C, Christmas Day, The Birth of our Lord - Luke 2:8-20 "You Cant' Hit an Angel with a Stick"

 

Text:     Luke 2:8-20 

…[T]here were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Sermon

You can’t beat a shepherd with a stick!  None of us here would be able to strong arm a shepherd and steal his sheep.  Rather if we tried to overrun the shepherd and flog his sheep we would end up on the wrong end of the stick.  We would be struck with the shepherd’s staff.  We would feel the sting of his rod on our backs; the shepherd’s staff would bear down heavy on our shoulders, and we would have to flea from him and his flock in fear.

Shepherds are masters at caring for their sheep.  Looking after sheep in the daytime is one thing — watching their sheep feed on pastures, making sure they don’t stray too far.  But at night as the sheep rest, the pressure to keep sheep safe rises to a whole new level.  For in the cloak of darkness lurk all sorts of menaces just waiting to make a meal out of a sheep.  Often you would find not just one shepherd looking after the flock but a number of shepherds watching the sheep every hour of the day: a family of shepherds perhaps.  So, while one watched the others slept and when alerted they would all jump up, take their staffs, and drive off the attacker.

It would have been just a regular night outside Bethlehem.  The shepherds were watching over their flocks at night.  They were on the lookout for lions, wild dogs, or wolves, and thieves seeking a quick catch before disappearing into the darkness.  And if one of these attackers had stepped out of the darkness, there would have been a commotion, as the shepherds would have banded together and scared off the foe from the flock.

But this night outside Bethlehem was no ordinary night.  In fact, the night became as bright as day as an angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone all around.  Now the shepherds knew what was transpiring, was not the normal.  They knew they couldn’t beat off an angel of the Lord with a staff or sticks, and the fearless shepherds shook with terror.

But this angel was not about to strike the shepherds and scatter their sheep. No!  He came with good news.  And for folk like the shepherds, the news he brought was truly life saving news.  He said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)

This was good news for the shaking Shepherds.  As rugged as these men were, they had no access to God because of their lifestyle.  Being shepherds brought them into contact with ritually unclean situations and animals, and having to watch over their sheep twenty-four hours a day, meant no time to go and make the appropriate sacrifices to the Lord at the temple at Jerusalem.  So, the shepherds lived as outcasts, unclean and unable to have an audience with God in the temple.  It’s no wonder that these men shook with fear.  Not only was this an extraordinary event, but the holiness of God shone upon these men who knew they were not fit to stand in the holy presence of God.

However, the angel’s call to have no fear was well founded.  He told them to have no fear because the Saviour born is “for you”, and this sign is “for you”, that you will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.  And with that the shepherds were privileged to be the first people on earth to hear the song of heaven, Glory to God in the highest, only ever sung in the presence of God; sung now because God was Immanuel, “God with us”, lying in a manger wrapped in cloths — for us — for you!

It must have been a great show seeing the hosts of heaven light up the night sky and even greater to hear that the Saviour was born for them, unclean shepherds.  So much so these shepherds left their sheep — now that’s just not done — and they said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”  And off they went and found everything as the angel had told them.

The irony in all of this is that these men gained access to God, through an extraordinary event; these men leaned over a manger and saw the child, where usually they would have tipped food into similar mangers to feed their sheep when no fodder was to be found.  What was extraordinary for them was for God too, for God had never lowered himself to such a point that he was restricted to one place in time — as a baby lying in a manger.

We should never let the enormity of this event slip past us.  God came into darkness and shone his glory.  God came to earth for us, for you, for me, and he continues to shine his glory on us.  Although now it’s masked by faith in his Word, so that only those who hear and trust his Word see his glory, and, like the shepherds, have access to a holy God in these dark times. 

The irony doesn’t stop their either.  The child, the Son of God, these shepherds viewed was to grow into the man who was sent by God to be the Shepherd of humanity, beginning with the Jews and then all people, including us, who are the Gentiles.  This holy God born into the darkness of humanity, brings light as he comes as Supreme Shepherd, and was deserted by God and sacrificed as a lamb, in the darkest hour on Good Friday, so that in his sacrifice we — having been cleaned — can say, “Let’s go and see and hear what the Lord has done for us.”  And having been in the Risen Shepherd’s supreme presence and receiving forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, we can return to our everyday lives glorifying and praising God for all the things we have heard and seen, which are just as we have been told in God’s Word.

So, the inspired words Isaiah wrote all those years before Christ was born are for us.  The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.  (Isaiah 9:2,4,6-7)

The zeal of God has accomplished this for you.  We no longer have to fear the shepherd’s rod and staff striking us and oppressing us and driving us away from the flock of God into darkness and death.  Rather because this Christ child was born for you, because this Shepherd was laid in a manger for you, and was nailed to the cross for you, we now can live in peace as the Shepherd’s sheep, living forever in the light.  We have been adopted and given an identity as his children, his sheep, with eternal access to his divine glory.  And now the rod of the Shepherd beats off the enemy, from within us and from near us, every time we hear the Law.  And his staff, the Gospel, saves us and comforts us as we live under his twenty-four hour a day watch. 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  (Psalm 23:1-6)  Amen.

A, Good Shepherd Sunday, Easter 4 - John 10:7,9 "Identity Under The Good Shepherd"

John 10:7,9 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Good Shepherd Sunday is full of rich language of a shepherd faithfully leading his sheep and his sheep, having heard his voice, willingly following.

In Acts two we hear the consequences of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost, after Peter preaches a sermon of Law and Gospel that brings three thousand to baptism and faith.  After which, the newly baptised into Christ, persevere and endure under the Apostles’ teaching, holy fellowship, breaking of bread (as both, Holy Communion, and as sharing their earthly gifts), and to prayers.

These were special times and those who believed, full of the Holy Spirit, lived to praise God for what the ascended Jesus had done.

We also hear of the providence our Heavenly Father, likened to a shepherd, in Psalm twenty-three.  King David, the shepherd made king of Israel, knew that to lead he needed to be led by our Father in Heaven.

He identified within himself the need to be cut off from trusting in himself, which was without trust and fear in God, living to writhe in its own desire for pleasure.  Left with himself he was acutely aware of his weak human spirit.  He knew he needed the Holy Spirit to give him a new spirit.  His experience in life was that of the enemy of the self within, aligning itself with the external enemy without.

In a strange irony, the enemies he fought against, were his sinful nature’s greatest allies within, leading him into worry and doubt, then therefore, misusing his authority to pleasure himself as his own god.

Therefore, against this, David claims the Lord as his shepherd.  He has no want.  He lacks nothing in having the Lord as his shepherd.  He does not fear the evil within, nor the evil without, over which he has no control.

In fact, King David’s Lord, his Shepherd, makes him lie down in green pastures, beside peaceful waters!  He knows the Shepherd’s goodness and steadfast love and mercy is constantly hunting him down to bestow upon him common life together with God.  Joyfully returning him to the house of the Lord repeatedly, then eternally, despite the dangers David and others, present to himself.

This  is a picture of restored paradise.  The house of the Lord on earth, even this church, is an image of the eternal, despite all its shortcomings, and its eventual destruction, just as the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

But Jesus is our true temple in which we now have access into the Father’s presence.  The curtain  has been torn asunder and through his suffering and death we have common life together with God our Father. 

In the Gospel reading for Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus tells us, he is the door, through which one enters into God’s presence.  No one comes to God the Father except through this door.  Jesus Christ is the way, the exodus; the truth, the unhidden reality; the life, the revolving door of faith.  Having been brought to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, one’s sin is uncovered and nailed to the cross.  Those who retain this faith, walk in and out this door on the way of eternal life.

This is the same goodness and steadfast love to which King David refers in the Twenty-third psalm.  This is the same faithfulness with which God is pursuing you, so you might share in the common life of peace and holiness, having been led on the exodus from the self, into the community of God’s pleasure.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd as well as the door to salvation.  Many doubt this though and need encouragement as a result of suffering and the hopelessness that comes from being seduced by the spirit of this age. 

God the Father’s church gathered by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, the family, historical tradition from the democracy of those who’ve died, all these forms of authority, are looked on with suspicion by society today.  This feeds one’s doubt and disbelief! 

Unfortunately, with this suspicion of all authority, the spirit of the age is believed, and one is encouraged to seek happiness within the self.  But once there, seeing the ugly reality of the unhidden self, the mirage of happiness just seems to move further away.

Like King David, our inner sinful self, our human spirit, allies itself with the spirit of the society in which we live, even though we know it’s completely corrupt.

Those in Peter’s day struggled under persecution and hopelessness of that age as well.  He proclaims, “By his wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  (1 Peter 2:24b–25 ESV)

Our Good Shepherd watches over all who have been baptised, he has underwritten the assurance of our salvation with his own resurrected life.  The resurrection of Jesus is the hope that surpasses all other hopes because all other hopes lead to hopelessness!

The essence of this Good Shepherd comes from God the Father, and from the Father together with the Son, the shepherding of our souls continues today, as the Holy Spirit is sent to shepherd those who identify as the Good Shepherd’s sheep.

Jesus, as the Lamb of God, committed no sin, spoke without hiddenness or trickery, did not abuse or repay abuse, and bore pain without revenge. 

We his sheep know we need this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, because of our sin!    Isaiah proclaims the unhidden truth of Jesus, when he says, “We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Peter picks up Isaiah’s thought from Scripture, and from his witness adds, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.”  (1 Peter 2:24 ESV)

Like King David, Peter knew by experience that he needed the Good Shepherd to bring him to the door of salvation.  Peter knew his sinfulness conspired with the sinfulness of all others to put Jesus on the cross.  It was Jesus alone who walked the way of the cross, who bore the unhidden truth of every person’s inner self on the cross, and lived the life that pleased our heavenly Father, despite the cross.

We now have the door open to confession, where we can have the deathliness of our sin, daily nailed to the cross, without costing us eternal death.  This is the true door that is Jesus Christ.

We steal and plunder God of his goodness by seeking to enter God’s kingdom through any other works, either good or evil.  But those who enter by the door that is Jesus Christ, have done so by the Good Shepherd.  He leads with the word of his rod, this is the Law, and his saving staff, which is the Gospel.   

Therefore, having been unhidden by his word of Law, are cleansed in his blood, through the work of the Holy Spirit who gives us the holy identity as God’s own Son. 

This cleansing is good news for those who believe it and receive it.  This is the Gospel of salvation for those who identify under the Sonship and subordination of Jesus Christ!

Jesus says to you, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:7,9 ESV)

Let us pray: Triune God you are three Shepherds, but one loving God.  Because you lead us, because you became one of us, and because you gather us, surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life, because you dwell here within the temple of our body, your body, so we might live with you forever in the paradise of your pleasures, your eternal body.  Amen.

C, Easter 4 - Psalm 23:1-2 "A Shepherd without Want"

Psalm 23:1–2 (ESV) The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters. 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  How many times have we heard this first line of Psalm Twenty-three?  We have all heard it and said it many times, in Sunday services, at funerals, and we’ve sung it to different well-loved tunes.  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want!

But how many times have we told ourselves when the desire to get something is strong, “I shall not want because God is my shepherd”? 

So often, the grass seems to be greener on the other side of the fence, so I sidestep the Lord, and stray off seeking what I want.

Want is desire, something sought, what a person seeks or is looking for.  What one wants is what usually pleases someone!  Want is interchangeable with the word, love. 

Wanting can be coveting or worshipping.  So the question goes begging, what gods shepherd one’s life?

Are my finances my shepherd?  When I’ve got money, does that satisfy my want? 

Are my friends or my family my shepherds?  As long as I’ve got them am I content? 

The thing that shepherds us is your god and my god, and this god is what you and I want.  The problem is, the gods we want most of the time, are idols that deceive us as we seek them.

In the twenty-third psalm it’s as if the Psalmist is proclaiming to his own heart, “Yahweh is my shepherd, because I have got him there is nothing that I want!”

Rooted beneath this much-loved line from Psalm Twenty-three, is the First Commandment, “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have any other gods.”  What does this mean?  Luther rightly teaches, “We are to fear, love, and trust God above anything else.”

Another good description of what a loving shepherd looks like, is what we believe God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, is and does, as our provider and protector.  The Small Catechism again teaches…

“I believe that God has created me and all that exists.  He has given me and still preserves my body and soul with all their powers.  He provides me with food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day.  God also protects me in time of danger and guards me from every evil.  All this he does out of fatherly and divine goodness and mercy, though I do not deserve it.  Therefore, I surely ought to thank and praise, serve, and obey him.”

Like King David telling his heart to not want because the Lord is his shepherd, we confess to ourselves and each other that God has created me and all that exists, etc.

However, the only person to ever not want, is Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who truly looked to the Lord as his shepherd. 

Although King David wrote Psalm twenty-three or authorised someone to write it, the writer was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down the word of God, which has its origin in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.

Jesus says of himself to the Jews who were looking for a preconceived Messiah for themselves, “The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,  but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25b–30 ESV) 

The Jews were looking for a Messiah like King David, and not to he who inspired King David to write the Psalms and lead Israel, all while submitting to he who was truly shepherding Israel through the shepherd boy anointed as King.

They did not want Jesus, the Lamb of God, to be their Messiah.  They wanted a zealot king to toss out the Romans, they wanted what  pleased them.  They wanted to be saved from everything else, but they did not want to be saved from themselves or their slavish wants.  Nor did they want the Romans to be saved.

The grass was greener on the other side of the fence, in oh so many ways!

The Jews did not realise the grass on their side of the fence was dead, because of what they had bound themselves to, what they wanted they had got in the past, and it had fenced them into a dead corner.  Now a shepherd had arrived to bring them and all nations to greener pastures and calm waters.  

Where was the grass greener?  Where they were, or where they wanted to be, or where this Messiah was seeking to lead them?

In the same way we confuse ourselves with what we want!  We double face ourselves, turning back on our tracks like a fox avoiding the spotlight, after devouring the landowner’s lambs.

But the Shepherd who desires us to trust him as our true shepherd, makes us lie down in the green pastures he wants us to lie in.  He leads us by his sustaining waters of peace.  Not to the pastures of our powers or pleasures, nor the surging temptations of seemingly progressive worldly human opinions.

Our Shepherd was the Lamb of God, who takes your sin away, when he took away the sin of the world on the cross.  But now this Lamb of God, is the Shepherd of God, who will guide to springs of living water that flows from the eternal throne of heaven.

Until we stand before that throne in heaven, our Shepherd causes us to lie down in green pastures on this earth.  Where he causes us to lay might not always seem green to us.  In fact, without faith, this pasture will seem dead to the hearts of sheep continually wanting a shepherd to justify what they want.

Here again Luther teaches in the explanation of the fourth petition  “God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all people, though sinful, but we ask in this prayer that he will help us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanks.”

These days the Shepherd of God sends his holy sheep dog to help us.  The Holy Spirit continually rounds us up and seeks to bring us back to our Shepherd.  We need this because we are continually tempted by many dangers.

In fact, we are in the great tribulation, and the great tribulation goes on within each of us, and around us, as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit struggle with your human spirit, and all the idols luring us towards a false salvation that has no hope.

Yet as the battle rages, it has already been won!  In the bloody battle we stand with Jesus Christ in the victory, having been washed in the blood of the Lamb he now shepherds us in robes of his holiness and righteousness.

Look and see not what you want, but what you need and already have!  See your Shepherd on the throne in heaven, see yourself in eternity with him, having received him whom you wanted. 

And as you look forward to the victory feast, see to it that you remain in the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, by confessing your sin, and believing confessed sin is forgiven.

See with the eyes of faith as you hear of your heavenly celebration with the eternal congregation, who… “are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17 ESV)

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; now and forevermore, Amen.