Christmas
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-"In that region there were
shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord
shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do
not be afraid..."-Luke 2: 8-10
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For the shepherds, Christmas Eve played more like a
horror movie than a children's program, at least at
first. They were silently going about the business of
keeping the flock alive in the wilds of Galilee when
suddenly, BOOM, out of nowhere an angel appears with
God's glory, whatever that might be, shining all around
him. Imagine yourself in that situation and tell me you
wouldn't be terrified. So, of course, the first thing
the angel says to them is, "Do not be afraid." To be
honest, I'm amazed that was enough. Usually if you have
to tell someone not to be afraid, they are still pretty
afraid. But apparently the angel's voice was enough to
get the job done, and they listened.
We don't often associate Christmas with anything scary,
far from it. And yet there is an underlying element of
discomfort if we are attentive to it. Christmas, the
birth of Christ, means something very profound to all of
us. Once we have accepted that indeed there was a
moment in history where God burst into the world in the
form of a child for the purposes of changing the course
of human history, then we realize that we ourselves must
live our lives in response to such a moment. This is
not something that happened, drew the attention of the
world for a moment, then set it back about its business.
The birth of Christ, Christmas itself, changed the
course of the world forever by changing the lives of
billions of the worlds inhabitants over the last 2,000
years; by changing the lives of us too! Christmas is
about the often terrifying reality of change. Once it
happens, and we understand what happened, we cannot just
go back to our mundane lives and tasks, we can't just
stand around staring at sheep. We have to do something
different. We have to seek Christ. And that is no
small thing.
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Prayer: Holy God, I thank you for loving me, and guiding
me in this life. Help me to make my life about you, and to be
guided by your truth. This Christmas weekend, guide me to worship
you, grow in you and be transformed by you. Then help me to seek
you. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[Phillip Blackburn, First Presbyterian Church] |