Today let’s look at the Shepherds who were at the manger. Let’s not just look at them, let us also become shepherds. Let’s go out to the fields of Bethlehem and watch the sheep with them. The sheep might be ours, or belong to our father, or we might be hired help, but it is our job to take care of them. We keep the sheep from getting lost in the dark, and keep them safe from wild animals and sheep rustlers. We are ordinary people. Like the shepherds in the Bible, we also believe in God, we pray and hope for peace and love. We are ordinary people with ordinary hopes and dreams and we have our ordinary faults and sins. Sometimes we mess up. We have our hates and prejudices, our evil thoughts and our unclean thoughts. But we trust in a loving God, the Good Shepherd, who will forgive us and protect us, just as we protect the sheep. The night in Bethlehem is dark. We cannot see very far off into the distance. Neither do we know the future. It is dark. What will happen in our lives? What is happening in secret around us right now? We do not know.

We are quietly watching our flock by night, when suddenly, there is an angel of the Lord standing before us! And around us shines the glory of the Lord. It is so sudden that it scares us! It is so bright that we are terrified! And that glory of the Lord is like a bright light which shines right at us and though us, into our hearts and souls, and it reveals the darkness within us. At that time, surrounded by the holy glory of the Lord, we are aware of our weakness and sinfulness before God.

Usually, in the dim light of this world we may compare ourselves to others quite favorably. We might seem like good people to others, and even to our own selves. We think we are good people, and so we think God sees us as good, also. But in the bright light of the glory of the Lord, before Almighty God our sin is quite evident. How much do we really believe, fear, love and trust the one true God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

The Angel of the Lord and the Glory of the Lord reveal that we need help, we need a Savior. We need a savior from sin, evil, and death. Without a savior, we know we will die.

But the Angel of the Lord has a message for us. Luke 2:10-12. "Don't be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Today your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born in David's city. This is how you will recognize him: You will find an infant wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”

Hey, Shepherds! There is nothing to fear. The child we find at Christmas will rescue us from the consequences of sin. The child will conquer Satan and his forces of evil. The child we find at the manger will give his life at the cross and rise again, destroying the power of death for all eternity. The child we find at the manger is God-in-human-flesh. He is the legitimate King born in the house of David. He is the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord!

He has come to save you. He has come to be your Savior and Lord. His light takes away your darkness. Your fickle and faltering faith becomes steadfast faith. If your faith were like a candle that flickers with the changing wind and is always in danger of being blown out, then that candle is now replaced by the eternal Glory of the Lord and the multitude of the heavenly army of angels. And so we join with angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven and sing the unending hymn, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those who have his good will!"

As the Shepherds said we also say, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about.” And so here we are now. “Oh, come, let us adore him.” Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

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