Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the
whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and
was praised by everyone. When
he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the
synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The
scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where
this was written: “The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim that
captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be
set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back
to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes
in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to
speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this
very day!” Everyone spoke
well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this
Joseph’s son?” Luke 4:14-22
If you will, imagine this isn’t
Randolph County in North Carolina, but a little country backwater hamlet on
Long Island named Hauppauge. You’ve come
to church and, although you haven’t seen me in quite a while, here I am. You knew me as Rusty, the janitor’s kid,
brother to the school’s basketball star, Thom.
You knew we lived on the other side of the tracks, dirt road, not much
chance of being a mover and shaker.
Without so much as a
how-do-you-do, somebody hands Rusty the Scripture reading for the day. It’s Isaiah's announcement of the
Good News
and I read it in a voice you never heard out of me growing up in the
1950’s. That wouldn’t be completely
strange; we welcome guests and make them feel at home. But then, the janitor’s son takes the teacher
position at the pulpit and says…what I just read to you there; it’s all about me.
Who would be the first to
call the Bishop? Anybody for grabbing a
rope and heading out to the big oak tree?
At the very least, you would ask, when did you get so uppity? You were a nice kid – not much trouble
(except for that BB-gun thing that one Halloween). Where do you get off telling us God put YOU
in the Bible?
This was the atmosphere in
the synagogue that day as Jesus read Isaiah’s words, and then told them they
were looking at Isaiah’s message, the Good News, an announcement that
everything was about to change; in fact, had already changed!
Now, rewind 30 years to an
angel announcing to Joseph (somebody of the social status of Rusty’s father,
the janitor at Hauppauge High School) that God's Holy Spirit would overshadow
Mary, implanting within her a child who would be Savior of the world. That activity connected man and God together,
and that is Good News. The Sound of the
Christmas Angel is a chorus of Good News!
Once we get past the issues
of humanity and immaculate conception, and how a carpenter’s kid winds up as
Savior of the world, we have nothing but more questions about how this is such
good news?
The answer lies in a
two-fold perspective.
It is God’s Message
God is the Creator,
Provider, and Sustainer of all life. His
nature is love and truth. Anything that
He has to say is worth our attention.
It is God’s Message We
Can Receive
The gospel accounts tell us
Joseph was an average fellow, an underachiever at best, who died young. Mary was an unmarried, pregnant
teenager.
What kind of trouble was
Mary in? As a teen (in that culture),
she certainly was not old enough to speak for herself - she belonged to her
father; As a female, she had no rights in that male-dominated society; As a
pregnant, engaged teen, she was at least apparently guilty of misconduct,
serious enough to call for the death penalty.
The message was also
directed to shepherds, socially, and religiously unacceptable smelly
shepherds. I have been around
sheep. They are cute in pictures, defenseless
and totally without aggression. But they
stink! And those who lie down with sheep
(to borrow an expression about dogs) get up with a distinctive air about
them!
To the least successful of
Earth's inhabitants came the sound of the Christmas angel, a song of Good News.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on
me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the
prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of
our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion to
bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead
of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Isaiah 61.1-3(KJV)
The sound of the Christmas
angel was a chorus of Good News.
It wasn’t simply good
advice! Good news is so wonderful.
·
At the end of World War II the surrender of hostile forces to the Allied
countries was good news.
·
The discovery of a polio vaccine was good news.
·
We await the announcement of the end of AIDS, SIDS, CANCER, and of course
COVID-19; any of those would be the stuff of good news.
GOOD NEWS! We recognize the announcement of good news,
but what of the meaning? What will
happen?
·
The Good News of the end of WW2 was that the troops were coming home,
families would be whole again, and the body bags would stop being shipped
home.
·
Polio vaccine meant an end to the horror of a mother and dad's anguish
when the doctor would say this arm, or leg would never be used.
·
The Good News of an AIDS, SIDS, CANCER, and COVID-19 cure would mean
death has been cheated again.
The question before the
house this morning is: What of the meaning of the Good News of the Christmas
Angel?
Is there a difference this
Good News will make in my life?
I want to place before you
this morning the Bible's uncompromising message of faith and hope, that the good news of the
Christmas angel is above the end of a world war, or the discovery of great
medicines, or the successes of political polices.
The good news spoken by the
Christmas angel means that God has heard the cries of a lonely, forgotten,
sinful world; God has heard, and He has given, and because of that we can find
meaning and hope, and life can be filled with peace and assurance.
The angel said to this
frightened, pregnant teenager: Mary,
you have found favor with God. The word is
cha'ris. Many times in the New Testament
this word is translated grace, the unmerited favor of God. A Bible dictionary calls this word …the
divine influence on the heart, which is reflected in the life…when that happens to you on
the inside it shows unmistakably on the outside. The word has its' origin in a basic word that
means to be cheerful, or calm about life's conditions.
So the Christmas angel is saying
to this girl in real trouble, there is every reason to be calm, God is smiling, and
He wants you to smile with Him.
If I were Mary, my response
would have been, Yeah, right...check it out; I'm engaged, and not even
old enough to date, and you're telling me I'm pregnant, and Joseph's going to
buy it that the Holy Ghost did this. You
don't understand the trouble I'm in big fella!
What have I got to smile about?
And this morning, you might
be here with the same uncertainties about life that Mary carried around -
You're worried that the mortgage won't get paid, or that your job is going to
be phased-out, Christmas is coming and there's too much month left over at the
end of the money as it is; or your marriage is in trouble, the doctor has just
used the "c-word" (cancer).
And Preacher, you want me to smile because there is a God who's smiling? Uh-huh!
Tom Allen, a pastor, and
former Army Ranger, tells this story about the movie,
Saving Private Ryan. Here’s what he said about it:
I was extremely proud until the last minute of the
movie. As the movie began, I was proud
watching the Rangers take Omaha Beach. Then
the story begins when they receive a mission to go deep into enemy territory to
save Private Ryan. They hit skirmish
after skirmish, and some of them are killed along the way. They finally get to where Private Ryan is
holed up, and they say, "Come with us. We've come to save you."
He says, "I'm not going. I have to stay here because there's a big
battle coming up, and if I leave my men they're all going to die."
What do the Rangers say? "We'll stay here and fight with
you." They all stay and fight, and
it's gory and hard, and almost everyone dies except Private Ryan. At the end,
one of the main characters—Tom Hanks—is sitting on the ground. He's been shot
and he's dying. The battle has been won.
Private Ryan leans over to him, and Tom Hanks
whispers something to him. Everyone in the theater is crying because Tom Hanks
was shot; I was crying because of what he said—it was so terrible. Private Ryan bent down and Tom Hanks said,
"Earn this." The reason that
made me angry is no Ranger would ever say, "Earn this." Why? Because
the Ranger motto for the past 200 years has not been "Earn this." The Ranger motto for the past 200 years has
been Sua sponte, "I chose this." I
volunteered for this.
So, when Private Ryan bent down, if Tom Hanks was
really a Ranger he would have said, "Sua sponte, I chose this. This is free. You don't pay anything for this. I give up my
life for you. That's my job."
And so when you look at the cross and see Jesus hanging
there, what you do not hear is "Earn this." You never hear Jesus say, "Earn
this." He doesn't say, "I've
given everything for you. Now you need
to gut it out for me." What he says
is "Sua sponte." I volunteered
for this. You don't have to pay anything
for it.
Earn
this
creates the fear of unreasonable expectations, a weight which no person can
bear. The Christmas angel said
"phob.e'.o not"! Don't fear,
do not be afraid! It is the opposite of
our normal fearful reaction to the calamities of life.
God's message from the
Christmas angel was, Relax, everything's under control; Good news here!
What is the meaning of this
good news? No matter what crisis you
face today, or tomorrow, or the eternity of tomorrows, this Jesus Christ, born
so long ago, the God who became a man and lived and died among us – this same
Jesus Christ is smiling....and he knows how to meet your need. And the only requirement he places on us to
be our brother is for us to have the same Father.
The sound of the Christmas
angel was not simply good news; it was the BEST news this old world has ever
heard. To all the anxiety, fear, stress,
every discordant note of hell, the Christmas angel announced the holy
message: God has said “ENOUGH”! Let
there be singing, and laughter, and joy.
My Son is born, and I am smiling!
Our Prayer
Father,
the angels get their cue from you. And
Scripture tells us they all rejoice when even one sinner repents, changes his
mind about who YOU are, and comes into the fold of YOUR forever family.
LORD,
we are so grateful in this season of Advent to prepare our hearts to celebrate
that act of forgiving grace – what we can receive as a gift of Heaven, as a
President’s daughter, or a janitor’s son…salvation, and the invitation to call
you ABBA, Father.
For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord,
we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt
the Majesty of the Father.
Let
it be so in each of our lives…Amen!
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