St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI

Pastor Mark Gartner

Sermon for Christmas Day  -- December 25^th, 2007

Luke 2:16-20

“So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”  

Dear Children of God,

There are a few events in our lives that change who we are and what we think is important.  How many of you can remember where you were or what you were dong when you heard that the Twin Towers in New York had been bombed by terrorists?  I can still remember standing over at TSL watching it on TV, because it was happening just as the school day was supposed to begin.  For some reason the first Space Shuttle crash of the Challenger in 1986 I can remember as it crashed a minute or two into its take off.  I was in school on the Prep campus attending a convocation, when we were informed what had just happened.  Maybe for some of you, it was the first hearing that the president of the Unite States John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas TX.  For some it might have been the announcement of the bombing at Pearl Harbor which drew us into World War II or maybe it was D-Day on the beaches of Normandy or maybe the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan.  Events like these are ingrained in our memory and they are memories that seemed to change who we were and what we thought was right.

          There is another event just like these events that changed who we are and what we think is right.  It was an event that we weren’t even present for.  It happened just over 2000 years ago.  It was the birth of the Savior of the world.  The day that this event happened, the world changed and so did the lives of everyone who heard about him or met him or most importantly were led to believe in him.  Today we want to remind ourselves of that life-changing event over 2000 years ago using the theme:

Theme:  Christmas Changes Everything! 

1.         It changes hearts. 

2.         It changes lives.

          We are going to walk through this life-changing even through the eyes, ears, legs and voices of the shepherds who were watching their flocks outside the quiet town of Bethlehem.  As they were minding their own business an angel appeared to them telling them something that would change their hearts forever,  “I will bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”  What were the shepherds supposed to think?  What were they supposed to do?  How were they supposed to react?  

          As we listen closer to the words just before our text, we begin to see the a change that was taking place in their hearts.   No sooner had God’s heavenly messenger and his hosts of angels left the shepherds, then they said, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby; who was lying in the manger.”  The shepherds could have rolled over and said, this is good news, but I’m a little tired tonight, let’s go find this baby in the morning, but their hearts were so changed that they couldn’t just sit there.   They wanted to go and see firsthand what the angels had so beautifully proclaimed. Their hearts were filled with a burning desire to find out more about this baby the angels had proclaimed to them in the skies outside of Bethlehem.

           It is no wonder, then, that our hearts and voices should be lifted up on this joyous day.  Just as the hearts of the shepherds were moved to go and find this special baby, God has proclaimed loud and clear to us that the baby Jesus has been born.  We could have rolled over this morning and hit the snooze button a few more times saying that it was late last night and I’ve heard this message a million times before, let’s sleep in.  But that didn’t happen.  God has changed your hearts also.  That is why we are here this morning. We are here, because God has moved our hearts to find the child that was born in the manger in Bethlehem,.  Why else would we come to church today?  Why else would we spend time in Church when it isn’t even Sunday, and many of us even went to church last night?  The birth of Jesus changes everything. 

The shepherds not only were led to find the baby Jesus, but it changed their actions also. “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard them were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”  What do you think they talked about with Mary and Joseph while they were there with Mary and Joseph.  It sounds like they spent the time doing more than just little small talk.  I’m sure that there was talk about how the angel Gabriel had appeared to them and told them that they would have a child who would save mankind from their sins.  I’m sure that they told them about how the angel told Mary that she was going to have this child, even though she was a virgin.  They most likely talked about how their baby  would be named Jesus, because of the work he was going to accomplish in his lifetime.  Their talk must have been amazing.  The Messiah that they had all been waiting for was truly here in their presence.

So what did they do with all of this good news?  They went and told everyone what they had heard.  They told people about all the things that Mary and Joseph and the angels had told them about this special child.  They could not contain themselves.  Their hearts were overflowing with joy and happiness.  And how did the people react.  They didn’t call them those foolish shepherd.  They didn’t ridicule them or say be quiet because we are all sleeping.  It tells us that “all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”  The Holy Spirit was working through the words of these humble yet faithful shepherds whose hearts were changed by this event.  It changed not only their hearts, but this event changed the hearts of those who heard about it.  I wonder how many of these people ran as quickly as possible to find the baby that the shepherds were talking about.  Maybe Mary and Joseph and Jesus had a few extra visitors that first night, because of the words of the shepherds.

  As we come into God’s house today to hear these words  of God’s saving Gospel found in the form of the Christchild, we once again are led by the Holy Spirit to see and believe who Jesus is and what he came to do for us.  We too like the shepherds are able to sit back and let the pure, sweet message of the gospel pour right into our hearts.  And like the shepherds,  God’s love fills our hearts to the point where we have the overwhelming desire to share it with everyone.  What a change this little baby makes on all those who hear about him.  How do people come to faith?  They come to faith as God’s Word concerning the Christchild works saving faith in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.  That is the most amazing thing in all the world.  The message of the baby Jesus is the message that takes hearts that are lost in sin and cracks them open to pour in the sweetest forgiveness a sinful heart could ever want or need.  That is change.

And what did the shepherds do once they had told as many people as possible about Jesus.  It tells us, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”   They returned back to their flocks and their hearts were filled with the desire to praise and glorify their God for all that they had seen and heard.  I don’t think that the shepherds got a lot of sleep that night and don’t think that they cared.  How do you think that they glorified and praise God?  Maybe it was with songs of praise as you heard them singing out in the fields around Bethlehem.  Maybe it was just the words that they spoke to each other about how wonderful their night was from the angel’s announcement, to the host of angels singing in the sky, to the finding of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus lying in a manger.  Maybe they were still feeling the rush of energy that the Christchild had filled them with which led them to tell everyone they could.  Whatever form of glorifying and praising went on doesn’t rally matter.  The most important part is that they did glorify and praise God.

       As we gather for another Christmas service, what would they write about you as you leave Church today?  Would it be written that they retuned home and to their places of work glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen?  Would it be evident to all that your hearts and lives have been changed by this Christmas message or is the praising and glorifying not all to evident?  This doesn’t mean that you are sitting in your living room singing hymns of praise all afternoon.  Praising and glorifying can take on many different forms.  It can be as simple as coming to Church as often as possible to hear more and more about the Christchild.  It can mean that you are more kind and compassionate in your everyday activities, because God’s love fills your heart.  You can praise God in how you handle troubles and problems.  When we place our complete trust in God in all our troubles, we are praising our God.  Whenever we take the moment to let someone else know about the baby Jesus and who he is, we are praising and glorifying our God.

       There are those few moments in life that are life-changing.  I pray that we once again were led again this morning to see the most life-changing event in the history of this world – the birth of our Savior.  I pray that the things that we have witnessed again today through the shepherds about how this one event can bring about major changes in our hearts ands our lives, leads us to see again what a special gift we have in the form of God’s Son born in a little stable 2000 years ago.  Amen