We’re in the last of our message series: God with us! We’ve learned God is with us in the Valley. He doesn’t leave us when we’re in a low time. We learned God is with us in the wilderness: when we feel all alone and afraid, God is there in quiet, still ways, taking care of us. We heard God is with us in the storm: God will use what you learn as you go through a storm to help others when they go through a storm. Today, we’re going to ask, how do we experience God with us always? We will look at the Shepherds in the Christmas story, Luke 2:1-20, and how they responded to the invitation to come to see Jesus.
I enjoy shepherds at Christmas in nativity scenes, and I enjoy seeing adorable children who play shepherds in Christmas pageants, holding a staff and wearing a head covering. I enjoy imagining the shepherds from the Christmas story. They were just minding their own business that first Christmas, watching sheep, when all of a sudden, an angel appeared and said, “Do not be afraid!” Which probably didn’t help much. If you see something, you’re afraid of, like a snake, and you’re screaming, it doesn’t help much when someone says, “do not be afraid.” It’s too late. You’re scared!
The shepherds were afraid and surprised because the last thing those shepherds were expecting was an angel choir announcing the birth of the Messiah! The Jews had been hoping for a Messiah for hundreds of years. But nothing much was happening spiritually for them. They were in a kind of low time as far as hearing from God. There’s two parts of the Bible: The Old Testament and The New Testament. We tend to think, the New Testament started immediately after the Old Testament. Like maybe on Friday, the Old Testament ended, and on Monday the New Testament started. But instead, it was over 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament writings. Some scholars call it the 400-year silence.
In this period, Israel was just sort of a stomping ground for other foreign powers. Foreign nations ruled over Israel. People hoped for a messiah but didn’t think about it much. It’s like Christians today, we say Christ will come again. But we know every so often for the past 2000 years, someone has said, “Jesus is returning SOON, on such and such a date!” And they write a book and get some followers. And the date comes, and it goes, with no Jesus. So just like you and I did not wake up today and say, “Today is the day Jesus is finally coming back at 2:04 pm!” Just so there weren’t any Jewish people expecting the Messiah that day.
Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, was just a little town. When people ask me where I am from, I say, “Dayton, Ohio.” Because it’s a bigger city. I figure people may have heard of it. I’m really from Vandalia, Ohio, near Dayton, but who has heard of Vandalia? That’s what Bethlehem was to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the big city, and Bethlehem was like the suburb, where you lived if you didn’t have enough money to afford a house in Jerusalem.
Luke 2:8-11 says, “8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Unbelievably good news for the shepherds, and for us today, there is great joy because we are “All the people.”
In the past, the shepherds had been told, if you want to be right with God, you need to sacrifice animals, like doves, sheep, and goats to make atonement for your sins. Then you needed to keep doing this. Your sacrifice at the temple one time paid for previous sins. You were going to sin again, and you needed to keep making up for it with more sacrifices. The angel said today a Savior has come. So, where before you had to keep sacrificing, today a Savior has come, and there will come a time soon when he will save you from your sins. You’ll be forgiven, once and for all.
Now there was something different about these shepherds. Vs. 8 says they were living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. That’s odd because, just like today, if you have farms animals outside, you usually put them in pens at night; that way they are safer from predators and from the cold. But scholars think these sheep were raised for temple sacrifice, and because of that, they were supposed to be kept outside all the time, even at night. So, the shepherds had to watch them at night, all night, because it was a dangerous time for the sheep outside. The lambs for sacrifice were supposed to be without blemish, so the shepherds had to keep them safe. And it says the shepherds LIVED out in the fields. That made it harder for these shepherds, who ironically, raised the sheep used for temple sacrifice, it made it harder for the shepherd to get to the temple and do the required sacrifice. They might bring the sheep to the temple as part of their job, but they were dirty when they brought them. You had to get yourself clean, and not just physically clean. You had to purify yourself according to the necessary rituals and regulations, in order to sacrifice at the temple. Living outside, it was harder to get yourself acceptable for the temple. Temple sacrifice, the rules and regulations and meeting the purity standard, was hard for the shepherds and for so many people.
For some reason, the angels came, just to these shepherds. To bring good news: A Savior has come, to bring joy to you and all people! Maybe the angel came to them because the shepherds were people who the sacrificial system left behind. The message was that God is for you. And a Savior has come, to make it simple for you to know, God is with you. God is for you. A Savior has come to wipe out your sins, forever!
When God calls us, he asks us to hear His Word, believe in Him, and to respond. These shepherds, they heard the word of God from the angel. They believed, well, it must be true. You don’t see angels every day! And then they responded. How do you respond, when an angel says, “Go to Bethlehem?” You go!
Luke 2:15-16 says15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
It turned out, God was with those Shepherds, and the angels invited the Shepherds in turn to say, we’re with God. Christianity is all about God loving us. We don’t have to do anything for salvation. We just hear, believe and respond. Respond with I belong to you God, you are my Savior; you’re with me always, and I am with you.
The shepherds story tells us: it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been around church for a long time, or ever, or if you have something you’re ashamed of. God is with you always. Always inviting you to come and see, to respond to God’s call.
It’s ok to have doubts and questions about God. We all have those. God is with you always, and he invites you now to respond. I am going to end with a prayer, and it can be a renewal of your relationship with God, or for the first time, giving your heart to God.
Loving Father, in every area of my life, I belong to You. I’ll go where you want me to go, I’ll do what you want me to do. Not my will, but your will be done. Thank you, O God, that you are with me always. Thank you for saving me through Jesus and thank you for your peace and joy. Help me to follow you. I always want to be with you. Amen.
Dec. 20, 2020
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 