file · Web viewThat night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks...

Theme: The First Carols of Christmas“The Angel’s Song”

Sermon preached by Jeff HuberDecember 23-24, 2014 at First United Methodist Church, Durango

Luke 2: 4-20

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

VIDEO Sermon Starter

SLIDE The Angel’s Song (Use the Christmas Eve background)

Several years ago, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel challenged viewers to give their children something really weird or bad for Christmas a couple weeks before Christmas day, kind of like an advance Christmas present. He asked parents to give their children something weird and then videotape their children opening their present. Parents then posted those on YouTube and I

Jeff Huber’s Sermon – First UMC Durango – December 23-24, 2014

thought you might enjoy seeing a few of the best ones on this Christmas Eve.

VIDEO Jimmy Kimmel Worst Christmas

I love that little boy saying, “This is the worst Christmas ever!” Many of us may have said those words at some point in our lives and I can guarantee you that little boy will have a worse Christmas than getting a girls activity book for Christmas before it’s all over and said and done with.

I liked that video because it points to the fact that Christmas is really a celebration of how the world is a lovely place that is always nice and beautiful and nothing bad ever happens. If that were the case, we wouldn’t even need Christmas. Christmas is about the fact that sometimes there are terrible things which happen in our lives. Sometimes the world feels so dark and hopeless and our hearts are filled with despair. In those moments we remember that we need Christmas. The earliest Christians talked about Christmas as, “light piercing the darkness.”

SLIDE Christmas is light piercing the darkness

We celebrate Christmas on December 25 because in the old Julian calendar it was the day in which daylight finally would overtake darkness. The world would turn and from this time forward daytime would grow longer and nighttime would grow shorter. This was in essence the message of Christmas. Christ had come to the world. A Savior had been born to deliver us and give us hope. We need Christmas, especially in the darkest moments of all and in our worst Christmases ever. I was visiting last week with some people who live in our community but don’t go to church. They asked me when Christmas Eve services were because they had lost a child earlier this month. They felt like this year they needed Christmas more than ever.

I suspect that’s why most of us are here, because somehow inside, we come knowing that we need light. We need good news of great joy for all people. We need hope. We need someone who can save us from the darkness and give us light.

When Luke is describing the events of the first Christmas, he tells us that the birth of Jesus happened in a stable and that the first crib of Jesus was the feeding trough for animals. He was born in poverty and there was no place for them to stay in regular lodging. Luke goes on to tell about how the first people


invited to see the birth of the Christ child were the night shift shepherds who were the lowest rung in the socioeconomic world in which Jesus was born. Let me remind you of the text that we just heard.

SLIDE Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

After this announcement, it was as though the heavenly hosts could not contain the joy and the excitement they were feeling. Suddenly, there was a multitude which could’ve been dozens or maybe hundreds of heavenly messengers who began to sing before the shepherds. We read it this way in the gospel of Luke.

SLIDE Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

This became one of the earliest songs, or choruses, that was sung in the Christian faith. It was sung in different languages. In Latin it was, “Gloria in excelsis deo.” It’s been set to music again and again and we sing in our Christmas carols every year. It offers something profound as the Angels Sing, “Peace on earth and goodwill to those with whom God is pleased.”

That second line of the Angels chorus seems quite different from a life experience of Longfellow in 1863 on Christmas Day. He was living in a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans had died during the American Civil War. His son had gone to fight for the Union Army and came back severely crippled from the wounds he experienced in battle. Just a month before Christmas, Longfellow’s wife had died. On Christmas morning he was listening as the church bells began to ring and he took a pen and paper and he began to write the words that many of you know from a beloved Christmas Carol. He wrote these words.

SLIDE I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day


Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

But as you continue to read the words of the song, you find that it takes a turn to the dark side. He begins to speak about the canons which were firing across America and the carnage which resulted from the war. When you get to the sixth verse you find these words.

SLIDE And in despair I bowed my head; "There is no peace on earth," I said; "For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Longfellow’s song could’ve stopped with those words which end in despair, but something began to happen in his heart. He began to remember that real meaning of Christmas which is that light piercing the darkness. He began to remember that Christmas happened because the world is dark and that ultimately God will defeat darkness and evil. And so he penned the final verse of that Christmas Carol with these words.

SLIDE Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men."

When you are walking through your worst Christmas ever, where do you turn? Parents came to church on Christmas Eve during their worst Christmas ever. If it is not the story of the birth of a Savior and his life, death and resurrection then where do we turn in times of hopelessness and darkness and despair? I’m glad that you are here today because it means you are choosing to turn to this story. Let’s look at that last line of the Angel song and ponder what it might mean for us today.

SLIDE Peace on earth and good will to all

The idea of peace is an important one in the New Testament. The Greek


word for peace is something that some of you are actually named.

SLIDE Peace = Irene = Shalom

Irene is the word for peace in Greek at the word literally means that something which was once broken or fractured has been made whole again. In the Old Testament Hebrew the word is, “shalom.” Something that was broken has been brought together again. 92 verses in the New Testament use this word and speak about peace. About half of them speak about peace with God and the idea is that we were separated from God and then Jesus helped us to become whole again and be made right with God. That resulted in the peace from God filling our hearts so that while our hearts may have been fractured with fear or despair, they have been made whole again because of the peace and love that comes from God.

The other half of those verses speak about peace among human beings and point to the fact that we have conflict with one another. Different people groups and nations and in our own personal lives, we constantly see conflict with our spouses or our children or our neighbors or coworkers. The idea in the New Testament is that Christ longs to lead us into the way of peace. In fact, before Jesus was born, the father of John the Baptist who was Zechariah the priest, looked at Mary who was three months pregnant and said these words as part of his Christmas Carol in Luke’s gospel. We looked at these words last week in worship in Zechariah’s song as he said, “The child in your womb will guide our feet into the path of peace.”

That’s exactly what Jesus does and so I want to talk to bit about that today as we come to celebrate the birth of Christ. What exactly does this idea of peace with God mean? I was reminded of a hospital visit I made a number years ago where I pulled up a chair next to the hospital bed of a man who knew he was dying. I told him that I just wanted to come by and remind him of the love of God and pray with him, but I also wanted to ask a question. I said to them, “You know that the end is near. Are you ready?”

He said to me, “Pastor, I have made peace with the man upstairs. I’m ready.” I said that was great but I also wanted to know how he made peace with the man upstairs and what that meant to him, so I asked him. He said, “Well, when I found out I wasn’t going to leave this hospital I just prayed here my bed, all by myself and with no one else here. I simply prayed, ‘God, I know I’m not


always been perfect. I’ve done some things I wish I hadn’t done. Would you please forgive me again? Jesus, would you forgive me and my sins. Lord, I want to thank you for all the blessings in my life. Thank you for all those good things. I want to put my life in your hands as I come to the end of this life.’”

“I then remembered what Jesus said before he died and I said those words as well, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ The funny thing was, the moment I said that prayer, I felt this piece wash over me. I wasn’t afraid anymore. I was ready to die because I knew my life was in his hands and no matter what happened next he wasn’t going to let me go.”

He describes two important components of peace with God. The first is that we entrust our lives to God and we ask for and receive his love and grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. The second is what God gives to us when he fills our hearts with what the apostle Paul calls, “The peace that passes all understanding, the guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

None of us knows the day or the hour that we are going to die and so I get up every morning. I have preached that more than 300 funerals in my lifetime as a pastor and very few of those people knew they were going to die on that particular day that they passed. Sometimes it’s a car accident or a heart attack or cancer, but few people wake up in the morning and say, “I know today I’m going to die. I had better get ready now.” It’s really better to be ready all the time which is why I pray a simple prayer almost every morning when I wake up. I simply say, “Lord, I offer my life to you. I want to follow you and honor you. Do with me whatever you want. I belong to you.” No matter what circumstances might be, I feel like my life belongs to him and I don’t have to be afraid.

In the Christmas story that we heard tonight, it was the Angels first promise this idea of peace. They also promised that this baby will be born to be a Savior. This begs a very important question. What does he have to save us from? The Jews were hoping the Messiah would save them from the Romans, but that’s not what Jesus came to save them from. Jesus came for something far bigger than an occupying force. Jesus came to save us from ourselves, from our narcissism and self-absorption and selfishness. Jesus came to save us from our hatred and bitterness and racism and strife that we feel in our own lives. Jesus came to save us from separation from God and from each other, and ultimately to save us from death and to deliver us to life. That’s why he came as a Savior. The New


Testament has several words for this saving work that Jesus does.

SLIDE Redemption or Ransom

These words of redemption or ransom are ones that we don’t use very often anymore and so as we are reading the New Testament it can sometimes be confusing. We don’t understand that in the first century, when someone was in debt and they couldn’t pay off their debts, they didn’t file for bankruptcy. They sold themselves into slavery. The person who paid off their debt then had the rights to this person’s work for as long as it took them to pay off that debt to them. If you had a good friend or somebody who really loved you and they had enough money to pay off your debt, they would redeem you or ransom you and set you free. This is the language the New Testament uses to describe what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. The baby was born in Bethlehem would come to give his life as a payment or redemption or ransom.

That idea is still very hard for us to wrap our minds around as 21 st-century people who live in the United States. But every once in a while we can see an illustration of this and we get it. One image you might have seen it in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Maybe you read the book or saw it in the theater. In the movie, John Valjean is a criminal who’s been released from prison. He goes into a town and he can’t find a place to stay and so the Bishop, the equivalent of a pastor in that community, welcomes him into his home. The Bishop is a Christ figure for Hugo in the story and John Valjean goes to stay in the home of the Bishop.

John Valjean wakes up in the middle of the night, takes his knapsack down to the kitchen and takes the Bishop’s silverware. The Bishop walks in on him stealing his silverware and John Valjean strikes him on the head and knocks him out and then he runs. The next day, John Valjean is caught and brought back to the Bishop’s house with the silverware. What you see in this scene is a picture of redemption.

VIDEO Les Miserables

The apostle Paul says that we were bought with a price. The child whose birth we celebrate today, came to offer his life. The Christ child came as a way of winning you and helping you to see what mercy looks like. He embodies the grace of God and the idea was that if we saw him selflessly give his life away for us that


we might finally understand the depth of God’s mercy and our need for his grace. We might know that we were ransomed, redeemed for far more than two silver candlesticks, and that we might be new people because of that sacrifice. The hope is that we would be different and that we would be redeemed and ransomed from evil and hate and hurt and anger and bitterness and everything else which binds us into darkness.

This is the message of Christmas—that we can be made new. This is the message of redemption—that we could have a new beginning. I don’t know how long it’s been since you have talked to God or since you offered yourself to God or since you have received God’s grace or felt peace from him, but Christmas is the perfect time. Christmas is about new beginnings and starting over. The big idea of Christmas is that you don’t have to be in the future who you have been in the past and God offers us grace. Every time we see a cross we are meant to remember that we were bought with a price. We have been ransomed and redeemed.

There is a second dimension to this peace that we’ve talked about and that is the peace that we have with one another. We live in a world where there is so much conflict between people. It’s hard for us to stay married or sustain friendships over a long period of time. The challenges are global when it comes to war that happens between nations and people groups. Jesus came to guide us in the way of peace and to put our feet upon that path. When Jesus became a man he would preach and teach the way of peace. Jesus gave us clues as to how we could have peace with our neighbors, and our enemies, and our spouses and our families.

Jesus said, “Love your enemy.” Loving your enemy is not about having warm and fuzzy feelings for them. Loving your enemy is about doing loving things towards them, even though they don’t deserve it or you don’t feel like it. Loving your enemy is a conscious choice that we make.

Jesus said, “Pray for those who persecute you. When you have been struck on the cheek on one side then you turn the other cheek and you don’t retaliate. If someone steals your coat, you give them your shirt as well.” When we do these things we show them such extraordinary grace that they can become shamed in the change. It may not happen in that moment, but at some point in the future they will be affected by you showing them grace and mercy that they didn’t


deserve. This is what happens with John Valjean in Les Miserables, as he becomes a different person because of the grace shown to him by the Bishop, who gives him the candlesticks in addition to the silver that he stole.

Jesus said that we should forgive, not just seven times but 70×7. We do this because holding onto grudges only creates bitterness. You have probably heard it said that holding onto bitterness and resentment is like taking a poison pill and hoping the other person dies. When Jesus taught his disciples and us how to pray he taught these words, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespass against us.” Jesus makes it clear that our own forgiveness is somehow intertwined with God’s capacity to forgive. We find the ability to forgive others when we lean on God’s power and strength to do so.

Jesus said we are to do kindness and show mercy to those, even though they may not deserve it. When he was asked what this kind of love looked like, he told them a story about a Samaritan and a Jew and you remember that in the first century Samaritans and Jews hated each other. They had hurt one another for centuries. The Jewish traveler was on the road to Jericho where he was attacked by robbers and he was beaten and left for dead. Several people went right on by, but it was a Samaritan who stopped. He didn’t say, “You got what you deserved because your people have been beating me up for centuries.”

Instead, the Samaritan stopped and bandaged his wounds and put him on his own donkey and took him to Jericho. He provided food and clothing and shelter and medical care for the man who, in many ways, was his enemy. Jesus said that this is what it looks like to love. This is the way of peace, as you show kindness and mercy to others, even though they may not deserve it. The world is changed by this.

Jesus wept as he came down into Jerusalem on the last week of his life on Palm Sunday. He stops halfway down the mountain. Jesus only weeps twice in the Gospels, once when his friend Lazarus had died and now here in the last week of his life. He can see the city of Jerusalem as he comes down the Mount of Olives, and there is currently a chapel in the shape of a teardrop in that spot. He weeps and says, “O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, if only you would take the path that leads to peace, but you did not.”

The people of Jerusalem didn’t want a Messiah who would tell them to turn the other cheek and love their enemies. They wanted a person who would raise


up a sword and an army and lead them to victory over the Romans who were occupying their land. They wanted someone to lead a revolt against the Romans and most of them would reject Jesus as a Messiah because he just didn’t fit the bill. 40 years later they would be several Jewish men who would raise up an army and revolt against the Romans. The Romans would send a legion down from Syria and crush them. They would destroy the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and slaughter 1 million Jews that week. Jesus knew that the way to peace was not to be found at the edge of the sword, but by a life of kindness and mercy, compassion and love to people who didn’t deserve it.

The conclusion to the film series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit came out this week and like most of my sermons it probably would’ve been better if it was a bit shorter. There is an epic battle between good and evil which is taking place in the story and there comes a place where Gandalf the Grey, who is one of the four Christ figures in Tolkien’s works, is talking about how you fight back the darkness. The evil wizard, Saruman, believe that you take the battle to evil and confront it, but Gandalf says this.

SLIDE Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay—small acts of kindness and love.

You remember that Mother Teresa said something similar, “Small things done with great love will change the world.”

This story about Jesus and God and redemption is our defining story. This story that God loves us and knows us by name and sent a Savior to guide us in the path of peace we love our neighbor and even our neighbor is our defining story. What would happen if this became our defining story? What would happen if that was a defining story of the man who killed two police officers this last week? What would happen if that were the defining story for the people involved, both police and assailants, in those confrontations that led to unarmed persons being killed?

If our defining story is that we are angry and we want to get even and we want to make a statement and we want to be in charge and we want to make the rules, we are bound to cycles of pain and hurt. What would happen if each person understood from the time they were a child and there is a God who knows them


by name and loves them? What if our defining story was about a Savior named Jesus who came for the losers and the lost and those without a voice and the people other folks made fun of? That is the people that Jesus associated with most.

What if we have those words etched upon our hearts that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who hurt us? What if our defining story is that, while it may seem dark, the light will overcome the darkness? How would the world be different if this is our defining story? I think about all of those persons who have been caught up in making bad decisions that lead to death and wonder how the world might be different if they had a different defining story.

The question I want to ask you today, which is one that I ask you almost every Easter and Christmas, is this. What is your defining story? What is it that defines who you are and how you process information and how you experience the world? You see, every one of us has a defining story, even if we don’t name it or claim it. If we don’t intentionally claim our defining story than the world will define it for us. I can’t give you that story and neither can anyone else. You have to wrestle with this for yourself.

I am begging for you to have this as your defining story this idea that there is a God who knows you by name and loves you. God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world as a child, helpless and dependent, to become our Savior. He has already paid a price for you and you are dearly loved, and he has called you to walk in the way of peace and to follow him—to do the small things that ordinary people do to push back the darkness.

The truth is that we are not called to do grand things but often times it’s the small things, and sometimes they can even seem ridiculous to others, or that those actions would actually lead to peace. Matt is in his late 30s and he grew up in Connecticut but now he lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and child. Matt is a terrible dancer but he had this idea 10 years ago, “What if I went dancing with people in other parts of the world and filmed that to help the world seem a little smaller? Maybe that would help people see each other differently? What if I went to some of our enemies, like North Korea, or our former enemies like China or Afghanistan and the West Bank? What if I went and danced with them?”

Matt puts out a video every couple of years, and hopes that it might lead to


peace, and here is one of his latest offerings.

VIDEO Dancing with Matt

Doesn’t that video make you think of God? It seems like that might be how God views his children, that the world is a small place and God looks at all of us and says, “These are my children and I love them.” He tries to show us through Christ the way of peace.

It’s the small things, like dancing a ridiculous dance around the world. I don’t know how you do it, but one of the ways that we do that here is by serving others in the community. We ask everyone who is a regular part of this church to be engaged with doing small things in the world because we are called to be the presence of Jesus Christ in our workplaces and in our schools and in our homes. One of the ways we do this is through our Love Out Loud weekend every June, where we worship by going out in the community and serving.

One of the ways that many of you do this every year here is through Operation Christmas Child, where we make shoeboxes filled with gifts that will go to children in other parts of the world where they wouldn’t have a Christmas it weren’t for you making those boxes. Our family does one every year and it’s so much fun to buy socks and the toothbrush and toothpaste and some small toys that can go in the box, and then to pray for that little girl that got our box this year. I prayed as all those boxes were loaded on the truck that each one of those boxes would be a sign to those children that the world is a good place and there are people who love and care for them. It seems like a tiny thing but it’s huge to those children. I thought you might like to see some of the boxes being opened this year.

GRAPHIC 1 Operation Christmas Child Uganda

GRAPHIC 2 Operation Christmas Child Taiwan

GRAPHIC 3 Operation Christmas Child Philippines

As I was reading about the gifts being dispersed in these different countries, I was surprised to find that the most favorite gift for most of the kids was their toothbrush! Seems like such a small thing, doesn’t it? Kids were squealing for joy over things like a toothbrush or toothpaste or a washcloth. For some of the kids, their most favorite thing was the actual tub in which the gifts came because those plastic containers can be used to wash their face or hold drinking water. Who


would’ve thought these little plastic tubs would be the most favorite gift of a child at Christmas?

I share this with you to remind you that it’s those small acts of kindness which push back the darkness. In the process of doing that, you find joy in your life as you seek to share joy with others. We ask our people here in this church to do this kind of thing all the time. Here’s my question for you today. What are you doing personally to push back the darkness? What if you done in the last month or the last year to push back the darkness?

Jesus intended, by his birth, death and resurrection, to call us to take the light into the world and daily push back the darkness by our acts of kindness, grace, mercy and love. Last week our world was shook by violence at a school in Pakistan were more than 120 children were killed and in the wake of that we’ve been reminded of school shootings and other acts of violence that we’ve experienced here in our own country. I remembered an interview with a 29-year-old first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut in the aftermath of the shooting there two years ago at Christmas time.

Kaitlin Roig was interviewed by Diane Sawyer after having lived through the shooting. She had 15 first-graders at Sandy Hook and as the violence erupted in the hallways she ushered her 15 little first-graders to the bathroom. The children were starting to cry and she would try to encourage them and just as it seemed to be quiet outside more violence would erupt in the hallways. She said, “I was afraid we were not going to make it out of that bathroom. I decided I did not want the last thing these children to hear to be the sound of violence. So I kept catching their eyes and looking them directly in the eyes and saying, ‘This is really important. I want you to listen to me and to hear this. I love you. I love you. I love you.’”

To me that is a picture of what Christmas is really about. It is about a God who came to us in the midst of the darkness and the violence and the pain of this world and he said, “I want you to get this. I need you to understand this. I love you. I love you.”

I think it is that what Longfellow figured out on that Christmas morning in 1863 that led him to pen that final verse of his famous Christmas Carol.


SLIDE Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Would you pray with me?

SLIDE Prayer

While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, I would invite you just to talk to God yourself in prayer. Maybe it’s been a long time since you talk to him but it’s not complicated or hard. I will offer you a prayer and you can use it if you like, or pray your own words. You might want to simply say something like this.

God, thank you for loving me…I need you...please forgive my sins… Help me to walk with you...to live for you…to honor you…and to serve you… Jesus, help me take your light into the world…and to push back the darkness…in your holy name. Amen


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