Sermonstudio

Dawn Service

This part of the Christmas story raises some practical questions, if we think about it at all:

1. Did all of the shepherds go to Bethlehem and leave the sheep unguarded? If so, think of the implications (sheep being scattered, attacked by wild animals, stolen by other shepherds).

2. Does the text imply that they became prophets and/or teachers or even the first evangelists?

3. What sort of impact did their incredible tale about the angelic phenomenon and message have on Mary (she "pondered them in her heart")?

4. Wasn't their trip into Bethlehem a kind of "night flight" in which they went in haste?

In the early centuries of Christianity, according to Sister Etheria, it was the practice of the faithful in Jerusalem to attempt to relive the Christmas story by participating in the pilgrimage of the shepherds, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known unto us." They walked the seven miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, planning to arrive there, at what now is the Church of the Nativity, in time to celebrate the midnight mass. When that was concluded, the faithful would walk back to Jerusalem and go to the Garden of Gethsemane to celebrate a "dawn mass" at the traditional place where the resurrection occurred. I have often wondered whether the numbers at worship might have been fewer than at the midnight mass. Did some of them simply go home to bed when they got back to Jerusalem? Or could it be that persons who had not made the trek to Bethlehem might have increased the number of persons worshiping in the Garden of Gethsemane? That midnight mass has often been called the Mass of the Shepherds. The Garden Mass was simply the Mass of the Resurrection, a proper extension of the first mass; together they tell the story of what happened when Christ was born 2,000 years ago. (I suspect that the high mass, celebrated later in the day had the same sort of attendance as Christmas Day worship today - not too great - but maybe they took Christmas more seriously than we do?)

Christmas Eve/night and day should find every Christian congregation joining in the response of the shepherds to the good news of Jesus' birth, "Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." Few of us will actually go to Bethlehem itself in our lifetimes, although some Christians make that pilgrimage every year. For us, going to the worship services of our congregations is our way of "going to Bethlehem" today. It is a time for thanksgiving, of joyful participation in the liturgy, the singing of the lovely Christmas carols, and entering into all the other activities of the festival. We "go to Bethlehem" as people who know the whole story, and recognize that the birth of Jesus - his incarnation - is the beginning of Jesus' life story here on the earth. The Son of God was born of a woman, Mary, just as every human being is born and, because we know the rest of the story, we worship with joy on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And so, the season of Advent is finally capped by this festival that echoes the song of the angels, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased," and finds us joining the shepherds in the spirit of abandonment. They left their sheep in the fields and went with haste to Bethlehem. Did they all go? Was no one left to protect the sheep from the dangers that were always there? Who knows? But this much is clear: the message spoken to them by the angels got to them! They were really moved by the announcement of Jesus' birth and, accordingly, they went to Bethlehem as fast as they could to see this thing that God had made happen.

For us, then, Christmas is a time to let go, to get involved as totally as we possibly can in the Christmas event, total immersion in the festivities - abandonment, of a sort. A Savior has been born. Jesus, the Son of God, has come into the world for our sakes, not simply for the shepherds or the people who lived 2,000 years ago. We live, indeed, in a world that seems to be falling apart. It has lost its moral and spiritual foundations, its connection to the things of God and our hope for this world. And God doesn't seem to be of much help to us; he can't, or isn't, doing anything about our problems. Rabbi Harold Kushner writes, "Some years ago I was reading a book on liberation theology.... In this book the author tells the story of a small band of guerillas fighting against the government in some Central American country. One of the guerillas is a Catholic priest who has cast his lot with these insurgents. They are surrounded by the army. They are outnumbered, they're outgunned, they're about to be captured and probably executed, and one of the guerillas turns to the priest and says, 'Well, Father, what does your God have to say now?' And the priest has no answer."17 That's how things were before the birth of Jesus Christ and, when we leave God out of our thinking and our living as we face the problems of life, we despair about the very meaning of life itself and we join the Stoics of long ago with their, "Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

So, it is not unexpected that most of us are materialists of one kind, one degree, or another, is it? The things of this life tend to be more important to us than the stuff of the kingdom of God, don't they? But from another perspective, science and technology, we are solving many of our problems and, as frightening as this age tends to be, we stand on the thresh-hold of spectacular achievements. From this perspective, we can all be strictly secular persons. We have almost gotten God off our backs, haven't we? We don't really need a God who can't be of much help to us, who can't really solve our problems? Why should we worry about God's will, about his intentions for us and our world, and, especially, about our participation in his affairs which call for commitment, sacrifice - abandonment, really - that doesn't mean anything in the long run?

The difference between the shepherds and us is that we know the story of Jesus's life, death and resurrection; we don't simply know about his birth. And that's what gives us hope, even when impossible situations confront us in this life. Because we are people of faith, hope and love - we dare to respond to God's good gifts in Jesus Christ in the belief that our lives as Christians matter and make a difference in this world. Rabbi Kushner comments further, almost as a Christian, on the story he told: "But as I read that story, it occurred to me I think I know the answer. The answer might go something like this. I think God would say to people in that situation, 'I cannot guarantee that you will survive and I cannot guarantee that you will prevail, but I can guarantee that your sacrifice will not be wasted. Somehow the world will be a cleaner and braver place because you were willing to put your life on the line for this. Somewhere down the line even if you lose today, even if you die today, somebody will be moved by your example even if they've never heard of you. The world will be different because of what you've done.' "18

Christians can have that sort of perspective because they know what happened when Jesus was condemned, convicted as a common criminal, and crucified on a cross not too many miles from where he was born. The wondrous story seemed to end right then and there on that Friday of his death. "The hopes and fears of all the years" would loom larger than ever, if that were all there is to it. But God had other plans and life was restored to Jesus on the third day so that the story could continue toward completion. And yet, the world would have been different, better, because Jesus had lived for 30 years, even if there were no resurrection. You see, we believe something that the good rabbi does not embrace, and that is that Jesus Christ gives ultimate meaning to life ~nd death, because he has made us know that God is still alive, still active and still able to do something about the impossible situations we encounter in life.

So tonight, this morning, we are Bethlehem bound with a group of smelly shepherds who, first, heard the angelic announcement, "to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." In his Christ And The Meaning Of Life, Helmut Thielicke devotes an entire meditation to a photograph "of which I am very fond. I put it there so that my eye might fall upon it now and then as I work. It is certainly not an object d'art. Someone had merely snapped a picture of a scene in a nativity play." He comments that it is not a really goc I picture, and that people often wonder about it. It shows a group of men in long white robes, "moving toward an altar with candles in their hands ... (and) four men are seen, standing, kneeling, lying prostate, and gazing in terror at the approaching company.... (The) white-clad figures are the heavenly choir of angels and the four men at the altar are the weather-beaten, terrified shepherds." When people ask what it means, he says, "In these cases I like to keep my visitors guessing for a while. I ask them who they think these people ... are." They usually answer that they are members of a Christian congregation. Thielecke says, "You've missed it altogether.... These people are really close to the Christmas miracle and have taken it to heart. They are by no means merely playing at worship, but are really 'in it.' But these men are neither members of a Christian (congregation) nor of a school for deacons. It is a photograph of a Christmas celebration in a prison. (The men are murderers and thugs).... The prison chaplain gave me this picture." Thielicke had preached to these men in prison.

He explains, "Here are men walking out of a dark and murky past to the manger, and the light of Christmas falls upon their bungled lives. But as it falls upon them, it transforms them and makes them shine.... I learned from not a few of them that, like the prodigal son, they learned to believe in this blessed light and became new men. Now they are no longer acting a play; they are in dead earnest."19

In the Holy Word, God came to these men as he comes to all of us at Christmas in Word and sacrament, and when he is received by penitent believers, everything is changed once and for all. That's our experience, and we, too, abandon ourselves to the joy of this event, and putting aside all of the worldly impulses and desires we have, worship him who is Lord and King at his birth. He is our Lord and King and we will live with him forever.