A Savior to You

And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 
'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests.'

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.'

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

Luke 2:8-18 (NIV)

It's the Christmas story, all right.  Or, I guess for arguments sake, it is the Christian's story.  As discussed ad nauseum, much of the Western world recognizes the holiday that is Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa, but not everyone celebrates it.  Some tolerate the intrusion that the Savior has in the world; others are adamantly against it.  Some would say the story of Christ's birth is a blue time of year, that because something dreadful has happened in their lives, nothing can bring joy to the Yule.  With each passing year of the inculturation of Christmas and the excision of spiritual meaning from it, we find that the day becomes a gluttonous consumer orgy of shredding wrapping paper and overeating.  The blue part of Christmas, for me, is that the angel's message has been pruned of joy; instead of a proclamation that the Savior of the world has come for you (plural), we find an announcement of commercial frenzy.  Once the presents are unwrapped, we find an emptiness because God's presence is, unfortunately, left undiscovered.

Which is why I really, really, enjoy the shepherds' story.  They are, if you will, the first Christ-ian converts.  Think about it:

For centuries, the people of Israel had been bereft of hope and joy because they had been acclimatized to living in the bondage to foreign invaders.  Whether Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks or Romans, these middle eastern Semites had known only alien rule.  My guess is that all of the Israelites, young or old, would gladly have opened the gift of the Messiah that dark night.  He came when they least expected - the Romans, just like every other conquering country, gave them a small amount of control, in this case Herod and his family.  The Israelites would have dreamed of the day when the Messiah wandered in from the wilderness, like their contemporary version of Moses, overthrown the Philistines and set up rule in Jerusalem.  

These shepherds, and presumably Israelites, (we're not told how old they are, but in my mind they've always been young, but my guess is that's not necessarily true), were tediously doing their jobs minding their flocks. And it was nighttime which could have been boring and, at times, scary.  Any noise might have thrown them off; a lack of noise might have sent them off to sleep - certainly a fine line between alertness and asleepness.

Then suddenly an angel appears - from where they don't know, but it is definitely out of the ordinary to have a messenger from God show up in the meadows at night.  So the angel, the messenger, delivers the message of good news (the gospel) to the shepherds first: Not (and I hold up a finger to stress the point) the wealthy businessmen or doctors or lawyers or movie stars or pop stars or even pastors for that matter, but to those who held the lowliest of jobs; those who weren't even able to have a roof over their heads.

And the good news, the gospel preached to them from above their heads, from on high, from the radiant light and voice of God, good news that will bring joy from the chasm of misery, sorrow and hopelessness:  Today, in the town of David (somehow the shepherds already knew this was Bethlehem) a Savior has been born to you ----- and it's plural, which we don't read in English.  Usually, we read the soteriological, (salvation's) story from the the unique perspective of the individual, but the gospel is brought to the masses in the plural, or in the translated deep south "A Savior has been born to y'all y'alls."  

Far too often we believe that this salvation is a private, personal thing, that Jesus' life, death and resurrection was for me, that Jesus loves me this I know - but the very first message is that God has come for everyone.  The one born is the Messiah, the Lord.  The anointed one.  The King.  The Prince of Peace.  The Son of Righteousness.  You know the synonyms - For Us.  

The shepherds do not react with how, perhaps, the wealthy businessmen would have reacted:  "What will it cost?"

Or the doctors, "Certainly there is a logical, or psychological explanation, for an appearance by these 'messengers from God.'"

Or the lawyers, "Does the holy family need a court representative for the living conditions that they've been put in?  Do we need to talk to the carpenter's union?"

Or the movie stars, "There's only one star here - and that's me."

Or the pop stars, "Can we sing 'O Holy Night' one more time so I can hold the high note and you can be impressed?"

Or even the pastors, "There has to be some kind of theological explanation why God would not arrive to the learned brethren."

But even the pastors have to be impressed by the faith of the shepherds - they leave their livelihood, follow their Sunday School understanding of the scriptures, hurry to Bethlehem, all because they believe what they had heard.

The scriptures do not use any words like, "The shepherds were considered righteous in God's eyes so he came to them first," or "The shepherds went to church every week in order to be the first to be worthy of the words of grace," or "The shepherds invited Jesus into their hearts and then they were ready to run off and see this great thing that had happened."

That's the beauty of this story; the fact that it is all God's doing - the salvation is HIs and there is no scriptural evidence that the shepherds had to do anything at all which includes accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior before the Savior actually did the saving.  God's grace was devoid of any prior holy rolling or acting by humankind.  None were worthy.

That's the good news at Christmas:  We believe because we hear.  So, we tell what we've been told.  And in doing so, Christmas (the arrival of Christ in enemy occupied territory) becomes a daily event.

A Savior has been born to you and you and you, and although it would be much easier to believe that somehow we have a hand in our own salvation, working towards being 'really good', that's not the way it happens.  

It's all God's doing.

This good news should cause great joy in you today, for a child has been born for you... A Savior.