A Change in the News
Luke 2:1-20
I am going to make a prediction in just a moment. This is not the same thing as being a prophet – at least, not like the prophets in the Bible. Today, we have blurred the distinctions between predictions and prophecies, but that was not always the case. A prediction is what I think will happen in the future. A prophecy is the truth about our future moving forward with God.
This is my prediction. Sometime in the very near future – say in about 12 hours, or maybe 10 hours, but hopefully not any sooner than that – a small child is going to wake up in their bed, and they are going to hurry into the living room or the den or whichever room has the Christmas tree. And when they get there, they are going to be filled with excitement which overwhelms them. I predict that they will say something, perhaps in a whisper or maybe at the top of their lungs. I predict they will say, “It’s Christmas morning! Santa came!” And I predict that they will want to share that news with Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, brothers and sisters and cousins and whoever else is in the household.
The excitement is about more than just the promise of presents under a tree. The excitement is a realization that they were remembered, that someone loves them, that someone sees them as valuable and important, that they are not forgotten. It is the good news that some one sees them as worthy of receiving these gifts.
Christmas morning is about a change in the news. Sometimes, when you are a small child, the news is that you are too small to do that, too little to participate, too “in the way and under foot.” The news is that those in power do not remember what it was like to be small and dependent. The news is that what you are feeling may not be important or valuable to anyone else. But Christmas morning changes that news.
Shepherds in the Bible were the small children of their society. They were the forgotten, the unimportant, the “too in the way and underfoot” children shunted off into the wilderness to tend to the sheep. The shepherds, however, believed in a prophecy – they believed in a truth about their future moving forward with God. They believed the words of the Prophet Micah, who said, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
One night, as they were watching their sheep, an angel of the Lord stood before them and said, perhaps in a whisper or maybe at the top of its lungs, “It’s Christmas morning! Jesus has come!” And those shepherds were so filled with excitement, that even though it was too early in the morning for everyone else, they left their sheep and ran to Bethlehem to share the news with Mary and Joseph.
Christmas morning was a change in the news for the shepherds. It meant that God remembered them, that God loves them, that God sees them as valuable and important, that they are not forgotten. It is the good news that God sees them as worthy of receiving the gift of a savior, who is Christ the Lord.
I made a prediction, but now I want to make a prophecy. The truth about our future moving forward with God is that God has come to be with us in Jesus Christ. We are not forgotten – God remembers us. We are not unloved or unimportant – God loves us so much that he gave us his only begotten Son. And when we have received the gift of Christmas, our hearts will be filled with excitement, and our lives will say, sometimes in a whisper and sometimes at the top of our lungs, “Jesus has come into my heart, and into my life, and into my world.” And we will share this change in the news with our family, and with our friends, and with our world. We will become the herald angels singing!