¹At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. ²(This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³All returned to their own towns to register for this census. ⁴And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁵He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was obviously pregnant by this time.⁶And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.⁸That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. ⁹Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, ¹⁰but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! ¹¹The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! ¹²And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!”¹³Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God:¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,and peace on earth to all whom God favors.”¹⁵When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Come on, let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”¹⁶They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. ¹⁷Then the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. ¹⁸All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, ¹⁹but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often. ²⁰The shepherds went back to their fields and flocks, glorifying and praising God for what the angels had told them, and because they had seen the child, just as the angel had said.

Luke 2: 1-20 NLT

Why were the shepherds the first to be invited? Shepherds were considered a lower class of people; out side the margins of respectability though I find it ironic that some iconic Biblical figures were shepherds: Jacob, Joseph, King David, and Moses.

Non-the less, shepherds at the time of Christ did not have a good reputation.

It has been put this way “They were suspected of not being very careful to distinguish ‘mine’ and ‘thine’; In fact their reputation was so bad they were barred from giving evidence in court” (Strack-Billerbeck).

But their job was necessary, even important. Some speculate that the flock of sheep we read about being kept just outside of Bethlehem was being readied for upcoming Passover celebration.

Being a shepherd was not something you bragged about, certainly not one a parent wished for their children. It might be like working in Edmonton’s Composting plant. We have the largest most sophisticated composting system in North America. Not including what goes in your blue bag, 60 % of the waste that goes to your garbage bag is turned into compost. Yet for all the world-class technology, people are still needed to literally sort through your garbage as a part of the process. Half my garbage is Safeway bags of my dog Lou’s poo, so though the sorter’s job is necessary it is not a conversation starter.

I’m sure that few shepherds were as untrustworthy as many claimed; still as a group they were stigmatized. Today we might call if profiling. When I was a boy WW2 was still a fresh memory, Japan was rebuilding and creating a niche in exporting/manufacturing. We had a derisive, condescending response for things that broke, We would say, “ Must have been made in Japan”. If you or I were creating a marketing plan in Christ’s day we would not use a shepherd as our spokesperson and there would be no sheep on our brochures.

Think about whom in your world you not trust? A person, a people group, or an organization? Do you have an image?

Now Relax, Close your eyes.

Picture Christ as the doll in the magnetic dress up kit. Dress Jesus in the clothes of the people you don’t trust?

Can Christ redeem their “look”?

Fast-forward 400 years, fast-forward 2000 years. Your dress up Jesus is the enduring metaphor of Christ; it is the often-used illustration of Christ.

It is important that the take away for this morning is more than another Urban Bridge message on social justice and compassion – what we refer to as mercy. It is more than that.

It is a message for all of us, and all of those who are unlikely, who do not fit the profile of being witness to Christ the messiah. For Christ to use sheep and shepherds to illustrate the best of his kingdom was unlikely, it was not plausible. I wonder if it took his listeners by surprise. He could have illustrated his life and teaching from any number of acceptable individuals or groups.

He didn’t.

Jesus has redeemed the “shepherd” look. In doing so he compels us to reframe his message for our lives and our culture. It begins with you and me.

Each of us knows, deep down in our secret places that we are often untrustworthy as witnesses for the messiah. There are things in our lives that we know should not be held up as Christ like qualities. How many of us dressed ourselves over the magnetic Jesus?

Yet the spirit of Christ  – the Holy Spirit calls us out, asks us to dust our selves off and be witness to this event: To come as we are. “¹⁶They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. ¹⁷Then the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. ¹⁸All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,” Luke 2: 16-17 NLT.

This reframing extends beyond us. It extends to those whom we consider unlikely, or implausible, untrustworthy. Last week I shared the story of my friend who now follows Christ. She considered herself an unlikely, implausible, even an untrustworthy witness for the messiah. And so did I. But if we are to follow Christ’s example, they are exactly the ones Christ invites to be witness to this event.

Those considered unlikely, implausible, untrustworthy are often wiling to be witnesses to this event but they need someone to take Gabriel’s song to them.

Ed Stetzer says, “They are open but we are afraid. ”

Why are we afraid to be witnesses of the Messiah?

We had these conversations because she saw in me someone who had come to grips with an essential of spirituality – I claimed to find the source of my faith as a follower of Christ.

She wanted to know how this was so, how I could be sure? Could I be sure? We hadn’t talked to each other in over 8 years.

Our friend is intelligent, educated, and successful, she is also the quintessential postmodern existentialist one whom we as a community are called to bridge.

When we last talked she was facing some challenges. Unable to reconcile her questions and concerns with my faith in Christ we parted under difficult circumstances.

When we met for coffee last week Cheryl and I learned that she now follows Christ.

How is this?

She said that she realized that she could not allow dogma to prevent her from knowing God.

She intimated that her ego was an inhibitor.

She said that she came to grips with this: she would never be able to reconcile all her doubts with belief in Christ.

But she had had an epiphany – she could believe despite the gap – and she did.

She called it her leap of faith.

For many the Christmas story has lots of faith gaps yet those who were part of the original story overcame their doubts.

And for many of us the Christmas story offers deep meaning and a profound faith experience.

This is the question: What does Jesus mean to you?

The Gospel of Luke shares the experiences of four persons who tell what Jesus means to them.

Mary the mother of Christ, Elizabeth a relative of Mary, Zechariah the husband of Elizabeth

and Gabriel an Angel.

Mary the mother of Christ: in response to her encounter with an Angel (believing that she actually had this conversation with an Angel is a stretch but no more so than her virgin birth).

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. ²⁸Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”²⁹Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. ³⁰“Don’t be frightened, Mary,” the angel told her, “for God has decided to bless you! ³¹You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. ³²He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³And he will reign over Israel ^forever; his Kingdom will never end!”³⁴Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.”³⁵The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. ³⁶What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she’s already in her sixth month. ³⁷For nothing is impossible with God.”³⁸Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.” And then the angel left.

Luke 1:26-38 NLT

She makes her way to Elizabeth. Listen to what Elizabeth says:

⁴¹At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.⁴²Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “You are blessed by God above all other women, and your child is blessed. ⁴³What an honor this is, that the mother of my Lord should visit me! ⁴⁴When you came in and greeted me, my baby jumped for joy the instant I heard your voice! ⁴⁵You are blessed, because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

Luke 1:39-45 NLT

Hear Mary’s response:

“Oh, how I praise the Lord.

⁴⁷ How I rejoice in God my Savior!

⁴⁸ For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,

and now generation after generation

will call me blessed.

⁴⁹ For he, the Mighty One, is holy,

and he has done great things for me.

⁵⁰ His mercy goes on from generation to generation,

to all who fear him.

⁵¹ His mighty arm does tremendous things!

How he scatters the proud and haughty ones!

⁵² He has taken princes from their thrones

and exalted the lowly.

⁵³ He has satisfied the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away with empty hands.

⁵⁴ And how he has helped his servant Israel!

He has not forgotten his promise to be merciful.

⁵⁵ For he promised our ancestors—Abraham and his children—

to be merciful to them forever.”

Luke 1:46-56 NLT

Zechariah Elizabeth’s husband after months of silence after his own encounter with an Angel has this to say:

⁶⁷Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy:

⁶⁸ “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has visited his people and redeemed them.

⁶⁹ He has sent us a mighty Savior

from the royal line of his servant David,

⁷⁰ just as he promised

through his holy prophets long ago.

⁷¹ Now we will be saved from our enemies

and from all who hate us.

⁷² He has been merciful to our ancestors

by remembering his sacred covenant with them,

⁷³ the covenant he gave to our ancestor Abraham.

⁷⁴ We have been rescued from our enemies,

so we can serve God without fear,

⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness forever.

Luke 1: 68-75 NLT

The words of Gabriel the angel and a very large group of his friends to some shepherds:

⁸That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. ⁹Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, ¹⁰but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! ¹¹The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! ¹²And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!”¹³Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God:¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,and peace on earth to all whom God favors.”

Luke 2:8-14 NLT

This is all good news  – but it comes at a cost.

These messages also convey confusion, uncertainty, fear, even doubt on the part of those who receive the words.

Mary realizes that in accepting what she hears her life might be turned upside down, and it is.

It impacts where she lives, it endangers her life and for the rest of her days she and her son will be misunderstood.

But these messages also express hope and they make a commitment to vindicate the poor and disenfranchised.

As if to make the point, Shepherds – mistrusted, poor, social outcasts are placed at the front of the queue.

The prophecies convey a sense of the power of God.

They confirm the divinity of Christ and affirm both the justice and grace of God.

They speak a new world order  – a spiritual order that transforms the secular.

This is all good.

Except that this baby, the Messiah leaves before his work is done.

Instead He asks us, the church, you and me to prepare the world for his return.

Who would leave the seemingly inexperience and ill-equipped to this the ultimate task?

Why would he entrust the future of humanity to us?

That’s faith.

Sometimes the church has done really well and sometimes not so well.

I think we are at our best when like Mary we say, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.”

John Howard Yoder in his book “the politics of Jesus” speaks of a revolutionary subordination – it is represented in Mary’s life.

We are at our best when like Mary we believe that Christ will do what he said he would do.

And like my friend we find the faith to follow Christ by refusing to let dogma prevent us from knowing God, by confronting our ego, and accepting that we cannot answer all the doubts that counter a belief in Christ.

This is good, all good but it still leaves us short. We are still well intentioned people lacking the necessary qualities.

My friend spoke of an epiphany, I believe epiphany has a name it is called the Holy Spirit.

It was the Holy Spirit who enabled my friend, Mary, Elizabeth and Zechariah to have faith, to speak and to live prophetically.

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to bridge our faith.

You are having coffee with someone, a colleague, a neighbor or friend. They aren’t a follower of Christ. They are not in crisis, but they find you and your expression of faith interesting even compelling. The conversation steers to Christmas and they ask you what Jesus means to you.

What does Jesus mean to you?

Also if you are itching to help out in other ways you can contact Beth in person or email her at allbutfaded@hotmail.com

Get a map to the hall here …

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=strathcona+community+hall+edmonton&fb=1&cid=7323907200734063258&li=lmd&z=14&iwloc=A