2021 Worship Guide

Page 10 2021 Worship Guide LINCOLN DAILY NEWS December 1, 2021 Of all of the important characters that make up the Christmas story I think one of my favorites are the shepherds. They are my favorite because when confronted with the reality of this great news of a child being born they didn’t argue about the reality of what they’d seen and heard. They didn’t set up a committee to determine if what they saw and heard was real. They didn’t send out a survey or ask Siri. Instead, they said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” - Luke 2:15 Some 2000 years after that first and great announcement I can think of all sorts of reasons why they shouldn’t have gone. It’s late, it’s dark, it’s dangerous, we can’t leave the sheep. There are a lot of reasons not to go, but the shepherds did and I’m wondering – what would you have done? Would you, like the shepherds, realize that you had just received good news from God? Would you, like the shepherds, realize that nothing in your life would ever surpass what had just happened? Somehow and someway the shepherds grasped that their lives would be radically, drastically, and thoroughly changed – so they left. And what they understood is what we need to grasp. That Jesus changes everything. True man and true God, He was born into the world so that the sting of death would be removed and sin would no longer be our eternal curse. Knowing that, the shepherds left to go see that which the Lord had told them about. What about you? This Christmas season allow your thoughts to go back to that field, to a place without Christmas trappings, trees, or toys. Look around and listen again to the angels tell of God’s Good News, just as the shepherds heard it. Look to the manger with eyes of faith and see the real gift – God’s Son. In 1865, Philip Brooks an Episcopal preacher, traveled to the Holy Land because he wanted to spend Christmas Eve the shepherds go A child is born: CONTINUE