First reading: Jeremiah 31:10-14
Psalm: Ps 97:1,6,11,12
Epistle: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:15-20

Because of His mercy

The reality

The world was turned upside down. The shepherds knew of Caesar’s order, a census of the whole world. They saw the clogged roads, people traveling back to their place of birth. People burdened with worry, my job, my business, my sick child, my pregnant wife; and, here we are on the road. It was crazy and scary. Armed robbers lurked in the roads, everyone was competing for a place to stay. The little cow shed, unkept, the owner had no time to clean up or care for the animals, people traveling and looking for a place to stay needed care, there was money to be made. No time to slop out the stalls, bring in fresh hay. The tension, the stress, duties, worries, and cares. All this getting in the way of life.

Into this time of turmoil, God sent His only Son, our Lord Jesus, to provide salvation by mercy alone, without cost, without condition.

To see

Let us take a moment to wonder, to wonder at what the humble shepherds hoped to see in this time of turmoil. They had just seen a vision of heaven, angels streaming down to tell some wonderful news. We know angles, right, all white and glowing, beautiful, dazzling. All the glory and power of the heavenly host. The shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us.”

Know farming?

How many here have experience with farming? How many were raised on, or worked on a farm. Did you have animals on the farm, donkeys, cattle, sheep, oxen, chicken…? How many have at least visited a farm, or the fair, or a circus?

The picture

You get the picture then. When these humble shepherds arrived after seeing the glory of God, what did they see? What did they smell? Think about the reality of what was going on in that cow shed. Yes, the shepherds got the humble reality of this miracle. When the gospel tells us, “All who heard it were astonished at the report given them by the shepherds,” we can certainly believe that.

I can hear it, Shmuel, Moishe, get this, angels and cows, and the smell of dirty hay and dung with a little baby king, oj vey! What were you shepherds drinking?

To see

Yes, the shepherds were poor and humble people. But, back home their families had a home, a place to lay their heads. They had a table, and even goat’s milk, cheese, and meat. It was these poor shepherds who first saw, who first witnessed the full on reality of God’s humility. The dirty, terrible smelling shed, the rags that bound the baby. A new mother frazzled with worry. Joseph frantic for food, a doctor, a decent place.

What did the shepherds hope to see in the middle of this mess? What did they hope to learn? What could it possibly mean to them?

What they saw was a humility so vast, so great, so filled with the worst the human condition could offer, that it stuck them. They got it, the full representation of the emptying out of God. There wasn’t even a hint of heaven in that place. It was only God, poured out and come to them, a gift without cost or condition.

If

If God had come in a palace, in some regal way, the humble shepherds wouldn’t have been invited. If God came on the clouds of heaven, these humble shepherds would have trembled in fear. If it were only a Gospel short, a little nativity play, the stuff some of the big churches do with people dressed up and real animals, a story, the shepherds could have chosen not to believe. In any of these ways there would have been a cost, a condition. A ticket to get into the palace, the price of fear, the admission to the play.

But

But God came, emptied out and open to them, of lower estate then they, of the lowest place among men. Not a story, not power, nothing quaint, nothing attractive, no glowing virgin mother, no saintly old Joseph, no!

Just the sudden reality of God whose mercy is so vast, so powerful, so available and open to us that He would save us, out of love alone, out of a heart so rich that it asked nothing for itself — a heart that can only give.

What they saw, we have, God poured out and come to us. We have our representation, this manger scene. We have a picture in our heads, and we have our priests among us, who live humbly, bringing us closer to Jesus (and we need more of them because the world desires this message).

God’s humility reaches us, touches us wherever we are. We need not be rich to feel, know, experience, and accept God. We need not have beauty for His beauty to fill us. We can be like those people along the road, scared, humble, poor, worried, sick, sad, a people from every place, from every experience. And, here is Jesus, in a world still turned upside down, come to meet us, offering His mercy, without cost, without condition.

He offered Himself to the humble shepherds. He offered Himself for all of us, emptied out so that we might become rich. All without cost to us and without condition. Come, let us see and know this event which the Lord has made known to us. Amen.