Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—
praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
When the angels had returned to heaven,
the shepherds said to each other,
“Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2:13-15 NLT

The second thing I love about the Shepherds’ reaction to the good news is that they couldn’t stand still. They couldn’t just hear about it. They had to see it first hand. They hand to go and BE THERE.

It’s kind of a great thing because that is exactly what God longs for with us. A personal encounter. Something that will change us for ever. Something that will draw us closer to him and help us to live out the good news in our day-to-day lives.

The shepherds are so encouraging to me because they were just ordinary joes going about an ordinary working day. And they didn’t shrug off or explain away the experience they had. In fact, they waded in even deeper. They are a reminder that all the “ordinary” stuff should never crowd out the extraordinary love of God in our lives.

And as I draw closer and closer to the busiest time for me – 4 services in 2 days, people! If my voice is up to it, 5 choir anthems, countless prayers and readings, etc. etc. etc. – I need that reminder. I need to not allow the ordinary details crowd out the glory of God.

Because that is what it is all about – the overpowering, unbelievable, unstoppable, redeeming, renewing, revitalizing, transforming power of God’s love. And the fact that he poured all that into a little baby boy who would grow up to save the world.

They were terrified, but the angel reassured them.
“Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news
that will bring great joy to all people.
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today
in Bethlehem, the city of David!
And you will recognize him by this sign:
You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth,
lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:9b-12 NLT

In October, I had the opportunity to be at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. It was an amazing 2 days of leadership teaching. One of my favorite sessions was the one with Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church (the one in Seattle, not Mars Hill Bible Church which is in Michigan). Driscoll talked about the fears that sometimes keep those of us in leadership from doing the things we really want to do. And then he said “You know what God’s answer to fear is? God says, ‘Fear not!'”

And he’s not wrong. Almost any time you come across a moment in the Bible where someone is terrified, God says “Fear not” (in the NLT, “Don’t be afraid!”). Driscoll said that “Fear not!” is a great answer for those who are of the personality type that is not really bound by fear. But there is another personality type that hears the words “Fear not!” and thinks: “Sure, fantastic, I’ll just stop being afraid, right? Because I can actually do that?! As if!”

And for those people, Driscoll took the time to point out the fact that God’s “Fear not!” is always immediately followed by God’s “I am with you.” And that makes all the difference.

The Shepherd’s story follows this pattern in a whole new way. Not only do the angels follow the “Fear not!” with good news, but then they send the shepherds to meet God Incarnate, God-with-us, God in the form of a tiny baby boy.

Jesus is God’s ultimate “I am with you.” And that is the best news of all.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby,
guarding their flocks of sheep.
Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them,
and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.
They were terrified…

Luke 2:8,9a

Tonite I am exhausted. I am still battling a cold, and if I’m not mistaken I am running a bit of a fever. Really, I just want to go to bed, and as soon as I have finished this blog, that is exactly what I will do. So let me get to it.

One of the things I love about the part of the story that deals with the shepherds and the angels is that the shepherds were terrified when the angels showed up. Angels are scary. They’re not the little diaper-wearing-baby-faced images we sometimes imagine. Instead, they carry the glory of the Lord with them, and it scares the junk outta the shepherds.

I love that because it reminds me that God is big. God is so big that his messengers strike terror into the hearts of the ordinary folks. Encountering God (or God’s message) is a lot more frightening that we like to acknowledge. Sometimes we make God small. We make him manageable. We put baby faces and diapers on his messengers. We tame him.

I love that bit of dialogue in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe between Lucy and Mr. Beaver:

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy
“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you?
Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he is good.
He’s the King, I tell you.”

No, God isn’t safe. And if His glory breaks upon you while you’re working the night shift, you might just find yourself scared silly. But he is good. And that is so much better than safe.

And with that good thought, I am off to bed…

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.
She gave birth to her first child, a son.
She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger,
because there was no lodging available for them.

Luke 2:6,7 NLT

On Sunday, our Minister Emeritus, the Rev. Rosemary Doran preached. She pointed out that in the gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth there is no Inn Keeper. Often in a Sunday School Pageant the Inn Keeper tells Mary and Joseph that there is no room in the inn for them. And offers them the use of the stable instead. But that is the work of imagination. For all the text says is that they laid him in the manger, because there was no lodging available to them.

Whether or not they actually approached the Inn Keeper, I am always fascinated by the idea that when Jesus was born, there was no room in our world for him. Even from his first breath, he found himself dwelling among the outcast.

One of my favorite bands, who I have mentioned often during this advent blog project puts it this way:

Mary shivers in the cold
Trying to keep the Savior warm
Born among the animals wrapped in dirty rags
Because there was no room for Him in the world He came to save

(Casting Crowns, While You Were Sleeping)

The birth of Christ is beautiful, a time of celebration, but it is also tinged with sadness. Because there was no room for him in the world he came to save. Because from the beginning, we found it easy to reject him. Because from the beginning, his love was greater than ours.

I have always been drawn to sad songs, sad poems and sad stories. Maybe this is why I am so drawn to this part of the story. Or maybe it’s because I’m touched that God knows what it is to be slightly left out. To be celebrating while touched with sadness. God understands that part of me, and that makes any sadness I have, easier to bear.

And that is why I am consistently drawn back to God. That is why I know that the journey of faith is one that will last throughout this life and beyond.

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed
that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire.
(This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census.
And because Joseph was a descendant of King David,
he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home.
He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee.
He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.

Luke 2:1-5 NLT

A while back on the blog I looked at the first three verses of this passage and thought a bit about the inconvenience of Jesus’ birth and the busy-ness of this season in general.

Tonite I want to focus on the last new verses, but since they begin with the word “and”, I thought it might be a little confusing to leave the first three out. They are there for context.

Joseph was a descendant of David and had to go to Bethlehem for the census. Because God had mad a promise. God had promised that David’s descendents would rule forever. General opinion in Israel was that this meant that the Messiah would be an earthly King who would always have a successor on the throne.

But God tends to think bigger than we do. And in God’s plan, the Messiah would be a new being – both fully human and fully divine. One who would die, but then would rise again. One who would rule in eternity because eternity is where he comes from.

Mary and Joseph were aware that God was up to something big, but I doubt they knew what it all meant. It’s the same thing for us today. I believe that God is up to something big, all the time. But that doesn’t mean I know what it all means.

The trick is to have faith that God is at work, celebrate the moments when God’s activity is revealed to us, and know that the story God is writing will always be bigger than we can imagine. Because God deals in eternal things. And that is pretty awesome.

When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route,
for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

Matthew 2:12 NLT

I love that God has the wise men’s back. He doesn’t allow them to go back to Herod, which would probably be a case of taking their lives in their hands. Instead, he warns them in a dream to take another route. And I love that the wise men are so open to the voice of God.

I mean – they saw a star and believed that the Messiah had come. They had a dream, so they altered their travel plans. These guys are either really odd and flaky, or their hearts are deeply attuned to the voice of God.

My favourite preacher is a guy by the name of Erwin McManus. He calls himself a mystic, and often takes heat from certain sections of Christianity for it. Personally, I love the thought of being a Christian mystic. I think the wise men were mystics, and it lead them to the birth place of the Christ child. If being a mystic gets you closer to God, closer to Christ, then sign me up!

In the end, the thing that this verse communicates to me, is that I don’t have to rely on my own plans. In the end, God’s got it figured out, and if we allow ourselves to be open to him, God will speak into our lives. God’s plans are better than anything I can come up with.

So how about it – why not try being a mystic in the next few days? Open your heart and your mind to the voice of God. Allow that God’s voice might come to you from the starry sky, or a dream, or some other unconventional source. Trust that God does indeed want to talk to you, and if your heart is open to him, you WILL be able to hear him!

After this interview the wise men went their way.
And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem.
It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!
They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary,
and they bowed down and worshiped him.
Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:9-11

I admit I am fascinated with any thing – sermon, song, image, etc. – that put the cradle and the cross together. There’s a Relient K song called “I Celebrate the Day” (check it out here) with the lyrics “I celebrate the day, that you were born to die, so I could one day pray for you to save my life.”

And there’s another song I love called “Born to bleed” by Ed Cash, Alan Levi that goes: “He was born to bleed away the sin that covers our guilty hands. Born to rise from Calvary, he was born to save every man.” (I couldn’t find it anywhere on youtube, sorry!)

And then there’s a a song called “Little Bethlehem Town” by Jars of Clay that includes the lyrics “Oh, Mary, Joseph, rest your eyes, and try not to think of the ending, world full of empty he will die, but tonight he is still just a child.” (check it out here – the video is of a dance done to the song, but it will give you a chance to hear this beautiful and haunting song.)

As the wise men bring their gifts to the Christ child, the story of who this child will become is told. Gold is for a king, and frankincense indicates the presence of God, and then there is the myrrh. Myrrh was used in the ancient world in preparing a body for the grave.

I think I love that because it reminds me that Christmas isn’t just about the pretty little baby. It’s about the man that baby would become and the sacrifice that man would make so that we could have peace with God.

Take some time to say a prayer of thanks for the full meaning of Christmas tonight!

Now, I want to start this post with two things. One – I realize I’m about 12 hours late in posting. I got home from visiting friends at midnight last night and I was too tired to sit down and write. So today, I will post twice. The second thing I want to acknowledge is that whenever I read the Christmas story, I read it with a certain perspective. I bring to the text the fact that I already know the outcome, I already know the plotpoints before they happen, I have thought about the motives of the character for years now. Just had to put that out there.

Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men,
and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared.
Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child.
And when you find him, come back and tell me
so that I can go and worship him, too!”

Matthew 2:7,8 NLT

I find Herod’s words so striking, knowing what I know about the story. That he would hide behind the word worship, when that was never his intention. Herod was a jealous man and would do his best to kill this newborn Messiah. He did not want anyone to threaten his power.

His words are the same as the wise men, but his intentions are the exact opposite. I had an Old Testament prof in Seminary who would remind us regularly that God cares where our hearts are at. That was probably the single phrase she used most often, and certainly the greatest lesson I took from her class. Herod’s heart is in a completely different place than the wise men.

Today, spend some time thinking about where your heart is at. Are you grumpy at all about Christmas (I started the season there, I admit! But through working on this blog and through the kindness of others, I’ve had a change of heart.)? Are you feeling the stress a little too much? Are you saying you want to worship him, while really making lists about all the other things you need to DO to make Christmas perfect this year?

My prayer is that our hearts would be at the place of the wise men, not of Herod. That we would truly long to encounter this amazing newborn. To spread to others the hope and the peace with which he touches us.

Last night I was reminded of another Casting Crowns song that I haven’t heard for a while. It’s called Somewhere in the Middle (check it out on youtube here) and the lyrics of the chorus are:

We’re fearless warriors in a picket fence
Reckless abandon wrapped in common sense
Deep-water faith in the shallow end
We are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences
The God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His
Or are we caught in the middle?
Are we caught in the middle?

And as I read the Bible preparing for tonite’s blog, it occurred to me that the people of Israel were often in this ‘caught in the middle’ stance in their faith. As we continue to look at the story of the wise men, we find these words:

King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.
He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked,
“Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

  “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”

Matthew 2:3-6 NLT

It’s the first line of this passage that has caught my attention. Everyone in Jerusalem was disturbed that the wise men had discovered the birth of the Messiah. And I think it is because in their faith, they were caught in the middle.

They wanted God to send a Messiah who was a strong king, or a mighty warrior with a sword in his hand. And I suspect they weren’t all that thrilled that when God came to dwell among us, He did it quietly, as a little baby. I suspect they were even less impressed that the folks who figured it out weren’t the priests and teachers of the law, but a bunch of lowly shepherds and some foreigners.

That was not the God they wanted, though it was the God who IS. I have sympathy for the people of Jerusalem. Because I find myself so often caught in the middle, also. It’s so easy to start to make God over in MY image of what God should be, rather than standing back and seeking the God who IS.

Join me, if you would, in asking yourself over the next few days whether you are caught in the middle.

This is my first year doing an advent calendar, and here it is the 14th of December and I’m already ready for the baby to be born. Yikes.

Well, in interest of getting closer to the 25th before the baby makes his appearance, I thought I’d turn to the wise men. I know they come at Epiphany…I know that the baby has become a child by the time they show up, but they are part of the story and I want to spend some time thinking about them.

 

 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.
About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose,and we have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2: 1, 2

I love the wise men. I love that, though they are from another place and another culture, the birth of the Christ child draws them in. They travel far with nothing but a star to guide them. And all they want is to worship him.

I wonder if they knew what that even meant. Probably not. Maybe it just describes their desire to come, to see and to bring gifts. They just want to be in his presence. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s what we are meant to do every time we turn our hearts to God.

Do you want to start your day in a better way? Begin by longing to be in his presence. Do you want church to be more meaningful? Enter each Sunday with the expectation that you will be in his presence. Do you struggle with how to make your job/relationship/everyday existence meaningful? Begin by being in his presence, and the meaning will come.

We have so much to learn from the mysterious travelers from the East. In the next few days, find a way – maybe a moment of prayer, maybe reading your Bible, maybe listening to some inspirational music, maybe going for a walk – to spend a few extra moments concentrating on being in his presence.