If
an angel came in here right now and gave us this message, would you believe it?
The message is this: Jesus has come back to the earth. He is in the Old West
End of Toledo right now, at the corner of Delaware and Robinwood, in a small
park. There is a gazebo there and he’s there, wearing a white robe and holding
a walking stick. He’s sitting on one of the benches telling stories.
Would
you believe an angel with that message today? Would you jump in your car and go
right over there? And if you saw him, would you believe then? Because you know,
it’s one thing to hear such a story. But seeing really is believing.
Now,
one part of this story that makes it really hard for us to relate is the angel
part. All through December we have been hearing stories from scripture about
angel visitors. First they came to Zechariah to tell him that his very old wife
would give birth to John the Baptist. Then the angel came to Mary, and then
another to Joseph in a dream. Today we get angels in the fields with the
shepherds.
It’s
really hard for us in the 21st century to read these stories and
wrap our minds around angels. The words angel means messenger from God. Now we
can just decide to believe that they were in the collective imaginations of the
people – some sort of apparition. Or you can believe that there was a physical
manifestation of some other worldly creature sent from God to give a message. God can do anything after all.
Maybe
you don’t believe in angels at all. You just can’t bring yourself to swallow
that part of scripture. You have been trained in logic and science and you just
can’t go there. Even if you don’t believe in how the people say they got the
message, or how scripture records that they got a message – they each still seem
to have gotten a message from somewhere.
They
each got a message and something about that message came true. Zechariah got a
message and he and Elizabeth, at a very old age, had a baby. Mary and Joseph
had a baby and raised him as their Son.
And
the Shepherds (from Luke 2:8-20 for those following along on the web), in a
field outside Bethlehem, got a message to go into town, to a place outside an
inn, to see a baby lying in a manger. And they went.
Why
did they go? If I told you Jesus was in the Old West End
right now, sitting in a gazebo telling stories, why would you go?
The
shepherds went because they needed hope. They needed hope. In
fact, as the story tells us, they didn’t just go to the manger they RAN to
Bethlehem, ran to the manger. You see, the people of Israel were living in
misery. Their country was occupied by the Roman army. They were paying high
taxes to Rome. They were not free. This was not the land flowing with milk and
honey and peace that God had promised to them. And, in fact, they had wandered
far from God.
The
people were walking in darkness and they were longing for a Messiah. They were
longing for a Savior would who bring them hope. There were prophecies of a
Messiah who would feed the poor and send the rich away empty handed. That is what they people were waiting for.
When the angel came and said: “The Messiah
has come.” The Shepherds ran right over to see this baby and the scripture
says, “Seeing
was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said
about this child. All who
heard the sheepherders were impressed.”
Did you catch that last part? The Shepherds
were the first evangelists. They told everyone, and everyone was impressed.
Can you imagine, being so taken with a
baby, that a baby would give you hope for the future?
That baby had not done a thing. You’ve been
around babies, they don’t realy do anything.
But somehow they knew that this baby was the hope of the world. Shepherds!
Now let’s remember these were not religious scholars. These were not experts on
theology. Being a shepherd was a stinky dirty job. They were the bottom (they would have
appeared on Dirty Jobs if that show was around then). But these guys came
running in from the fields, took one look at Jesus, and said, “Yes, he is the
one we have been waiting for.” They went and told their friends and everyone
was impressed.
Friends, this is a really simple formula
for evangelism (for drawing other people to Jesus): 1) we see Jesus, 2) we
believe, 3) we tell other people, 4) they believe. It’s just that simple.
Now, let me ask you: where did you see
Jesus this week? OK, so you did not
drive over to the Old West End at the corner of Delaware and Robinwood and see Jesus
in a white tunic, holding a walking stick, looking like he stepped right out of
the first century. Fair enough.
But, did you see his followers living in
his way? Did you see these things this week:
compassion, forgiveness, generosity, reconciliation, patience, honesty,
self-control and even accountability?
You see, when those shepherds ran to the
Bethlehem to the manger to see Jesus that is what they were looking for. They
were looking for a Messiah who would bring all those things to a broken world.
They were looking for someone who would turn their world around. They were
looking for a leader who would lead them to be people of compassion,
forgiveness, generosity, reconciliation, patience, honesty, self-control and
even lead them to accountability.
And
the scripture says, when they found they baby, they “let loose, glorifying and
praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the
way they’d been told!” Jesus was everything the angels said he would be. He was
just an infant, but the shepherds knew. They just knew in their hearts that he
was the one. That is the kind of effect
Jesus has on our world.
But this is the thing. Right now, we Jesus
followers, we have kind of a bad brand. You know what a brand is right? There
is the brand, the perception, that the owner wants the public to have of
itself. We Jesus followers have one idea of what our brand perception should
be. But then there is the image brand. That is what our image IS in the public.
Right now we have a brand problem. People
think that Jesus followers are hypocritical, judgmental and homophobic. That is the top three things people see us
as. But this is what we want our brand to be. When
people hear the term Jesus follower, we want them to think: compassion, forgiveness, generosity,
reconciliation, patience, honesty, self-control and accountability (in a good
way).
So
here is what I think we need to do: when we see those actions in the world, we
need to say: “Hey, you’re being like Jesus and that’s great.”
When
someone forgives you, I could say to them, “I know I don’t deserve to be
forgiven, but I’m a follower of Jesus and he forgave people all the time, so I
thank you for giving me another chance.”
What
about when you see a child showing compassion or kindness? Why not say
something like this? “I saw how you were just kind. You were being like Jesus.
He was kind too. Thank you for being like Jesus.” What do you suppose it would
mean to a child to get that sort of positive affirmation?
I
want to thank all of you who were generous in giving to our Christmas offering.
We raised $4172 this year for the children here in Toledo and in Zimbabwe. You
honored Jesus’ birthday by being generous. I believe that was a wonderful way
to celebrate his birth and I want to thank you for being like Jesus in your
generosity.
What
about this? What if your partner is honest with you and tells you when you do
something that bugs him or her. What if rather than getting defensive, you
said, “It is hard for me to hear this, because I don’t like criticism. But I
thank you for being honest, because honesty is crucial to us having a good
relationship. I know you want to be like Jesus and so do I so I’m going to try
to work through this with you.” Wouldn’t that be a much more productive way to
handle someone being honest with us, than the way many of us handle such
conversations?
You
see, I think the shepherds give us an invitation. They give us an invitation to
believe in Jesus and to believe that living like him can really make a
difference in our lives. All of these qualities: compassion, forgiveness,
generosity, reconciliation, patience, honesty, self-control and accountability,
are qualities that Jesus embodied every day of his life.
He
came to change us. The shepherds ran to see him because they really wanted to
be changed. The believed that he could change them and in so doing he could
change the whole world. Jesus can change us too, and change our world through
us.
So
this week I urge you to look for Jesus. Look for acts of compassion,
forgiveness, generosity, reconciliation, patience, honesty, self-control and
even accountability. And when you see them, believe in the power of Jesus. Name
the power of Jesus and give thanks. And then be inspired to go and do likewise.
This is how the movement of Jesus will grow in our world. When we believe and
then live as his followers. Amen.
Oh, and
if you want the link to that great rendition of The Little Drummer Boy Pastor
Cheri told you about in worship, here’s
the link - http://youtu.be/qJ_MGWio-vc
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