As we continue through the Christmas story we come face to face with the shepherds. You know the crew that were surprised by the angels while they were out minding their own business. Unexpecting is putting it mildly! They were shocked!
There are actually two stores in the Bible where unexpecting shepherds are confronted with a message from God. The first one is in Exodus 3 where Moses is taking care of some sheep for his father-in-law. While he’s out making sure they have good pasture to feed and clean water to drink, he notices something that doesn’t look right. A bush is on fire but it’s not burning up. As he gets closer the bush talks to him “Moses, Moses”. (Exodus 3:4) That’s it. That’s all it took. Well there’s more to the story as you unpack Exodus 3 but all it took for Moses to realize what was happening was for the bush to call his name. It was God with a special message for an unexpecting shepherd.
That message was that God was going to save his people. He was going to bring his people out of slavery and into a new life of freedom like they couldn’t even imagine.
Fast forward to the shepherds tending their flocks in Luke 2, you know the Christmas story shepherds. Yeah they saw something strange as well! This time, however, it wasn’t a talking bush calling their name. It was an angel followed by a bunch of them! Totally got their attention. Their message was kind of similar to the one Moses heard.
There was a baby born who was going to free the people. Except this freedom isn’t from Egyptian dictators. It was a freedom from the power of sin. An unexpecting Moses and some unexpecting shepherds hear the same message. God is about saving his people, and we are the very people he came to save.
There was a woman who was advanced in years. Not to sound too disrespectful but she was actually old. I don’t mean how 40 is old when you’re 10 years old. This woman was well advanced in years. Being old isn’t an issue. The problem was that this woman was told she was going to be pregnant.
You’ve probably already guessed the story. It’s the story of Abraham and Sarah. They were old. Sarah couldn’t have children. It was just not going to happen. God approaches Abraham and tells him they’re going to have a son. This causes a bit of a chuckle kind of moment as you’d imagine. But in the end it happened. An unexpecting mom is expecting.
Christmas is a time for us to put aside all the expectations of that perfect holiday. We expect our children to behave a certain way and for family to just get along this one year that we’re hosting the family dinner. We move into a season of warmth and joy with so many expectations, but that first Christmas was all about unexpecting people.
Mary was told by an angel that she was going to have a baby. She didn’t expect this. Sure she was engaged but she wasn’t married. She knew that she could not be pregnant. It just wasn’t possible. Yet the angel told her something different. She was the second unexpecting mom in the story of Christmas. You see Sarah had to have a child because without Isaac there would be no Jesus. And Mary had to have a son because without Jesus there would be no salvation for the world.
It took two unexpecting moms to give birth to two sons for us to have an unexpected savior.
Take time to look over the story of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17-18. Then think of other unexpecting people you remember from the Bible.
Have you ever seen one of those surprise moments? You know one of those unexpected proposals. The kind where the bride has no idea it’s coming. The kind where the secret is kept so well and it is so meticulously planned out that shock and awe are plastered on everyone’s faces.
It’s kind of like that around Christmas time as well. We shop for gifts for our loved ones. Parents, children, nieces and nephews, siblings all of them get a little something. Each one gets that tiny gift of appreciation and love. This probably sounds a bit harsh but rarely do those people deserve a gift. They might expect something but the point of a gift is that it’s unearned.
An unexpecting person receives a gift they didn’t expect. They didn’t plan on receiving. The gift is more than they thought possible for a person like them. Often an unexpecting recipient is speechless and left in awe.
The second week of Advent is about those unexpecting kinds of people. For this part of our journey we jump all the way back to Genesis. You know the story. The flood covers the earth and one man and his family are welcomed into a boat that they were told to build for this very moment. But what did that family do? What caused them to be the ones who earned that amazing gift?
Ok so if you read around Genesis 6, you’ll likely read that Noah was a righteous man. Let’s remove Noah from the picture for a second. What about the rest of the family? They weren’t the righteous ones. They didn’t deserve to be on that ark. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the amazing compassion of God to give them a way out, they would all have drowned. And even worse Noah would have had to watch as it happened.
Noah didn’t expect God to save him. The family didn’t expect God to save them. He just did it because that’s how God works. He does the unexpected things in unexpected ways. But it wasn’t just Noah and his family that are unexpecting people. We are included in that same group. We are unexpecitng people. We never met Jesus. We didn’t ask God to save us. Yet here we are just a few weeks until Christmas, ready to celebrate Jesus’ birth. It’s amazing to receive a gift! But even more amazing when you’re one of those unexpecting people
I really like to garden. I plant flowers around my house and tons of plants in my garden. I water them and fertilize them. I even cut them back in the winter, at least the ones that are supposed to last year after year. But never in all my years have I ever had a plant talk to me. Yet that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.
The unexpected places that God shows up in life never cease to amaze me, but this one has to be one of the coolest. There’s a story in Exodus 3 where Moses is taking care of some sheep for his father-in-law. He’s literally minding his own business when it happens. He sees a fire just off in the distance. And like any curious man would do, he went to see what was burning. Men typically think one of two things when there’s a fire by the way. Cool what’s burning and why didn’t they invite me to light the match! And Is it a barbecue?
This was neither and I don’t think Moses even had time to think those thoughts. He was completely overwhelmed by the presence of a bush that was on fire. And if a burning bush in the middle of nowhere wasn’t enough, it started to talk to him!
Check this out from Exodus 3:6. And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Here God shows up to talk to Moses in the form of a bush! Yeah for those of you who are Monty Python fans, that’s shrubbery! That gives a whole new spin on “burning bush” to be certain. You may never see a bush on fire that isn’t being burned. You may never hear God speak to you from the middle of a bush that’s literally burning. But we can see God all over the place in nature around us.
Take time today to look for God in the frosty ground or the colorful sunset. See if you can find him in a spiderweb or the sound of the wind rushing through the trees. Look for God in unexpected places and you’ll see Him just about everywhere.
Are you a dreamer? You know the kind of dream you see and experience when you’re deep in sleep. I can’t remember the last time I had a dream. As kids our dreams are active and filled with color and excitement. Sometimes those dreams turn dark and fill with scary images – we call those nightmares. But they’re still dreams.
I know what you’re thinking this is an advent devotion and I’m reading it with my kids. What is he doing talking about nightmares!?! You got me. Advent isn’t about nightmares at all actually, but it is about the unexpected.
Remember how this week is all about God showing up in unexpected places? Well today’s place is in dreams. There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Jacob. He had a dream one day of a huge ladder that reached all the way to heaven. Who sat atop this ladder? Yep! You guessed it – God.
Jacob didn’t lay down to take a nap because he thought he’d see God. He slept because he was tired. You know just like we sleep when we’re tired. But the cool part here is that God showed up in Jacob’s dream!
The point here is all about God showing up in the most unexpected of places. Some of those places are not places we’d ever expect Jesus to show up. I mean a small town in the middle of nowhere Israel? A whisper in the side of a cliff? A dream a guy has laying on a rock?
Take time today to look for God in those unexpected places.
Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Genesis 28:11-13
This time of year seems to just amplify that reality. All you have to do is go to the mall and listen as the Christmas music that’s piped through the less than adequate sound system. Go to McDonald’s and hear the hustle and bustle of yelling children. Even in churches through the Advent season you’ll hear more and more children playing with their toys, crumbling papers, coloring, and calling for mom to pick them up.
In a world filled with noise, we’re hard pressed to find a place to find God. The noise seems to distract us from where He might be found. And this brings us to the second stop in our unexpected places tour. Silence.
There’s a story in the Bible in a book called 1 Kings where a man named Elijah tries to find God. There are a series of noises that come his way. They are loud and boisterous sounds. Powerful displays of might. But God wasn’t in any of them. While Elijah is tucked into a little cave on the side of a mountain, a gentle breeze-like whisper comes through. And oddly enough this is right where God is found.
And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:12-13
The gentle breeze. The whisper of God. We tend to look for God in the power moments and the big lights. The huge tree of Christmas or the fully decked out house. But God doesn’t roll like that. Instead He comes in unassuming ways. A gentle whisper on a dark night. But why a whisper.
A whisper draws us in. The loud moments put us on our heels. They make us cower in fear. They push us farther into the caves of life. But the whisper allows us to lean in. We have to come forward to hear the words and experience the presence of the one speaking.
The long expected gift of Christmas comes not in the loud and gaudy but in the soft, quiet, gentle whisper that we have to lean into in order to hear fully. Lower your voice. Quiet your mind. Listen for the unexpected whisper of God this Advent.
Away in a manger. Silent Night. O Holy Night. Joy To The World. These songs will fill our churches over the coming days. They are filled with joy and wonder, awe and excitement. The lights on the trees remind us that Jesus is the light of the world. The porcelain manger scenes show the precious baby Jesus surrounded by Mary and Joseph and those innocent shepherds and generous wisemen. It’s a pretty calming thing to consider.
As much as I love these sights and sounds of Christmas, I think they might be missing something. There’s a part of the story that is often unseen and perhaps the old adage out of sight out of mind applies here. Some of you may know this about me and others probably not. I’m a huge fan of the book of Revelation. As a matter of fact, I read it every year in its original Greek language. And spend numerous hours translating it to English with all of the nuances that accompany its original intent. There is so much richness in Revelation that we miss.
Now you’re probably wondering what in the world this has to do with Christmas. To be honest, everything! The book of Revelation is the backside of the Christmas story. It’s the unseen part of the nativity. What we see as a silent and holy night was nothing close to silent when seen through the lens of Revelation. Quiet on the surface but deadly in the shadows. Violence bled into the outlines of that night, but I bet we won’t talk about that one.
The final book of the Bible is often ignored or dismissed because it’s just too hard to understand. Perhaps it is but it’s filled with imagery that might help us see the world around us and even our peaceful holiday specials with a little different detail. Take this example for instance.
There is a scene described in Revelation 12 that focuses on a woman ready to give birth. She’s in the final stages of her pregnancy. She’s crying out in pain. But she’s not the only one in this picture. Lurking in the distance. Hiding in the shadowy parts of the scene is a dragon. A red dragon with fangs poking through the sides of his jaw line. The scaly beast is snarling and growling. Saliva drips from his mouth. He’s had the taste of blood and now sees an innocent and helpless child as his next tasty morsel.
The woman is so weakened by her pregnant state that she can’t defend her child. All she can do let the natural course of events occur. The child will be born. There’s no stopping it. The dragon is poised for the opportune moment. This little baby may be small but it will satisfy the dragon’s hunger in an indescribable way.
Then the child is born. The crying child is welcomed into the world. Not into the claws of the dragon, but he is snatched away and taken to safety…at least for now.
This sure doesn’t sound like the same Christmas story we preach in our churches every year! It isn’t the silent night we thought it was. The imagery here isn’t calm and meek and mild as the manger scene shows. It’s violent. The scene is terrifying to say the least. Death lurks in the shadowy corner. If you read on, you’ll see that war erupts at the birth of this baby Jesus.
In 2023 I’ll be walking a group through the book of Revelation. This is one of the images that has always stood out to me. The beauty and horror of Christmas. The snarling silent night filled with death and war and violence.
While we hang stocking on our fireplaces looking for presents, in the shadows a war was waged. The real story of Christmas is most certainly about the birth of Jesus. The shepherds were there to be sure. But when Jesus was born the plan promised from the foundation of the world was put into action.
This Christmas as you celebrate the holy night in the little town of Bethlehem perhaps you can pause and see into the shadows. Keep your eyes open for where the dragon was hiding. He’s no longer there. He’s been defeated. He’s been conquered by that innocent, helpless child. His birth meant the beginning of the demise for that powerful dragon.
It’s Christmas friends! Light the candles. Put up the tree. Celebrate with family and friends. Not only was a child born. But the road was paved for the defeat of the greatest enemy we would ever have to face. That’s the story of Christmas! That’s the reason Joy filled with World at Christmastime.
This year for the season leading up to Christmas, a time churches call Advent, we’ve been focusing on the events of the first Christmas from the perspective of those who would have been there. I know that this takes some conjecture and a little creativity but we stayed as close to the text of the Bible as possible. The portions that are made of some level of conjecture are less than relevant to the topic at hand.
Each of these messages was simply intended to make us slow down as we run rampant this time of year. We focused on Zechariah. He was Mary’s uncle. He really doesn’t play much of a role in the events on Christmas morning but his story is impactful as we set the stage for what’s about to happen. His lesson was one of pure grace. He was invited into an epic journey and even though he didn’t believe it right away, he experienced what amazing grace felt like in real time.
Then we moved to Mary. She’s well known for so many reasons. As we looked at her part of the journey, we saw just how God has a tendency to interrupt our humdrum lives. We have a statement around church, Men plan but God laughs. Well in this case, she planned a wedding with Joseph then starting a family, but God had other plans. He wanted her to have a child and obediently go where he told her to go.
The third character of the nativity story was Joseph. He’s an unsung hero. No lines to speak. No role beyond the first few chapters of the account of Jesus’ birth. He didn’t want to shame Mary even though he thought she was guilty of something awful. His is a story of being so close to God that he was able to let God lead him off the script of his planned life and into an amazing future as the earthly dad of the son of God.
Week four was the shepherds. They’re on the scene shortly after the birth of Jesus but really don’t have a lot to offer. Their part of the story is more what God did through them and for them than what they did for Jesus. The real important part of their story is who they were or in this case who they weren’t. Not important. Not popular. Not socially acceptable even really. Yet God chose them as the first audience to the birth of His only Son.
Below are the messages cut from these services. I pray you are able to see Christmas through a new set of lenses as you peak into the manger from the perspective of one of these characters.
I know this song is an annual hit for me. On this Christmas Eve, I want you to know how important this song is to me. Every year for Christmas I listen to this song over and over and this version of it just takes it to a whole new level.
The song Little Drummer Boy is pretty simple and there’s not a lot to it to be honest. It started out as a song that was a little boy playing a drum and singing his simple song because that’s all he had to offer. Over time this song has been filled with a lot of extra fun stuff but the gist remains. It’s about a simple song with a crude instrument that some find annoying.
The joke in my family whenever someone has a child is that we’re going to buy that child a drum set just because you can’t turn a drum volume down and getting started it’s just a lot of pounding that makes very little sense.
But the song Little Drummer Boy reminds me a lot of who we are at Christmas time. We decorate our homes and turn on the extra lights. We make a mess while we make cookies and wrap our presents. But all of that, no matter how great you are at baking or wrapping or any of it. All of it is nothing if we don’t just play our drum.
Playing our drum means that we use the gifts God has given us to the best of our ability. We lead. We sing. We dance. We preach. We work on cars. We play sports. We paint. We love on people. Whatever it is use it. Play the drum. It may not sound like much but it’s your song. It’s the song He wants to hear from you!
So turn up the volume. Crank up the bass. And listen as these guys play with everything they have the song God gave them to play.
There are some songs that just push you over the edge. Songs without which you would have a hard time seeing the season of Christmas in its fullest. This song is probably one of my favorite songs for Christmas. But not just any version of this song. Every year on Christmas Eve at the church I serve we are gifted with this song by one of our members.
Now, you have to understand most churches can’t get Amy Grant to sing for them every Christmas. And we are one of those churches that can’t have this pop Christian singer songwriter with us in person. But what we do have is far better in my book. Susan has been with Living Word for longer than I have been here. She’s been gifted with the ability to sing like no one I’ve met. She’s one of those talented people that drive you nuts because she doesn’t need to practice and still sounds better than most people who practice all the time! I only wish I had her recorded singing this so you could enjoy it as much as I do! But if you join us for our Christmas Eve services, you will get to hear her sing. And if you’re lucky she’ll sing this song.
The song Breath of Heaven is sung from the perspective of Mary as she travels to give birth to the baby Jesus. She is in awe of her chosen status. She’s terrified to be a mom. She’s fearful of being the earthly mother to the Son of God. She needs the breath of God to breathe into and for her so that she can have peace on the very first Christmas.
I pray this very Breath of Heaven falls upon you and fills you as you prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. May you offer to God all that you are as He fills you with all that He is.
