Good news!”, I spent a considerable amount of time on Luke 2:8-19 which describes the annunciation of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. Really understanding the account actually moved me to tears for the first time. Here is the scriptural passage as boiled down for the Cantata:
Male narrator: We are back to the stable in backwoods Bethlehem, a town where babies had been born for centuries before and continue to be born even today. Yet, something is very different with this birth.
Female narrator: Precious few births are heralded by angels, far less those births at smelly stables behind inns.
Male narrator: In order to place His stamp on the importance of the event, God sent an angelic host to a group of shivering shepherds watching over their sheep somewhere near Bethlehem.
(Cue music for Fear Not) Female narrator: As you can well imagine, the shepherds were startled at these heavenly beings but they were instantly reassured by the words they heard: "Fear Not! I bring a message of Good News. For today, in Bethlehem the City of David, is born a Savior. He is the One sent by God who is the Lord. You will find Him, a baby in a manger. This sign is for you to know that He will bring great joy to all people."
Male narrator: After this, the angelic choir began singing praises to God. "Glory to God in the highest and on Earth, peace and goodwill to all men!"
Female narrator: Scripture states that the shepherds decided to go to Bethlehem to see for themselves. Leaving their flocks in the fields, they hurried to the City of David and found the baby and Mary and Joseph in the smelly stable behind the inn.
Consider the import of the angelic words. The proclamation is that the One called Immanuel, “God with us,” was born for you and for me. “For unto you” was the Son of God become flesh, to share our humanity, to save mankind from its state of sin. In the city of David Bethlehem, which literally means “the house of bread,” was born the Bread of Life (John 6:35) who holds salvation in His hands. This is the Good News. Jesus had come to deal with man’s biggest problem, his broken relationship with God.
Have you ever considered why He was born in a stable in the back of some nondescript inn in Bethlehem. As our Pastor reminded us today, stables are nowhere near being considered sterile places. Yet the Son of the Most High, one third of the Holy Trinity, chose to be born there, of all places on Earth! His advent was into the filth of a stable for two major reasons: First, it signifies the state of all humanity…our sinful state. As Isaiah stated, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isa 64:6 NIV) Second, He was born as the Suffering Servant. Again, as Isaiah prophesied, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isa 53:2,3 NIV)
These neglected shepherds out on the hillsides surrounding Bethlehem were the first humans to receive the notification of this holy birth. The angel appeared to them and declared the impossible news to their incredulous ears. Instead of ignoring that news, they made the right decision to go and to see for themselves. “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.” (Luke 2:16,17 NIV) Not only did they see, but they were renewed by the experience and left the stable testifying about what they saw!
So, as this Christmas season draws to a close, may we go and see the Christ-child for ourselves. May we not just leave and forget the moment. May we, like the shepherds, return to our lives and never forget the experience. May we carry the vision of the Christ-child with us and proclaim the truth of His birth every day of the year.
Merry Christmas to all.
