Promises

Imagine what it would have been like to have a front row seat to experience the coming of the King! I don’t think Mary had any idea when she told the angel, “let it be to me as you have said,” what was about to happen.  Her life and her willingness to serve were about to change eternity. 

Luke 2 says that Mary “kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself.” Sometimes on our journey we hold our memories close to our hearts and marvel quietly about what God has done.

Luke 2 also says the sheepherders returned to their sheep, and as they left they boldly praised God, thanking Him for what they had seen and heard.  Likewise on our journey, there are times we shout God’s praises so everyone will hear the good news.

Both were in awe that the angels promises came to pass, just as it had been foretold!

God's promises are true

Your journey of promise.

 Creative Exercise:

Find a few smooth stones and write or paint words or pictures on them that remind you of promises God has fulfilled in your life.   

Miraculous Moments

The Sheepherders decided to take the Angel’s advice and go see.  What is awesome is that they LEFT…REALLY?  They left the sheep.  Do you know how unheard of that is?  Sheepherders NEVER leave the sheep.  Ever.  I have to wonder, is it possible that they trusted God to care for them?  I mean these guys just had an angelic visitation and a concert from heaven.  It seems to me that might be a distinct possibility… 

The scripture (NLT) also says they RAN.  The sheepherders saw some urgency in getting to see this child.  It also says they believed what the angel said when they saw the baby.  WOW…they could have reasoned, “just looks like a regular kid to me”, but they didn’t do that.  They believed what the angel said about this child being the “Christ” and the angel called him “Lord”.  The angel also told them “as a sign” they would find the “baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”. 

What happened next is incredible.  The sheepherders (not usually people who are known as social butterflies) went and told EVERYONE what the angels said about the child.  Luke 2:18 also says everyone who heard their story was impressed.  A few things stand out there:

The sheepherders were bold to tell the story

The townspeople were bolt to receive the message of the sheepherders

Everything that happened was a out of the ordinary and was filled with miracles.

Pretty cool, huh?

Creative Exercise: Make a collage of images that remind you of the miracles God does every day

Use color and shapes and write the miracles on the shapes

Collect various items showing nature miracles

Heaven on Earth

After the Angel delivered the message that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem to the Sheepherders in Luke 2:8-12, an angelic choir appeared and they were singing praises to God.  

They sang:

   Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
   Peace to all men and women on earth who please him

Heaven on earth. 

The child brought heaven to earth and the angels brought the praises of heaven to earth. 

That night long ago the sheepherders got to experience heaven on earth.  

On our journey, part of our story is where we experience heaven on earth.  Every day we are given pieces of heaven now and we will experience more of heaven later.  

When I was a child I remember my dad talking about miracles that we are given every day.  I used to say, “I don’t see any miracles.”  To that, my dad would reply with a wink, “they’re here, you just have to see them.”  Now I know what he was talking about.  If we watch there are blessings galore, we just need to see them and recognize that God is in them.

Watch for the miracle God offers today, and receive the blessing!

Come and See

 I love Luke 2 and count it as one of my favorite chapters in the Bible (one of many).  The Message (Bible) really captured my interest in what the shepherds experienced that night.  Luke 2:8-12 from The Message begins with, “There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood.”  That sets the scene nicely and helps us to understand what their conditions included.  They were camping. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done my fair share of camping in my lifetime and I am not a huge fan.  For one thing, it means you are away from a place you can call home and for another, you definitely have to ‘simplify’.  I don’t think it would have been any different for these sheepherders 2,000 years ago.  If they had tents or bedding at all they would have been rudimentary, and food would have been very simple. They would have been on foot and would have had to carry everything with them. 

The main concern the sheepherders had was not their comfort. It was for the sheep, because if they lost sheep they lost income. The Message makes it pretty clear what the sheepherders had to do: “They had set night watches over their sheep.” 

The sheepherders were taking turns watching for intruders and they took their job quite seriously. They had to protect the sheep at all costs.  There is something about a shepherd watching out for the sheep.  Sheep are helpless and without a Shepherd they don’t know where to go. The sheep rely on the shepherd for protection and care. 

On this night it was probably dark and quiet out in the field.  The shepherd in charge of the night watch would have been listening as well as watching.  Since they didn’t have flashlights they would have to listen to make sure other animals didn’t sneak in and kill one of the sheep. It was probably pretty peaceful until suddenly in the midst of the darkness, the sky was filled with light.  There were Angels everywhere. 

The light probably blinded the shepherds.  I’m not at all surprised they were afraid.  When you consider their culture, they had probably not seen anything that bright at night.  They didn’t have bright streetlights or fireworks.  There were no flairs or spotlights. Once night set in the only light they had was fire or a candle.   

For sure, the angels would certainly have been an enigma! The most difficult thing for 21^st Century Christians is being able to see scripture through the eyes of the writer and those they were writing about.  We have no concept of what their world was like. Their culture was nothing like ours. Even the religious culture was quite different.  There were clean and unclean, the “in” and “out”, the chosen and not chosen. For certain, the shepherds were not “in” religiously speaking.   

It’s interesting and I think no accident that the Shepherds were the first to be told.  Jesus called himself the ‘Good Shepherd’ later in John 10:11 and He talked about how the shepherd takes care of the sheep. By sending the Angels to the shepherds God is pointing us to the importance of the shepherd/sheep relationship. Isaiah prophesied 700 years earlier in Isaiah 40:11:

  "Look! Your God!"
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,
   ready to go into action.
He is going to pay back his enemies
   and reward those who have loved him.
Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,
   gathering the lambs in his arms,
Hugging them as he carries them,
   leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.

The shepherds understood what it was like to care for the sheep the same way we need to understand how Jesus care for us. 

Certainly, by choosing the shepherds, God was making a statement. Shepherds were not royalty, or culturally acceptable, or educated or rich..The Angels invited common men to come and see. That means all are invited.  The shepherds weren’t asked what their credentials were, or if they had been “made clean” before the invitation came.  The Angels simply said, “come and see”. Come as you are and see. See the miracle and wonder of the Messiah. Come to the child who will save the world.  See why the Angels in heaven sing Hallelujahs!

Epiphany Celebration

Epiphany, known as the Twelfth Day of Christmas, is an ancient celebration originally practiced in the Eastern Church (centered in Constantinople) in the 3^rd Century A.D. and by the fourth century it had become common practice in the Western Church (the Church of Rome).

Today, churches that celebrate Epiphany recognize that it begins with Christmas Day and lasts for twelve days until January 6. The meaning of Epiphany today points to the mission of the church as we offer the light of the Gospel to the world. 

2 Timothy 1:10 (NLT) says:

And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.

The Greek word ἐπιφάνεια, or epiphaneia means to appear or to make manifest.  That word is used in 2 Timothy 1:10 and it refers to the birth of Christ and his appearance after the resurrection and the Second Coming. 

Epiphany is the climax of Advent and begins the Twelve Days of Christmas, ending with the Twelfth Night. 

Shakespeare wrote the play, “Twelfth Night” in 1600-1601 A.D., and at that time the last day of Epiphany referred to the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany.  While Epiphany started as a church holiday in the 3^rd-4^th Century, by the time the 17^th Century rolled around it had commonly become known as a festival. 

Common themes in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night point to confusion and mistaken identity.  Everything in Shakespeare’s play is topsy-turvy. 

As we look back to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night depicting the festival and compare that to the party we should be celebrating today and the great party we will celebrate when Christ returns, our Renaissance brothers may not have been so far off as we might think.

It seems like we think we know what to expect from life, how to handle life’s confusion, and how to recognize mistaken identity, but it is through Christ alone that we are given illumination.  When we celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25 we are celebrating the coming of the light of the world. 

The festival (party) that takes place following the appearing (birth) of Christ is intended to be a celebration. 

Every time we participate in communion we are celebrating Christ’s body and blood.

The Second Coming of Christ will be THE great party, the best party we have ever (or will ever) be invited to attend.  Christ is planning for you to be at the party. 

Celebrate the coming of Christ.

You are invited to the table.

A place has been set for you.   

Come.

Celebrate.