AN UNPREACHED SERMON (209)
It’s all over for another year. The frantic rushing around looking for suitable presents, the sending and accepting of invitations to people’s homes, and soon the decorations packed into the garage or loft for another twelve months. The hectic days leading up to Christmas and New Year will give way to a more measured routine suitable to the drearier days of early January. Although at the start of a New Year we are inevitably thinking about moving forward, built into the narrative of the Christmas story there is also a sense of going back. In Luke’s timeless telling of the miracle of the Incarnate Christ, the constant sense of people being on the move is hard to miss. It’s a characteristic feature of both before and after the arrival of the Christ Child (Luke 2:1-20).
FIRST, MARY AND JOSEPH WENT BACK TO BETHLEHEM (v2).
Setting up home in Nazareth, they were still legally bound to return to the place of their birth in Bethlehem for the 10year Roman Census. Although it was for taxation purposes, the 80mile journey back home was welcomed as an opportunity to meet up with relatives and catch up with friends and neighbours not seen for years. Memories of the past coupled with conversations about the good old days would be high on the agenda. In comparison to our get-togethers at this time of the year, things are not all that different - including travelling from place to place.
The Christmas story is not just a nice, cosy story or piece of annual pantomime drama, but a reminder that the birth of Jesus is set within the context of world history and is itself a history-making event. What happened that starry night in Bethlehem turned the tide of history, changed the calendar and has given meaning to all other world events ever since. We must never lose sight of the fact that at the first Christmas, God arranged the circumstances to bring about His purposes. A Roman Census was woven in to the fulfilment of an Old Testament prediction (Micah 5:2; Galatians 4:4).
THEN, THE ANGELS WENT BACK TO HEAVEN (v15).
The appearance of the angelic choir that split the heavens apart, seized the shepherds with fear. It was a night of tremendous contrasts. Right through the story it is the angels who remain happy and joyful in contrast to the mixed emotions of everyone else. The things that agitated heaven, by and large left the earth unmoved. The angels don’t stay forever, of course, they never do. It is characteristic of angelic beings that they never hang around once their task is done (Luke 1:38; Acts 12:10).
Inevitably at this time of the year our thoughts turn to people no longer with us. We often remember things they said. My own mother is an example. With an eye on the increased number of drivers on the roads over the season, my mother told all her sons: “Remember the guardian angels leave you after 70MPH, drive carefully!” I never think of their departing in the Christmas story without her wise-crack coming back to mind. God will gladly send angels to announce the good news of Christ, but we ourselves have the responsibility to respond once they have departed.
FINALLY, THE SHEPHERDS WENT BACK TO THEIR WORK (v20).
The normal practice was to take it in turns through the night to keep an eye on the flocks. Traditionally, these shepherds were looking after the Temple sheep to be used in the daily sacrifices, but that was the nearest they would ever get to the Temple. They were seen as non-religious people and social outcasts. They were the lowest paid of the working classes and would certainly never be asked to appear in a court room since everyone knew they were unreliable witnesses.
But to announce the coming of His Son into the world, God turns things upside down. He by-passes the high and mighty in favour of humble shepherds. In so doing, the divine seal is placed on our ordinary work-a-day life. That’s maybe why we are all glad to get back to work after the Christmas break. We are made for work, not just celebration. Partying and indulgent leisure have their place, but only benefit us when they are balanced with the regular routine of “sheep-keeping”. The writer Thomas Champness brought together the song of the angels and the work of the shepherds with the insightful phrase, “Heaven sings to those who do their duty”.
There then is some of the music and movement found in Luke’s telling of the Christmas event. And if we take a glimpse at Matthew’s Gospel, we can add in a final thought from what happened about two years later. For, he records that “the wise men went back by another road” (Matt 2:12). But going back by a different route all depends on how we treat the Christ Child and respond to what He has achieved by coming into our world. For Christians the presence of the Christ is not limited to Christmastime, but guaranteed to us every day of the coming New Year. Unlike Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds or the wise men we don’t need to go trapsing all over Israel to find the Christ Child.
“For if we desire Him
He is close at hand;
And our native country
Is our Holy Land”.
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