While Shepherds Watch Are Keeping
Download MP3As I said earlier, it's great to see you all this morning. We are going to be continuing our Advent sermon series in Luke chapter 2. If you want to look in your worship guide, it's also available on our website, rccbirmingham.org. The worship guide is digital and iPhone friendly on there. But we are gonna be in Luke chapter 2 beginning with verse 8.
Jeffrey Heine:And, the series that we've been doing, is looking at the, the responses that we see, responses to the Christ child in the Christmas story. Last week, we looked at the response of Mary and, and today we're going to be looking at the response from the shepherds. And so look with me at Luke chapter 2 beginning with verse 8 and let us listen carefully for this is God's word. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Jeffrey Heine:For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be as assigned for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.
Jeffrey Heine:And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told to them concerning this child and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh lord, this morning would you meet with us in your word by your spirit. Lord, we bring to you all that is weighing heavy on us, our hopes, our fears, our worries, our expectations and we come to you believing that you are a good father and that we can trust you today. So God, we need to hear from you because you have the words of life. So would you speak to us now, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. I like to think that in the deep of the darkest night on that first Christmas, that bright yellow beacon in the night sky that the wise men began to follow at the edge of the dark abyss, I like to imagine that it was a Waffle House sign. I had a tradition a number of years ago. It started when I was about 17, 18 and continued on through my twenties of going to Waffle House on Christmas Eve at midnight. It was my own version of midnight mass.
Jeffrey Heine:Sometimes, I'd be there in a booth with a friend or 2. Years later, Jess joined me. I did not invite just anyone on these sacred pilgrimages, only a select few. I kept the tradition going for about 10 years or so, until my daughter, June, was born. She was 6 weeks old that Christmas Eve and the thought of doing anything after midnight besides sleeping was a foregone conclusion.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's how it's been for the past 10 years now. The Christmas Eve waffle house tradition has been on an indefinite hiatus. But I remember that first time that I went to the waffle house on Christmas Eve, 20 years ago now. I remember the young woman who poured my coffee and gave me a slice of pecan pie as the clock struck midnight and it became Christmas day. I remember thinking how these people, scraping the eggs and flour off of the napkin dispensers.
Jeffrey Heine:These folks who just like me were awake in the middle of the darkest night of the year, we were the people who would have been awake in the middle of that Bethlehem night so many years ago. These people working the midnight shift at the 24 hour waffle dispensary, offering a warm booth and hot coffee to truck drivers, folks heading into work, the men and women who couldn't pass up the holiday pay even though they'd missed their kids running down the hall Christmas morning. These were the people who would have been working on the hillsides in Bethlehem. They'd be awake watching the oil lamps fade out across the city skyline of David's hometown. Building little fires to stay warm and stay alert.
Jeffrey Heine:Watching over the sheep by night. We cannot miss the reality that the good news of great joy for all people came first and exclusively to people working the midnight shift on the outskirts of Bethlehem. It was declared to these people while everyone else in town dreamed of far less astonishing things. The finest stationary was not used. Kings and queens were not awakened in the night.
Jeffrey Heine:No all points bulletin blasted out across the continents. None of that. Just some sleepy graveyard shift shepherds. The truck drivers and waffle house waitresses of Bethlehem. They were the ones who were greeted with the angel of the Lord who called out, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Jeffrey Heine:For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. The shepherds would have recognized these words. They are a royal pronouncement. A savior has been born in the city of David, the king. And this child is Christ the Lord, the long promised Messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:This grand and noble pronouncement was made to the least noble of men. But then again, the child was not born to be impressive. Neither his location in Bethlehem nor his place in the manger were designed to be impressive. Long before that night in Bethlehem, the prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Christ child saying, he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. Common shepherds, working a common job.
Jeffrey Heine:A child born to a common mother inside of a common stable and laid in a common feeding trough, but this child was far from common. And the trough was to be a sign for these shepherds. It would be for them a confirmation that the glorious pronouncement by the angels was true. It was a small, but very significant verification for the shepherds and for Mary and for Joseph that what God had begun that dark night in Bethlehem was certain and true. A savior had been born.
Jeffrey Heine:The savior had been born. Their savior had been born. So the shepherds took off, hasting all the way into town. Luke doesn't say if they brought any sheep with them, but perhaps a young lamb or 2 road on the shoulders as the shepherds ran through the streets. The shepherds would have quietly searched for the place that still had lamps burning late in the night And so finally, they would find the stable with the lights still on and there he was just like the angel had said, a baby lying in a feeding trough wrapped in cloth, the young mother watching over her newborn son.
Jeffrey Heine:The shepherds told Joseph and Mary what they had seen in the night sky, what the angels had declared to them. Joseph marveled at what he heard the shepherd say. However, Mary stored up these words like a precious gift in her heart, a treasure to be pondered and prayed about for years to come, good news of great joy. Surely, these words echoed in her heart the day she watched her son carry his cross up to Calvary. And perhaps these words echoed even louder, good news of great joy, when she embraced her son after he was raised from the grave in his resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:There are many things that we could consider regarding the shepherd's response to the Christ child, but I'd like to focus on just one. When confronted with the declaration of the birth of the savior, after the angelic choir disappeared into the heavens, the shepherd said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste. Now I know this will sound redundant and that is because it is. But the response I'd like for us to reflect upon today is this, the response of the shepherds was to respond.
Jeffrey Heine:Why is that so significant for us today? Because today we have heard the good news of great joy that is for all the people. You have heard that the savior was born who is Christ the Lord. You have heard the declarations of the angels crying out glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. But have you responded?
Jeffrey Heine:And if so, how? Do you hear the declaration of the angels, the promises of God? Do you believe them? In your heart, do you go with haste to Bethlehem to behold your savior, to trust in him, to worship him, to love him? Or do you sit back down on the grassy hill and go back to your shift of watching over the sheep by night and disbelieve that anything so great or so good could ever really happen.
Jeffrey Heine:And even if it did happen, does it merit a response deep in your soul? The response of believing With bewildered and expectant hearts, these shepherds ran into town searching for the child in the manger And when they found him, when they saw the child who looked like every other baby that they had seen before, being held by his mother who looked like every other overwhelmed and exhausted new mother that they had seen before. When they looked at that child, they beheld their creator and their savior. They responded with belief. They heard this news and they went out looking for confirmation.
Jeffrey Heine:They believed and they sought out to believe more deeply, to behold with their own eyes the truth that was declared to them. And they did. They watched as Mary held their savior in her arms. She held this little baby near to her, His tiny feet that would one day walk on the water of Galilee. His little lips that would speak healing into the lifeless daughter of Jairus.
Jeffrey Heine:His heart that would one day show compassion to the woman at the well. His eyes that would cry tears of sorrow over the grief of his friend Lazarus. His ears that would hear the Jerusalem crowd shout crucify him, his little hands that would one day be pierced for our transgressions, and his lungs that would one day fill with the breath of the resurrection and in that one breath break the bonds of death forever. The response of the shepherds was to believe. To believe in the unbelievable and that is the true wonder and invitation of Christmas.
Jeffrey Heine:At Christmas, we dare to believe in the unbelievable And in our hearts, we run with haste to see what we have been told, to see what God has done and is still doing today, saving his people, making them his children. But how do we see him when we can no longer run to the manger like the shepherds did? How do we see him when he's no longer in a stable a few blocks away? Just as the holy spirit overshadowed the blessed virgin Mary that she might conceive of Jesus in her womb. That same spirit comes to us that we might perceive of Jesus in our souls.
Jeffrey Heine:That we can be near to him in worship, near to him in his word. We see him when we gather with other believers as the body of Christ. We see him when we serve the least of these, those in need of clothing and food. We see him when we declare and celebrate the good news of his gospel and when we share that news with the people around us to celebrate that God has come to rescue us and we want everyone to believe this news and to find salvation in him. We see him when the spirit leads us in prayer to pour out our hearts before Christ our Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:It is the spirit who leads us to remember our savior and to respond to our savior with trust and love and obedience. So, this Advent and Christmas, let us not only remember the story of the Christ child, let us remember and respond with all that we are to all that he is. Let us respond to all that he has done and all that he has promised yet to do. So let us go to him now in prayer and ask that the spirit would help us to see him and to respond to him today. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh spirit, give our hearts the eyes to see Christ our savior. And in seeing him believing, trusting in him, giving up on trying to save ourselves or somehow to be good enough to win your affection, to win salvation on our own merit, to give up on those things and receive this good news of great joy that is for all the people. Oh Christ, would you be near to us this Advent and may we find ourselves living in the deep joy and peace that you have purchased for us through your life, through your death, through your resurrection and may we long with expectant and hopeful hearts that you will come again for us. We pray these things in the name of Christ our King, amen.
