The reading
Luke 2: 8-20
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields,
keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before
them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified But
the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good
news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you
will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and
on earth peace among those whom he favors!" When the angels had left them
and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to
Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made
known to us." So they went with
haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had
been told them about this child; and all
who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and
pondered them in her heart. The
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and
seen, as it had been told them.
The message
Last night, on Christmas Eve I talked about the census that
brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
The counting of all people in the world was meant to help the Rome care
for, oppress and control their empire.
For Luke Its connection with the Christmas story is significant it explains
how Jesus' birth fulfilled ancient prophesies (That the messiah would be born
in Bethlehem and come from King David’s family line). I think Luke also connects the census with
Christmas because to God, all people count. The birth of Jesus was an event
that saw, recognized and saved all people.
This morning, I want to talk about the news of
Christmas. In some ways it is a
continuation of last night, answering the question "so what, what do we do
with this news of Christmas, what does the news, proclaimed by angels to
shepherds and then shepherds to all, matter for us today.
When I was growing up, I found out about what was going on
in the world in very different ways than I do now. I remember
reading newspapers made of paper and watching the half hour or hour news
program at night. I had access to 3 or 4 newspapers and a handful of tv
channels. I vaguely remember learning about something called a card catalog in
the library in Junior High School. By
the time I got to High School, the catalog with its index cards listing all of
the books and their location no longer existed. Today, I can read news from
virtually any source in the world on my phone whenever I want to. I can watch
1000s of different news channels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I can find any
book I want to read or look in a few seconds on the internet and a minute or
two to download.
These changes have many great advantages. I can get news
from many places and hear different opinions and perspectives. There are some
downsides. According to the Oxford
Dictionary, the word of the year for 2016 is post-truth. This is a response to the amount of fake news
we are surrounded with all the time, the amount of information we see all
around us that is not really meant to tell us something about the world, its
meant to change, shape or control our opinions.
Post-truth came about as an attempt by academics to describe the
previously unimaginable, fake new stories, once they were exposed as lies,
could still be incredibly influential. People would not care that the facts
were make believe, numbers were made up or that significant events did not
actually happen. We also live in a world where people are quickly forgetting
that reality TV is in fact not real.
Programs that claim to show us to the unedited lives of famous people,
day to day operations of a business or competitive singing contests are
actually heavily edited, scripted and planned for maximum shock, drama and
viewership.
This altered reality is making us forget that we have people
struggling in very real ways, people
left behind and left out, people told there is no room for them in our work,
our churches, our schools or our world,
They do not make the news.
I am saying all today
because Christmas is news for all people and I would like to talk a little
about how do we get this news and what
kind of news it is.
We get this Christmas news from God. God calls out to each
of us with an invitation to grace, hope and joy. The Holy Spirit is present in our prayers, our
world, our church and our scripture. We also hear this news from each
other. Even in today’s reading, the shepherds go to see the
new born Christ after talking together and encouraging each other.
The answer to that other question, what kind of news is
Christmas is complicated. I wanted to share a few ideas.
First, its messy Today, this story of the shepherds speaking
with the angels would be as “a group of prisoners
report an alien visiting their cells and telling them the future”. Shepherds were the people that everyone wanted
out of their communities (that’s why they ended up caring for animals outside
of the cities and towns). The story of
Christmas places God right in the messiness of our world.
The news of Christmas is meant to do something, to drive
away sin and doubts, to show and tell us God keeps God’s promises , to let us
know God is present in the world.
Finally, in the words of the angels, Christmas is good news
of great joy for all people .
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