Responding to an Unexpected Announcement...

This week we have been looking at the Christmas story from a letter in our Bibles called the gospel of Luke. Yesterday, we discovered how unexpected it would be for a shepherd to receive the announcement the God was sending His Son to enter into humanity.

We stopped to ask the question as to we would do if the angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord showed up and made that kind of announcement to us? Probably what the shepherds did, which we read as Luke continues the Christmas story:

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us."

Notice the shepherd’s response here. There was no doubt that the shepherds believed that they had an encounter with God. The shepherds recognized that they were given an opportunity to participate in God’s activity in the world because God had chosen them to be the first to hear of His entry into the world. And as they watched the angels return to Heaven, this unexpected announcement to this unexpected group of people created an uncontainable passion to God’s entry into the world that had been proclaimed to them.

This uncontainable passion to see the evidence of God’s activity and entry into the world caused them to go straight to Bethlehem. No time to find someone else to watch the sheep; not time to tell family and friends where they were going; just a desire that is focused on encountering God and experiencing and participating in His activity in the world. And it is God’s activity in the world and in our lives that can change the desires, the focus, and even the trajectory of our lives. Luke then shows us how God’s unexpected announcement to the shepherds changed the trajectory of their lives:

So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem and began to search for the baby wrapped is clothes, lying in a feeding trough. So they went through town asking “have you seen him? Have you seen a baby in clothes in a manger? Is he here? Where do you keep the animals in town?

I imagine that many in Bethlehem would probably be wondering "Why are you looking for a baby in a manger?" Can you imagine how they would respond to the shepherds response? "We are looking because this baby will be our rescuer, our deliverer. We are looking because this baby is the Lord God who entered into humanity”. And all in Bethlehem who encountered these shepherds looking for a baby in a feeding trough were amazed and impacted by the shepherd’s uncontainable passion as they searched for a baby in a feeding trough.

I mean how unexpected would it be for shepherds to be searching for the Messiah, instead of religious or political power players. And when they found the baby, in a cave, in a feeding trough, any hesitation or doubts were removed as to what they had seen and heard that night. For Mary, however, there was a different response:

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Mary responds to this unexpected announcement by making another page in the mental scrapbook that she was creating about the role that God had given her in His huge story. This morning, wouldn’t you like to look at that scrapbook? Can you imagine what Mary’s scrapbook would look like as she placed treasured moment after treasured moment of the evidence of God’s amazing activity in her life? Luke then reveals for us how the shepherds responded to all that they had heard and seen:

The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

The shepherds, after seeing God entry into humanity as a baby in a feeding trough, return to the sheep and to the field. The shepherds returned to their relatively mundane lives that most would view as being of little importance and as having little impact on the world. However, the shepherds were forever changed as a result of accepting God’s invitation to see His Son.

Luke tells us that the shepherds went back glorifying God for all that they had heard and seen. And it was these shepherds who God gave the role to announce to the world that they were not just a part of the Christmas story, they were the point of the Christmas story. God had an unexpected announcement that was given by unexpected announcers to an unexpected audience. Instead of announcing the fulfillment of God’s promise through a prophet, priest, or king, God announced the fulfillment of His promised through a most unexpected announcer- a shepherd.

And for 2,000 years, God has continued to announce His offer of the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that we were created for by believing, trusting, and following Jesus through unexpected announcers. Announcers like a fisherman named Peter who denied Jesus three times. Announcers like a religious zealot named Paul who had earlier persecuted Jesus followers. Announcers who had flawed and scandalous pasts prior to meeting Jesus. Announcers who once had a label that they could not shake. Announcers who questioned how God could love them after they had stumbled and fallen in horrible ways. Announcers like me; Announcers like you.

You see, the shepherds were not just a part of the Christmas story; the shepherds were the point of the Christmas story. And in the same way, we are not just a part of the Christmas story; we are the point of the Christmas story.

So how have you responded to the unexpected announcement of the unexpected invitation that God has extended to all humanity through the Christmas story?