The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church - Cleveland, NC
RCL Year C (Christmas Eve) - December 24, 2009
Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
Sometimes we think too much… I know that I do, especially when it comes to preaching on Christmas Eve. Most preachers that I know are terrified of it, I think it’s because there are so many more in the congregation than usual…
People that come on this holy night to experience the wonder, the awe and the mystery of the miraculous birth of Jesus in a stable in
So, I thought and prayed this year until my head hurt and then I thought and prayed some more... and in my study, I ran across some folks… folks that seem to have been short changed in the nativity story… folks that appear right in the middle of all the action in the gospel lesson that we just heard.
Shepherds!
You remember the shepherds… every young boy wants to be a shepherd in the Christmas pageant. It's the character in the reenactment that gets to wear their bath robe and put one of mamma’s checkered dish-towels on their head... You know... The Shepherds... the ones that watched over their flocks in the field by night…
The working class… grubby, and smelly, just trying to earn a living. If Mike Rowe were around then, he would have probably interviewed them for the show Dirty Jobs. They were classed with the other working stiffs… folks the tanners, sailors, butchers, camel jockeys, and other despised occupations…
But unlike these other occupations, Shepherds were different, since they were away from home at night they were unable to protect their families and therefore they were considered dishonorable. These folks were the lowest of the low, and yet God chose them first…
God chose the shepherds… and revealed to them the Good News of the miraculous birth. An Angel appeared – and stood before these shepherds and the glory of God surrounded them and they were scared - to - death…
And the Angel said, "don’t be afraid – I am bringing you Good News to share with everybody! ALL PEOPLE!!" And the angel told them where to find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and laying in a feeding trough. And then there was a bunch of Angles singing… "Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace to everyone! with whom God is Well Pleased!"
And the shepherds decide to go and see this miraculous thing that God had made known to them. And they found it just as the Angel had told them, Mary & Joseph and a child laying in a manger (a feeding trough) wrapped in strips of cloth…
But the amazing part of this story is… it didn’t stop there.
These simple shepherds were so excited by what they saw, they went and told others about the child… and all who the shepherds told were amazed… The mystery and awe that surrounds us on this holy night is partly made possible by the shepherds… God chose to reveal God’s self to the lowest of the low – the dishonored in society and tell them of the miracle of the birth of Christ…
A miraculous birth to a peasant family that didn’t have a place to stay when they traveled… and didn’t even have a bed for their new born baby… God trusted that the shepherds would go and see what had taken place and share it with the world…
This is just the beginning of the story of Jesus who is the Christ… A man who we know will turn the world on its ear, disrupt society and make an impact like no other has ever made… In 1926, Dr. James Allen wrote a poem. The poem is called One Solitary Life some of you may have heard it before… I would like to share that poem with you to give us something to ponder in our hearts this evening…
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty
He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth
When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind's progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life
God humbled himself and was born as a human...
God came to live among us as one of us…
God didn’t come to us in glorious splendor, he came to us from a poor family that had no place to stay when they traveled, so they stayed in a barn.
He didn’t have royal robes and fine garments, he was bound with rags – strips of cloth or swaddling clothes. He didn’t live a life of luxury… he didn’t even have a bed. He was laid in a feeding trough…
But it IS from that feeding trough that he continues to feed the whole world!
Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among all people with whom God is well pleased! Amen!
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