Loving God, you show up in the most unexpected ways, changing the lives of your people in the process.  Help us to encounter you here today by the power of your Spirit, filling us with the gift of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    For the shepherds, it started out as a night like any other.  Other people may have been at home in bed, but not them.  They were living in the fields, keeping watch over the flock.  Maybe they were sitting around the fire, swapping stories, or maybe they were just lying there, looking up at the stars.  However, all of a sudden God showed up, and things were never quite the same again.

    In this case, God showed up with an angel and with bright light that was shining all around them.  That in itself would have been scary enough, but they also would have believed that they were about to die.  After all, nobody is allowed to see God and live!  However, as often happens with God, these assumptions proved to be wrong.  God did not show up in order to kill them, but in order to give them a very important message: a Saviour has been born for all the people.  He is the long-awaited Messiah, and he is nearby!  He is in Bethlehem, wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.  And then the shepherds are treated to an impromptu concert, as the heavenly choir shows up to sing and praise God: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth!

    Then, just as quickly as they showed up, the angels disappear, and once again it is night time out under the stars.  Of course, after having been told such an amazing thing, they can’t just sit there.  They head to Bethlehem as soon as they can to check it out, and lo and behold, they find exactly what the angel had said they would: “a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger” (Lk. 2:12).

    They must have been at least a little bit relieved to find out that they hadn’t been hallucinating.  They really had seen the angels, and a Saviour really had been born.  And from that moment on, the shepherds also become messengers, telling Mary and Joseph and all who will listen about the angels and the child and the Saviour who has been born for all of them.

    The thing is that when God shows up, things are never the same again.  Shepherds, as you may have heard, were treated very much like outcasts and had a reputation for being untrustworthy.  If Jesus had been born in a palace or even in a temple, the shepherds most likely would not have been allowed in.  However, they’re used to sheep and goats and mangers.  To them, any Saviour who was lying in a manger instead of in a cradle had definitely come for them.  God chooses lowly shepherds to spread the word, for if God had chosen prophets or priests or kings, people like the shepherds would probably have never heard.  When God shows up, the lowly are lifted up, and the powerful are brought down.

    From Mary and Joseph’s perspective, too, once God shows up they come into contact with all sorts of different people.  They meet the shepherds who show up, and probably others who come later to see the baby that the shepherds have told them about.  They meet the mysterious magi who show up to worship the child Jesus.  They meet elderly prophets in the temple like Simeon and Anna, who seem to know all about their baby boy.  And they even end up meeting people in Egypt, when they become refugees there in order to avoid the wrath of King Herod.

    Their lives are absolutely never the same once God shows up and overshadows Mary with the power of the Holy Spirit and chooses them to be the earthly parents of the Son of God.  Their lives are no longer quiet and ordinary.  Yet, they also know beyond the shadow of a doubt what the power of God can do.

    When Jesus was born, God showed up in an entirely new way - in the flesh!  Because of the fact that Jesus not only lived, but also died and rose again, God continues to show up in the lives of people around the world.  It isn’t always flashy, with angels and visions and immaculate conception.  God is just as capable of showing up in very ordinary things like bread and wine, or water and the Word, or in another person, or in the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts.  And once God shows up in our lives, things are never the same again.

    For one thing, once we have encountered God in Christ, we have no basis whatsoever for believing that we are worthless or that other people are worthless.  Once we know the lengths to which God was willing to go in order to bring us salvation and reconciliation with God, we also know how much value God places on each and every one of us.  After all, what kind of God would risk being born and growing up and living and suffering and dying as a human being?  Is this not the God who loves us?

    At the same time, when we are aware of our sinful nature and how we have failed to live as the people whom God intended us to be, God shows up, offering forgiveness and cleansing and new life.  When we experience the gift of God’s forgiveness, it is like a weight that is lifted off our shoulders, and we are set free to live a new life.

    In this new life, as we walk day by day with God and continue to learn from Jesus, we discover that God is faithful and trustworthy and gives us all that is needed from day to day.  That gift of faith that comes from the Holy Spirit teaches us that we do not need to fear the future.  For absolutely nothing - not even death - can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).  For once God shows up, things are never the same again. Amen.

The Nativity of Our Lord - Christmas Day (NL 3)                Luke 2:8-20
December 25, 2016
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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