When Shepherds Become Angels

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When Sheperds Become Angels
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 5
Luke 2:1-20

She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.

Luke 2:7 (CEB)

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Craig J. Sefa

When Shepherds Become Angels

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This Christmas I would like to share the following reflections from Amy Moehnke, re-blogged from The Abbey at St. David’s, St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, TX.

Take some time now to experience the old story anew through her words below…

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It’s almost that time again, when we hear the ancient story told – you know the one: about a young, bewildered, travel weary Mary and Joseph who after being visited by angels make a 90-mile trek to a place that’s not their home just in time for Mary to give birth in a barn to a baby-Son-of-God. 

I’m quick to dismiss the manger scenes that portray this event as clean and quiet with a well-rested Mary and Joseph and Jesus quietly gazing at each other because I cannot imagine that after all they went through this is how they’d feel!  But I can imagine that there was a glow that filled that barn like nothing ever had; and that it mixed with their exhaustion and the dirt and the confusion and made everything really quite perfect.   The plain and the fantastic, the simple and the grand, the common and the extraordinary, coming together in a way that points to a God who enters our world with all the glory we would expect; to a people, in a place, in a way that we could never imagine being home for such magnificence.  

Perhaps this is what drew the shepherds.  A Messiah born where?  The angelic choirs and the Glory of the Lord surely make quite an impression, but a Savior born in Bethlehem in a barnyard?  This they had to see.  And so, they set out on their own hard journey, flocks in tow, in order to see if maybe, just maybe this crazy story could be true. 

And low and behold, what they’d heard from the angels matches what they see at the manger and when they tell the little family what they know they all get it.  The pieces of the puzzle finally match up and suddenly everything changes. The once simple animal stall becomes home to the child in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. The journey that started out as less than desirable has ended up in an encounter with the living God who makes all things new.  

Now, I don’t believe these amazing changes happened because Mary and Joseph and the shepherds hold some super special status in the eyes of God and therefore get the super special miracles reserved for such super special people.  Rather, I’m convinced they happened because that’s just what God does.  That’s just who God is, who God always has been, who God will always be.  

This is the God who makes something out of nothing, light out of dark, order out of chaos, life out of death.  So of course, this God can take a terribly inconvenient time and turn it into an event that changes the world.  God did that then and God does that now.  For anyone at any time who dares to believe that is true.  

Of all the messages the Christmas story proclaims, this is my favorite.  Because to know this truth and claim it for ourselves means that we can live in this world with hope and trust and courage and peace. 

With hope, even if we’ve lost our job, or the medical diagnosis is not good at all.  With trust, even if the car breaks down or the bills continue to be higher than the income.  With courage, even if we’ve recently lost a loved one or a ended a relationship. With peace, even if the kids fight incessantly because they’re stuck at home due to this blasted pandemic.  

No matter what kind of unplanned, unprepared, or unpolished situation we wind up in, there our God is and there our God will be.  In fact, you might even say that God specializes in the unplanned, unprepared and unpolished and finds astounding ways to bring out of that the kind of life we simply cannot find on our own. 

This is what allows the message of Christmas to speak to us all these years later, and what will allow it to continue speaking to us in the years to come. This is what makes the message of Christmas not just the message of Christmas, but also the message of everyday, for every situation, for every person.  That is good news indeed.  And thanks be to God.  Amen.

Prepare the Way

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Prepare the Way
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 4
Mark 1:1-5, Luke 3:7-14

The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son,  happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah:

Look, I am sending my messenger before you.
He will prepare your way,
 a voice shouting in the wilderness:
        “Prepare the way for the Lord;
        make his paths straight.”

Mark 1:1-3 (CEB)

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Craig J. Sefa

Prepare the Way

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Each of the four gospel writers begin with an overture that sets up the primary themes of the rest of the gospel.  For Matthew and Luke, the overture uses birth and infancy narratives to establish who Jesus is for their particular audience.  For John, it is a grand theological overture connecting Jesus to the eternal Word of God which spoke forth the very fabric of creation. 

Mark, whose gospel is the earliest record we have, makes no reference at all to what we might call “The Christmas Story.”  Instead he begins with John the Baptist, already grown and preaching repentance in the wilderness.  One might wonder why the earliest written record of Jesus has no account of one of our most important holidays, or why the birth of Jesus wasn’t celebrated for the first few hundred years of Christianity.  Rather than debating these historical details, however, perhaps we should be more concerned with what Mark is trying to do in his own introduction, on his own terms.

“The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ,” Mark writes, is not found in an angelic announcement or a baby in a manger.  Rather, the beginning, is found in the message of the prophets who came long before… “Prepare the way for the Lord and make his paths straight.”  When we turn over to Luke’s extended telling of John’s message in Luke 3, we discover that this preparation is extremely practical.  “Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives… whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same… tax collectors must not collect more than needed…. Roman soldiers must not cheat or harass anyone despite their authority to do so…

Two points I find particularly interesting about this call to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming...

First, it is essentially the same message for everyone.  Good Jews could not rely on their chosen status as children of Abraham anymore than we can rely on being born into a “Christian family” or culture.  On the other hand, outsiders and traitors like occupying foreign soldiers and tax collectors, had the same opportunity to ready themselves as the Jews, by simply doing what was right and just toward their fellow human beings. 

Second, John’s message makes me think about all of our own preparation for Christmas each year.  Putting up decorations, buying gifts, planning our calendars around so many parties and events, making travel plans, cleaning the house for company, cooking and baking, and the list goes on.  We do a lot to “prepare the way” to celebrate Christmas.  But are we doing anything to “prepare the way for the Lord.”  Are we “producing fruit that shows change in our lives.”  Are our hearts and hands more open to others than in Christmases past?   

Maybe Mark’s introduction has more to do with Christmas than it first appears. 

Maybe preparing our hearts and lives for God to show up is really the whole point after all.

The Holiday Jesus Celebrated

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The Holiday Jesus Celebrated
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 3
John 10:22-23; Isaiah 52:7-15; 2 Maccabees 10:1-6

The time came for the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon.

John 10:22-23 (CEB)

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Craig J. Sefa

The Holiday Jesus Celebrated

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They cleansed the temple and made another altar. Then they struck flints to make fire and they offered up sacrifices after a lapse of two years, and they prepared incense, lamps, and the sacred loaves.  After they had done these things, they bowed to the ground and pleaded with the Lord that they would not experience such misfortunes again, but if they should ever sin, they would be disciplined by him with fairness and not turned over to slanderous and barbaric nations.   On the anniversary of the temple’s defilement by foreigners, on that very day, the sanctuary was purified, on the twenty-fifth of the month, which is Kislev.  They celebrated eight days with cheer in a manner like the Festival of Booths...

2 Maccabees 10:1-6 (Apocrypha)

The festival we read about above in the account of the Maccabees is known today as Hannukah.  Before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Jerusalem had been taken over by the Greek Empire under Antiochus IV.  He had murdered the high priest along with 40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem, banned all sacrifices, Sabbath observances and feast days at the temple, and dedicated the temple to Zeus.  His greatest act of desecration and defilement occurred in 168 BC when he slaughtered a pig on the sacrificial altar.  Antiochus IV had one end in mind, the complete annihilation of the Jewish people, which every empire before him had seemingly failed to accomplish.

In response to this desecration, a priestly family called the Maccabees led a multi-year uprising.  This small group of zealots accomplished the impossible by taking back the temple and overcoming the Greek occupation.  When they restored the temple, they purified it and relit the sacred candles.  The legend is told that they only had enough oil for one day, but the lights continued burning for 8 days until replacement fuel could arrive.  Whether the miracle of the oil is factual or not, the miracle of the Jewish victory over those who had desecrated their temple is firmly established in history. 

In the Jewish calendar, Hannukah is a relatively minor holiday, though it has gained cultural prominence in part due to it’s proximity to so many other winter holidays, and especially Christmas.  As Christians, we must never forget that without Hannukah, there is no Christmas.  Without the miraculous victory of this small band of faithful Jews, there would have been no Jews to carry on David’s line.  Without the Maccabean victory and the rededication of the temple, there is no Zechariah and Elizabeth, no Mary or Joseph, no John the Baptizer, and no Jesus.

Years later when Jesus steps into the temple during the Festival of Dedication, the people question his identity.  “I have told you,” he says,” but you don’t believe, because you don’t belong to my sheep.  My sheep listen to my voice.  I know them and they follow me.  I give them eternal life… I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30). 

In some ways, Jesus is rededicating the temple to the people of God rather than those who have allied themselves with the current Roman occupation.  While Christmas often gets lost under the cultural trappings of the season, may Hannukah invite us once again purify and rededicate our own lives to God in the midst of a world that is still not our own.

A Harvest for All People

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A Harvest for All People
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 2
John 7:2-3, 37-39; Luke 1:50-55; Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:34

He shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. He has shown strength with his arm.  He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.  He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.  He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. 

Luke 1:50-53 (CEB)

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Craig J. Sefa

A Harvest for All Nations

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Some Christians have reacted strongly against Kwanzaa as a “pagan” holiday and a “threat” to Christmas. While it is true that Kwanzaa is not a specifically religious celebration, it is certainly not in competition with Christmas. If anything, the dominance of the consumer culture in our Christmas celebrations does more to diminish the true meaning of the season than the 7 principles of Kwanzaa which move us toward a deeper sense of community, justice, and peace for the world.

Mary’s song in Luke 1 declares a great reversal, in which the oppressed will be raised up and the rich and powerful will be humbled or brought low. In the 1960’s, Kwanzaa emerged as a way of bringing a marginalized and oppressed community together around deeply rooted cultural values that would raise their spirits and their quality of life together even in the face of tremendous injustice. It is connected to traditional festivals of the “firstfruits” or the harvest, a seven day feast which we find commanded by God in the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles in the Old Testament and which is still celebrated in various forms by countless cultures around the world today.

At the heart of the celebration of Kwanzaa are the liberative acts of rescuing and reconstructing African history and culture, cultivating communitarian African values and using them to enrich and expand human freedom and flourishing.

Adam Clark, Xavier University

If these themes liberation, restoration, justice and strengthening the poor and oppressed is somehow in conflict with Christmas, perhaps we have missed the point of what we call the “Christmas stories” in the gospels. Is this not the very reason Jesus came?

Many black churches celebrate both Kwanzaa and Christmas.  Even if we don’t celebrate Kwanzaa, the principles emphasized over this seven day festival may actually deepen our Christmas celebrations as they are all means by which the light of Christ might shine through our daily lives as we work toward the restoration of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. 

Below is a small sampling of the many places in Scripture we find the 7 values or principles of Kwanzaa.  As you read the list, prayerfully consider how God might be inviting you to strengthen one or more of these principles in your own life this Advent season.

UMOJA - Unity (Psalm 133:1)

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

KUJICHAGULIA — Self Determination (1 Corinthians 9:24-26)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

UJIMA - Collective Responsibility (Proverbs 27:17)

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

UJAMAA — Cooperative Economics (Acts 2:44-45)

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

NIA - Purpose (1 Peter 2:9)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

KUUMBA—Creativity (Exodus 35:31-35)

…and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

IMANI - Faith (Hebrews 11:1)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.