“The Birth of Jesus” Luke 2: 1-20

How many of you know the story of your birth? I don’t mean just the date and time and place, but the details. Or for those of you who are parents, how many of you could tell the account of each of your children’s births? 

Keeping those stories in mind, how many of them start out this way. The year was _____ and _____________ was president? His policies were as follows…..

My guess none of us would start out a birth story in this fashion, but ironically the story of the birth of our Savior found in Luke, Chapter 2 starts out exactly in that day. In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. The story of Jesus begins with a raw power play made by the reigning emperor at the time. Never before had the whole world been registered, but now is the moment. But it has to be done in an orderly fashion, so each must return to their home town for this momentous occasion. 

So Joseph, who was engaged to Mary as she carried Jesus in her womb, they traveled the harrowing distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They went because they were ordered to do so and while they were there, Jesus was born. There wasn’t actually room for him to be born in a house, like he would have been back in Nazareth, so he was birthed in a stable. 

The first seven verses of this narrative are the quiet birth story of Jesus. Mary didn’t go out into the streets and declare, in the face of all of the Emperor’s power, “see my son. He is the true king.” There wasn’t a parade. Or a big celebration. No, Jesus, the price of peace, was born humbly in a stable, while the backdrop of his entering the world was an Emperor who was trying to make peace through power. 

If Jesus’s actual birth was in quiet circumstances, what happens next is a declaration throughout the heavens. While poor shepherds, men with no power by the standards of society, were out watching their flocks, all of a sudden angels came and told of the birth of Jesus. Light shone. Choruses of angels sang. And the shepherds were stunned. 

But they were also compelled to go - to act quickly upon what the angels had proclaimed and go to see this baby in Bethlehem, this Messiah. When they arrived they told Mary and Joseph of the news of what they had heard and experienced and they were amazed. 

Every Christmas Eve we gather together and proclaim that the brith of Jesus, at a unique time in history, is Good News. But Good News for whom? It certainly wasn’t Good News for the Roman Empire, who were trying to assert their dominion. It wasn’t Good News for people who thought that power rested in themselves. No, but it was Good News for the shepherds - the power, the forgotten, the shunned. When the angel appeared to the Shepherds they were told that today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. For you. A gift for you and for the world. A gift of salvation come in the most unexpected way as a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. Sometimes the Christmas story becomes so familiar to us that we forget the message at its core, that God came for us in an unexpected way.

The Shepherds receiving the good news of Jesus Christ in their lives for the first time. If anyone would have felt that they were not good enough to be the bearers of the good news, it would have been the shepherds. They were looked down upon as one of the lowest occupations in ancient times. Not good enough to have a well paying job, or even a job that took place during the safety of daylight. Instead, they had to protect their flocks every moment of every day. Against other people who wished to steal them and against wild animals that sought the devour them. They were out in the elements - blazing sun or pouring down rain. They were considered undesirable people to be around and other people told them that they were not good enough. In fact, according to Pastor Jacob Armstrong, “we miss some of the Christmas story’s power if we neglect to see that the shepherds were unsuspecting, unqualified, and undeserving to be included. And God picked them anyway.”

Yet, it was exactly the shepherds, those those that others deemed to be not good enough and who were looked down upon who heard the good news first that fateful evening. Angels came to them and the glory of God shone around them. And they were the first to hear the good news for all people. Including them. Especially them. The shepherds were simply doing that evening what they did every evening - protecting their flocks when their “normal” was interrupted by God.

And because it was Good News to these whom society who had forgotten, it became Good News to many.  It was Good News for a world that was broken and that the peace of the Empire could not fix. It good news for the workers on the third shift, who like the shepherds are all too often overlooked and not thanked. Its good news for the single moms and dads. For the people carrying around the weight of the world. For the widowers. For those who have been Christian as long as they can remember and those who are new to the faith. Its good news for the youngest among us and the oldest. Its good news because Jesus Christ reconciles us - restores us and reconsecrates us - every moment of every day for the sake of the Kingdom of God - if only we take time to notice and respond. It was Good News for you and me, and people throughout the ages who have come to experience peace through the Christ Child.

Why? Because Jesus’s story is ultimately about the love of God being revealed to us in the flesh. Jesus has not taught a single thing by this point, but his very birth has changed the world. 

When the angels showed up in the darkness to proclaim the good news, notice what they say to the shepherds. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. This was good news for the shepherds that could not be contained. It was both personal for them and universal for the world. And if the good news of this Jesus was good news for them, good news for all, it is good news today for each of us, including you. And this good news cannot be contained just to us. We are sent by God into the lives of the world so that others may come to know the good news of Jesus Christ. It is good news for you, but not just for you.

We, like the shepherds are sent out to faithfully proclaim that the world as we see it, that isn’t the source of Good News. No, the Good News rests in a cradle as the Price of Peace, Healer of our Brokenness and Savior of the world. Are you willing to go forth and tell the story of Jesus? Amen.