Unto You This Night

December 24, 2025

Luke 2:1-20

            “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  These are the words spoken by the angels as they announced the birth of Jesus.  But this announcement wasn’t made to kings or royalty.  The angels didn’t hover over the temple or make this announcement to the high priest or to the Sanhedrin.  The angels didn’t appear to the wealthy merchants or to the Biblical scholars.  They came to the shepherds.

            When the twenty-first century English speaking world thinks about shepherds, there is a tendency to view them in the light of Jesus’ description of Himself as the Good Shepherd.  We think of one who knows their sheep by name, who protects them from fierce predators, who brings them to good pastures to eat, who brings them to safe water to drink, and who seeks and saves the sheep who become lost.  In ancient times though, shepherds were not viewed in quite the same rosy light. 

            In ancient Israel, Shepherds were known for being unconcerned about whether they were leading their sheep to graze in areas that might have been other people’s property.  Those of us who were fans of cowboy movies and the wild west when we were kids, know well of the difficulties that existed between ranchers and sheep farmers.  You see, cattle and sheep both eat grass but when sheep eat grass they eat it down to the roots and cattle don’t do this.  When sheep graze in a field they exfoliate the field; the grass will not grow back because they have eaten the roots also. 

This is why the cattle ranchers hated the sheep farmers and why the ancient Israelites resented the shepherds who trespassed on their lands.  But there was more.  The reputation of shepherds was so poor that a shepherd was not permitted to be a witness in a court of law.  And worst of all, the nature of the shepherd’s job made it impossible for a shepherd to be ritually clean according to Jewish law.  And if you were not ritually clean… you were a sinner.

            And so, shepherds were perpetually unclean and their unclean condition separated them completely from the Jewish community.  They were not permitted to worship in the temple or in the synagogue.  They were not permitted to live with or to eat with their ritually clean neighbors.  In short, the shepherds were outcasts.  They were the insignificant, the unimportant, the looked down upon, the marginalized. 

            Until Christmas Eve. 

The appearance of the angels declaring the birth of Jesus to the shepherds was revolutionary in ways that we can only begin to understand.  To his first century audience, Luke’s statement that the first announcement of the birth of the messiah was given to shepherds would have been shocking… unthinkable.  And now, understanding just how revolutionary this act was, the message that this sends to us today becomes something quite different from what we may have originally thought that it was. 

            And I have another thought.  Who thinks that if Joseph and Mary had been wealthy that there may possibly have been found room for them in the inn?  Those who understand the ancient ways of hospitality know that to turn away a guest; any guest, would have been a giant breach of the unwritten rules of hospitality.  You see, in ancient thought, any visitor could potentially be God in disguise and so visitors were always treated with extreme respect.  And yet here, when God actually DID appear as a visitor in the form of the unborn Jesus, hospitality was denied.  Nazareth, Joseph and Mary’s home, was a backwater town; small and unimportant.  We get a glimpse of Nazareth’s reputation in the first chapter of John when Nathaniel asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth”.  The master of the inn almost certainly recognized the Nazareth accent in Joseph’s voice.  And so, Joseph and Mary were turned away almost certainly because they were nobodies and possibly also because they were from Nazareth.

            Since we were all children the story has told to us of how Jesus was born in a manger and laid in a feeding trough.  This manger wasn’t the pretty little wooden structure with gentle animals milling about like we see on fireplace mantels and communion tables and sometimes front lawns.  It was almost certainly a cave, hollowed out beneath the inn, filled with animals indeed, but also filled with the accompanying things that anyone who has ever been among farm animals knows all about.  It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t clean, it wasn’t warm, it wasn’t pleasant smelling, and it certainly wasn’t befitting a king.

            And yet, here lies the whole point of the Christmas story.  The announcement to the shepherds, and the lowly birth, send us the message that Jesus is entirely one of us.  The simple truth is, if Jesus was willing to be born in that manger, in the cold and the filth and the smell, then there is no heart into which He will be unwilling to be born.  God comes to even the least of us with humility and accessibility.  He comes to us not as a king demanding fealty, but as a humble servant, earning our faithfulness with His love and His devotion to His beloved children, every single one of them.

            Tonight, we hear the story once again.  But tonight, perhaps we understand just a little bit better what this story has to teach us about the depth and the inclusivity of God’s love, about His willingness to meet us where we are, and about how His grace and His forgiveness extend to all who will choose to follow Him; no matter who they are, no matter where they are from, no matter what they have done.  The greatest of gifts to be given this night is the gift of redemption.  The gift that God Himself gives that reconciles us to Him and makes us all actual members of His family.  My dear friends, this Christmas Eve… tonight, let us all open that gift of redemption and dedicate ourselves to the God who announced Himself to the humble shepherds and choose birth in a lowly manger.

The True Light

Sermon January 5, 2025

            In the early 1990’s I was traveling with my mom and my family from New Jersey to Memphis, Tennessee to visit my grandparents.  My mom had decided that she wanted to do something on the trip that would be fun for her grandson, and so we stopped to visit the Luray Caverns in Virginia.  The caverns were pretty spectacular with stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, underground streams, and vast expanses of space.  The place was huge!  In fact, I understand that the Luray Caverns are the largest caverns on the east coast.  All of the spaces in the caverns were brilliantly illuminated, and I never once gave any thought at all to that illumination.  We are just so accustomed to seeing things in the light that we don’t even give it a thought.  And even at night there is often moonlight, and starlight, and when you live in New Jersey the ubiquitous artificial lighting that mostly allows us to see even in the dark.  I didn’t give that lighting in the caverns much thought, until they momentarily turned off the lights.

            Have you ever been in complete and total darkness?  It is extremely unsettling, and I for one am glad that the lights were only off for maybe 10 seconds or so, although those ten seconds did seem interminable, and you could hear a collective sigh of relief as the lights were turned back on.   So, I am sure that I was not the only one who found the darkness to be quite uncomfortable.  In that total darkness it was absolutely impossible to see anything.  The tour guide who turned out the lights suggested that we put our hands in front of our faces.  It was a worthless gesture.  If you have never been in complete darkness, it is difficult to explain what it was like, but you dare not take a step, because you have no idea where that step will lead.  My son Joe was around 11 years old at the time and I remember fumbling around trying to find him just to take his hand.  When the lights came back on, I was holding one of his hands and my wife Jackie was holding the other.

            Darkness is debilitating.  Humans lack the ability to accomplish anything in the dark, lack the ability to travel safely in the dark, lack the ability to defend themselves or others in the dark, lack the ability to interact with others in the dark, in short, we become pretty much useless.

            In today’s reading, John tells us that “In [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of all [humankind].  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcomeit.”  Jesus is the light illuminating the souls of those who love Him.  For those who don’t know Him, or don’t love Him, they are walking in darkness, and that darkness is total.  Total, as in not being able to see your hand in front of your face.  Total as in not being able to travel safely or to defend ourselves.  Total as in being completely unable to interact with others in any meaningful way.  Total, as in pretty much totally useless.  Imagine the most complete darkness you have ever experienced, then imagine trying to function in that darkness.  And spiritually speaking, that is what we are trying to do if we are living our lives without “the Light of all humankind”.

            Now, one would think that the world would welcome the light; that the world would gravitate to that light as a moth to a porch light.  But John tells us otherwise.  In the Greek, the word John uses that we translate as “overcome” is κατέλαβεν (ketayleben) and κατέλαβεν is a compound word with κατά which is a word that Greeks used in the same way that we use the prefix “anti” which is used to negate the word that follows it, and λαμβάνω (lambano) which means to take or to receive.  So κατέλαβεν means to fail or refuse to receive.  The light shines in the darkness, but those living in the darkness refuse to receive the light.  (That’s my translation).

            The purpose of John’s Gospel is to introduce us to “The Word” who is the light of the world.  The first 18 verses of the Gospel which we read this morning are called the “Prologue” and in classical Greek literary style the prologue introduces us to the major character of the story that follows, and gives a brief synopsis of what that story is all about.  So, what is John telling us in his prologue?

            First, John introduces us to “The Word”.  The Word is not yet identified as Jesus – that will become apparent a little later, but the first thing that John wants us to know is that in the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God.  Here, John intentionally echoes the words of Genesis 1 as he speaks of the beginning; the time when nothing yet existed.  A time that, according to the second verse in the Bible, the earth was formless and void.  God existed before anything in our universe was created, and at that time The Word was already with Him.  The Father and the Word are equally co-existent.  And when the act of creation began, how did creation come into being?  What happened?  What does the Bible tell us about how creation began?  Genesis tells us that God SAID “Let there be light”.  It was God’s WORD that caused the light to happen.  God planned the universe, but it was the Word, that literally spoke it into existence.  This is why John tells us that “All things came into being through [the Word], and without [the Word] not one thing [would have come] into being.”  This person, who so far is only identified as “The Word”, is the actual, in fact, creator of the universe.  The relationship of the trinity is a mystery, and it is impossible for our finite minds to comprehend, but John makes it crystal clear in his prologue that the Father and the Word are one.  One God.

            John continues his prologue introducing us to John the Baptist, and it is here that John states the purpose of his Gospel.  John tells us that John the Baptist “came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through [that light] all might believe.”  John repeats this idea towards the end of his Gospel when he says in chapter 20 “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believethat Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  John’s purpose is to introduce us to God, in the person of Jesus Christ, that in coming to know Him, we may know God.  And that in coming to know God, we may have life in his name.

            So, how does this all work?  Well, like John, let’s start with the Word.  What is a word anyway?  A word is an audible or written expression of an idea.  If I were to say the word “banana”, I would have expressed a word with which we can all identify.  We will immediately have in our minds the image of a banana.  And so, when we speak of God’s Word, we are actually talking about the idea of the physical manifestation of all that God is.  God sent the Word in order to reveal Himself to us.  Edward W. Klink III tells us that the “’Word’ reflects the truth that it is the very nature of God to reveal Himself”. [1]

            Next, John tells us that this “’Word’ became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  And we have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  God is revealed to us in His entirety, in the Son, who is the fully human, yet fully divine and complete image of God.  Everything God is, the Son is.  This God, who created the universe, and created us, has chosen to reveal Himself to us in the person of the Son, Jesus.

            I would like to step away from John’s Gospel for just a moment so I can say something about this Son who is full of grace and truth.  Way back in Exodus 33, Moses asked God if God would allow him to see God’s glory.  God’s response to Moses was that He would cause His goodness to pass in front of Moses.  God’s glory is His goodness!  The grace that forgives, the truth that reveals, the love that abounds, the glory of God is to be found in His goodness.  And THIS is the glory of the one and only Son.  That His goodness is one and the same with His Father’s goodness. 

            The more we learn about Jesus, and through Him, the more we learn about the Father, the more we understand this picture of a God who loves us and is relentless in revealing His love for us in the hope that we may choose to receive His love, and to love Him in return.  Warren Wiersbe says, “Just as the first creation began with ‘Let there be light’, so the new creation begins with the entrance of light into the heart of the believer.” [2]

            But John hasn’t finished his prologue yet, and some of the rest of the story isn’t such good news.  John tells us that “[Jesus] came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”  In other words, the beloved refuse to love and the created reject their creator.  Warren Wiersbe again, “Whenever Jesus taught a spiritual truth, His listeners interpreted it in a material or physical way.  The light was unable to penetrate the darkness in their minds.”[3]  As unfathomable as it is to me, some will reject the Good News.  They will refuse to hear it, or refuse to believe it, or refuse to even consider it.  And I believe that the worst part of that rejection is the fact that, those who die without Jesus will spend the rest of eternity in that total darkness about which we spoke.  Unable to be productive, unable to function, unable to accomplish anything of value. 

Now, the last thing in all the world that I want to be is a fire and brimstone preacher.  I often say that we don’t serve a God of retribution, we serve a God of reconciliation.  It isn’t God’s desire to smite those who reject Him, but the sad fact is that there are some who will, and it is they themselves who will make the choice to live in darkness.

            But to those who do receive Him, we are given the right to become children of God.  Karl Kuhn says, “John’s exaltation of Jesus as the transcendent Word is only one side of the story. The other is his claim that the Divine Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. John’s exaltation of Jesus to unimaginable heights of transcendence serves his even more crucial interest of proclaiming that in Jesus, the barrier between the divine and human realms are breached to a degree never before realized. In the Word, John claims, God’s mercy and truth now flow in measures never possible before: “from his fullness, we receive grace upon grace”.[4]

            God came to reclaim the world that He created and the people that He loves.  God’s mission, as He has chosen to pursue it through the work of Jesus, is, as I just said, not one of retribution, but one of reconciliation.  It is God’s desire that none of His beloved children be lost, but that all be saved.  To that end, He has sent Jesus to show us God’s glory.  A glory that will be revealed in His goodness, His forgiveness, His compassion, His patience, and His love. 

            My dear friends, let us step into the light of that goodness and live as children of the light.

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 88

[2] Warren Wiersbe, “Be Alive”, Pg. 12.

[3] Warren Wiersbe, “Be Alive”, Pg. 13

[4] Karl Kuhn, WorkingPreacher.org: Commentary on John 1:1-18

Emmanuel

Homily December 24. 2024

            I find it fascinating that the opening verses of the story of the birth of Jesus include shepherds.  Shepherds had dirty jobs.  I mean REALLY dirty jobs.  The contact with animals that these shepherds experienced in the performing of their duties rendered them ritually unclean.  And as long as they worked as shepherds, they were perpetually ritually unclean.  Let’s stop for one moment and think about what this means.  Shepherds were, as a result of their profession, NEVER permitted to set foot in the temple and never permitted to participate in worship.

And their ceremonial uncleanness also separated them from the rest of the Jewish community because, as we all know, ritual uncleanness was contagious.  If you were to touch someone who was unclean, that made you unclean also.  And not only was the shepherd’s job dirty and alienating, but apparently, the people who worked as shepherds didn’t exactly have the best reputation.  In fact, according to Jewish law, a shepherd’s testimony was inadmissible in a court of law, presumably due to the character, or lack thereof, of those who were drawn to this profession.

            And so, with this in mind, the Christmas story takes on somewhat of a new dimension.  I mean, why were the angels sent to shepherds?  God could have sent the angel chorus to anyone He chose.  He could have sent that chorus to Caesar Agustus.  In the dark of night, He could have lit the imperial palace up as if it was midday and filled that space with the sound of heavenly praise.  But He didn’t.  He could have sent the angels to the temple and to the priests to herald the arrival of their long-awaited Messiah.  But He didn’t.  He could have sent that heavenly chorus directly to the high priest’s house and let the high priest be the one to tell the world the good news about Jesus’ birth.  But He didn’t.  A few weeks back we read that Luke identified 7 of the most influential men in the Roman world, but the angels didn’t visit any of them.  Instead, it was shepherds.  Why?

            Well, when WE hear good news, who is the first person that we want to tell?  We share our good news with those who are the most likely to delight with us over the news.  And so, we share our good news first with our closest family and friends, So, God’s choice to tell the shepherds first, is telling us something about God Himself.  God first told the Good News to those who He knew would be the ones who would rejoice with Him. 

The kings, the dignitaries, the religious rulers, they weren’t going to rejoice with God over the birth of the Messiah.  In fact, they would end up opposing Jesus because he threatened their power.  And so, God sent the heavenly host to tell the shepherds, and what did the shepherds do?  When they saw the baby Jesus in the manger, Luke tells us that, “they made known what [the angels] had told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them,” And what did the shepherds do after they returned to their fields?  Luke tells us that, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.”  God told the shepherds first because God knew that they would be the ones who would be rejoicing with Him.

            Isaiah tells us that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.  And Jesus truly is “God with US”.  He is not God with the kings and the well connected.  He is not God with the religious authorities.  He is God WITH US!  He is God who doesn’t require His followers to have an elite position in society.  He is God who doesn’t require elite training in the Bible or in religion.  He is God who does not require an elite income or elite status to be His follower.  He is simply God with us.  And if we ever, ever doubt our worthiness to come before God, just remember that He came to the perpetually unclean shepherds first.

            It’s not possible to read the Bible and not come away with the understanding that God holds a special place in His heart for the poor and the marginalized.  The shepherds who were rejected by the people, excluded from worship, and deeply distrusted, are the very ones that God embraced.  It’s almost impossible to comprehend the fact that unclean shepherds, led by God to a baby, lying in a sheep’s feeding trough, wrapped in strips of cloth, and in a cold and damp cave, is the way the creator of the universe chose to enter the world.  No power, no influence, no friends in high places, just Emmanuel… God with us.

            God’s kingdom is not about power and authority, though God has those things in unfathomable abundance.  God’s kingdom is about God choosing to reconcile the world to Himself.  It’s about bridging the gap between God’s holiness and our sinfulness which God accomplishes by assigning the sinlessness and goodness of Jesus to us… and making it as if our sin never happened.  And this transaction, this free gift of a loving and gracious God is available to absolutely everyone who chooses to accept God’s gift of new life in Him.

            It doesn’t matter who we are.  It doesn’t matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done.  It doesn’t matter how far away from God we think we are.  It only matters where our hearts are right here and right now.  This is the message of the shepherds.  God comes to the unclean, the unwanted, the unappreciated, and the rejected, and out of the difficulties of their lives, He creates something unimaginably beautiful.  He creates a life that He teaches to love Him and to love others.

            Here is the simple truth… If Jesus was willing to be born into an environment as dismal and as smelly as a manger, there is no heart into which He will be unwilling to be born as well.