3rd Sunday of Advent - The Shepherd Candle
Scripture: Philippians 2:5-8
PSALM 23:1-6 NIV
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
There is an old song that says: Heaven came down and glory filled my soul, when at the cross the Savior made me whole; My sins were washed away – and my night was turned to day – Heaven came down and glory filled my soul!
That is the Christmas song you never sing at Christmas. “Heaven came down” sounds like a perfect description of Christmas. God chose a young girl to be the mother of His son, a poor girl, a girl engaged to a man, a girl who had never slept with a man and would not do so before God’s child would be born. That is Heaven coming down. He could have chosen a Queen, or at least a princess. He could have chosen a woman who was experienced at raising other children. But He didn’t, he came down and chose and average ordinary, otherwise very forgettable person.
As for a father to raise His son, again he could have chosen a King or prince or at least one of the Scribes or Pharisees. But no, he chose an average ordinary carpenter from a small town in Northern Israel called Nazareth. But no, heaven came down father and would come down farther still.
The capital city, Jerusalem – yes it was the undisputed capital of Israel 2000 years ago -where the Holy Temple of God stood. This was a logical place for God’s son to be born, but no, heaven came down about 5 miles south to a very small town called Bethlehem that had not been known for anything since king David had grown up there 1000 years earlier.
Heaven kept coming down lower and lower. His son was not to be born in a hospital, a palace, a hotel or even a house; His son would be born in a stable (Stable is too nice a word – clean place where the majestic horses reside) no it was more what we think of as a barn with cows, goats and sheep and plenty of dung to go around. A filthy place where the animals got out of the cold night air. Heaven isn’t done coming down. They did not bring with them a nice pack-n-play with clean sheets for the baby so they had to wrap him in some borrowed clothes and lie him on a bed of straw in a manger (wait that sounds too) it was a feeding trough where the animals stuck their snotty noses and drooling tongues to eat their hey. That is how far heaven had come down.
Wait a minute, there was one more step down, and this may have been the biggest step down of all. Birth announcements have become a big deal these days. People go to elaborate means to tell people they are going to have a baby, but they all pale in comparison to God’s announcement that His baby was being born. He sent a point angel to make the first part of the announcement and then sent an entire host of heavenly beings to help make the announcement. I can imagine the meetings and practices the angels had in preparation for this announcement because they were only going to get one shot in all of history to do so. The night came, and instead of, again, going and announcing to Kings and Queens or the high priest and religious leaders of the day, instead of announcing it on a jumbo Tron in a 1000 seat colosseum, instead of blasting it to the world through social media, God set in motion this amazing angelic production for a couple of average ordinary shepherds on a hillside outside Bethlehem where only they would hear the greatest news the world has ever known. Heaven came down and glory filled their souls.
Luke 2:8-20 Good News Translation
There were some shepherds in that part of the country who were spending the night in the fields, taking care of their flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone over them. They were terribly afraid, but the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David's town your Savior was born — Christ the Lord! And this is what will prove it to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great army of heaven's angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased!" When the angels went away from them back 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."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and saw the baby lying in the manger. When the shepherds saw him, they told them what the angel had said about the child. All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said. Mary remembered all these things and thought deeply about them. The shepherds went back, singing praises to God for all they had heard and seen; it had been just as the angel had told them.
It is fascinating that the shepherds are the first to hear about the birth of Jesus – the only ones to hear directly from heaven about his birth and the first to see him. Where are this child’s grandparents? I can guarantee you that if my Kim and been Mary and I were Joseph, Tata would have been the first one on the scene – that is what my mother is known as to her grandchildren. In fact, she would have invited herself along on the trip to Bethlehem to see old friends and be there in case Mary gave birth before returning to Nazareth.
They returned to the town of their lineage – where were Joseph’s Bethlehem relatives?
BETHLEHEM - the town of David. When David lived in Bethlehem, his occupation was that of shepherd. The OT shows shepherds as an honorable profession as shepherds were fiercely protective of their sheep – worked so close with their sheep that the sheep could recognize their own shepherds voice. Unlike Western shepherds of today where sheep are driven, in Jesus day, the shepherd went out front and called out and the sheep followed the shepherd.
John 10:27-30
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
Jesus, traveled from heaven all the way to earth – a long distance indeed. He who was laid in a feeding trough the sheep may have eaten from has now become the shepherd of the sheep. John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
The story of Christmas is about the shepherds, the average ordinary people who heard about Jesus, got to meet him, believed what was said about him and told other what they had seen and heard about him. Isn’t that our story? Isn’t Christmas about us? Average, ordinary people who have been told about Jesus, we get to meet him as our personal Lord and Savior, believe what the bible tells us about him, and tell other what we have learned and experienced with Jesus.
But wait – even though Christmas is about the shepherds and about us, it is most certainly about Jesus who left the glory of heaven and brought that glory with him to earth by stepping further and further down then anyone could have imagined. In fact Philippians 2:5-8 form the MESSAGE tells us:
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
Jesus traveled that far so that everyone could have a very Merry Christmas! Heaven came down and glory filled my soul!!!
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