Presbyterian Church of Easton
Sermon Luke 2:1-21 “God’s Son and God’s Song”
December 24, 2021
Watch our Christmas Eve Service
This is the eve of Christmas. This is the day each year when we remember the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we remember that God came into the world to be with us. We know that God arrived because of a proclamation of the angels to a group of ordinary shepherds saying, ““Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”" We will get to this extraordinary event on an ordinary day to ordinary people, but first let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Throughout the Advent season we have been looking at the sons and songs of Christmas. We met Zachariah and Elizabeth who were looking for a son in their old age. And when the miraculous event happened they began to praise God in song. Then we watched as a young woman was told that her son would be the Son of God. And this Sunday we will hear the wonderful song she sang. But tonight is a time for God’s son and God’s song.
We last saw Mary as she was going home to tell her parents and her fiance that even though she was pregnant, now six months, she is still a virgin because the baby is God’s son. We don’t know the reaction of her parents when they heard this news. But we do know something about the reaction of her fiancé, Joseph.
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
So Joseph has decided that he will not publicly humiliate Mary or subject her to stoning. But he is going to break off the relationship, as any man would, if he thought that his fiance had been unfaithful to him. But this was not part of God’s plan, so once again the angel Gabriel was dispatched.
20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
So what is Joseph to do? Does he base his whole life on a dream? Does he take on the responsibility of raising this child? Yes, he does.
24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Mary and Joseph are in this together. And they are ready to make a family to nurture God’s son. When suddenly, by government order, they are forced to make the long difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
Luke 2:1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.
So the couple, together with their extended family and most of the community, went on a week’s journey on foot. Hopefully someone offered pregnant Mary a donkey or a cart to ride in. When they arrived in Bethlehem they found the village crowded and there was no place for them to stay. They were offered a place to stay underneath the house, where the animals were kept. It was there that Mary had her baby and placed him in a stone feeding trough, a manger.
6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
With the birth of his son, God was ready to celebrate. And God knew exactly where to go to get a party started. He dispatched the angel Gabriel again to speak to some bedouin shepherds and give them an invitation to his son’s birth party.
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
This is quite an invitation, good news! great joy! It must be a spectacular party. And it is nearby in the village of Bethlehem. But shepherds needed to know where the party was going to take place. Where in Bethlehem is the celebration? And Gabriel told them.
12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” … 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
And with that the shepherds went off looking for a great celebration for the birth party of the Messiah. They went into nearby Bethlehem and found the newly born baby in a manger just as the angel had said.
16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.
So the shepherds showed up to the party God had planned for the birth of his son. The Son of God had been born and was lying there in a feeding trough just as the angel had said. The shepherds were joyful. But what about Mary? She is the mother. How does she feel? What did she do?
19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
The shepherds have found the great celebration of the birth of the Messiah, the Son of God. And they just can’t wait to tell others about the good news and the great joy.
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The good news of great joy is that God’s son has been born in Bethlehem. The shepherds have started a great celebration. And it is time for God’s song to be sung.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
In our Christmas story we have some shepherds. They were doing very ordinary things. They were doing what shepherds do, “living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” It must be summertime and hot for them to be in the fields. Otherwise they would be huddled caves with the animals for warmth in the winter. Shepherds have done this for thousands of years since we began raising animals. A young David had lived in this field a thousand years before his descendant Jesus was born. For ordinary shepherds, it was just another ordinary day.
Also in our Christmas story we have a young couple with a newly born baby. They too were doing very ordinary things. The mother “gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” There were no maternity hospitals two thousand years ago. Women had babies wherever they happened to be. They might have a baby out in the field, or maybe in a barn with animals. They might even use a feeding trough or manger as a makeshift cradle for the baby. Giving birth this way was very ordinary, nothing special.
We all know what it is like to live an ordinary day. Every day I wake up around 7. I have breakfast. At 8 Grace and I come to the church to sing, read the Bible together, and pray. Then I go to my office to read and write. I visit people and go to meetings. Along the way I eat lunch. I usually go home for dinner, and then either rest or come back to the church for a meeting, or prayer service or GriefShare. I live many ordinary days just like this.
But some days are extraordinary. We remember the days when we got married or when a child was born. We remember graduations and first jobs. And we celebrate the anniversary of our birthday every year. We have many ordinary days and a few extraordinary days now and then.
We would expect that God would do something extraordinary for the birth of his son. God might glorify himself with an extraordinary display of power. Maybe a savior would come leading an army of angel warriors to bring the Kingdom of God from heaven to earth. An extraordinary event like that would certainly bring great glory to God. God too would receive fame, recognition, honor and prestige. But that is not what God did. Rather than sending a mighty warrior leading the angelic hosts God did something very ordinary. God was the father of a newborn baby and God asked the angel choir to sing, "Glory to God in the highest.”
This is good news for us. We will experience the Glory of God during the ordinary moments in our lives. God will come to us in our ordinary daily prayers. God will come to us in our ordinary Sunday worship. God will enter into our ordinary lives with an extraordinary gift. The Christmas gift we receive from God is nothing less than, “on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
And this is my hope for you this day: That the Glory of God would come into your ordinary lives and, like Mary, you will remember and ponder what happens. Christmas is not an ordinary day. Christmas is an extraordinary day when God himself decided to come here to be with us.
So the Glory of God came on an ordinary day to ordinary shepherds, an ordinary man just doing what he was supposed to do, and an ordinary mother giving birth. Everything seems pretty ordinary in this story. But there is one very extraordinary character in the Christmas story. His name was Jesus. This extraordinary baby came to bring the Glory of God to all people on earth. He came to save us from the evil one, forgive our sin, and promise us eternal life. This baby is the anointed one, the descendant of King David of whom the prophets had foretold. And he was the son of the living God. The Glory of God came as an extraordinary baby into a very ordinary world.
Angels announced his birth. Shepherds spread the good news. Joseph did what he was supposed to do. Mary pondered all this in her heart. And Jesus, the Glory of God, was born. Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, prepare our hearts for the coming of a savior this Christmas. Let your glory come into our ordinary lives. And lead us to proclaim the extraordinary good news of your coming to an ordinary world. This we pray in the name of your newborn son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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