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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Friday, 06 March 2009 10:09 |
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Luke 2:1-20
December 24, 2008 - Lindsborg Cov.
“Unlikely Messengers”
(Evangelism)
Sermon Outline
I would like you to imagine with me for a moment a hypothetical conversation between God and the angels. Now, keep in mind that the angels have been waiting for years, decades, and even many centuries, preparing deliver a birth announcement. Like little children, they have been waiting with eager anticipation for Christmas day when they can finally deliver the message of good news of great joy to all people that their Savior has arrived.
I imagine that the conversation might have gone something like this:
The angels ask, “So, where should we begin? Who do You want us to tell first? Do you want us to start with the Roman Emperor? That will shake ol’ Caesar Augustus up!”
The Father chuckles a bit and replies, “No, I want you to begin with My own people.”
“Your own people. Good idea. Great idea! How about the Sanhedrin? That will really surprise them, won’t it, especially considering that half of them don’t believe that we, as angels, even exist! That will kill two birds with one stone, huh Father? What do You think? Shall we start with the Sanhedrin?
“No, I don’t think so.”
“You are probably right. They can’t handle the truth. OK. Well, Jerusalem is still a good choice. How about the temple? We will start with the tribe of Levi. That seems appropriate, doesn’t it? Let’s go tell the priests that the Great High Priest has come to perform the final sacrifice. What do You say?”
The Father responds, “It is a good idea, but not this time.”
The angels are puzzled. “We don’t understand. You want us to take Your message to Your people that their long-awaited Messiah has finally arrived, but You don’t want us to alert the kings, the rulers, or even the religious leaders?
“That’s right.”
“Well, who do You want us to tell?”
“The shepherds.”
“Come again?”
“The shepherds!”
“The shepherds!?”
“That’s right.”
“The shepherds?”
“Exactly.”
“Uh, Father, maybe You are not aware, (because, by the way, whenever God does something crazy, it is usually because He lacks some very basic, fundamental information, so it is often helpful for Him if we inform Him a little bit) maybe You didn’t get the memo, shepherds might not be the best choice.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, You see, shepherds are not exactly high society. In fact, you can’t get any more low society than shepherds. There is nothing impressive about them. They are common laborers. They are uneducated. They are poor. They are dirty. They smell like . . . well, like sheep. They are also usually ceremonially unclean, so they rarely participate in any of the holy days. You know how it is.”
“So I’ve heard,” the Father replied tersely.
“So, You still want us to go tell the shepherds even thought they are a bunch of despicable low-lifes who lack influence and power in society?”
“No.”
“Whew! Good. You had us going there!”
“No, I want you to go tell the shepherds precisely BECAUSE they are, as you put it, a bunch of despicable low-lifes.”
“Huh?”
Can you get the picture here? This pastoral scene is a study in extreme contrasts. The most exalted and most powerful creatures in all of creation are being sent as messengers to the lowest, poorest, and least important people in all of society. If the moment were not already so full of awe and wonder it would be almost comical.
Let me tell you a couple of facts about shepherds and then a couple of public perceptions about them. The angels were, of course, right. There was nothing impressive about shepherds. They were common laborers. They were mostly uneducated and poor. They were usually dirty and they smelled of sheep.
Being a shepherd was lonely. They had very little contact with people. Most of the time it was long hours of tedious, boring work - watching sheep eat grass. Most of the time it was unbearably boring, but occasionally they wished it was boring because then it became extremely dangerous. Part of the shepherd’s job description was to fend off hungry predators to protect the flock.
The job was also relentless. Herding sheep is like having dairy cows. You cannot leave them, even for a day. But it is worse than dairy cows. You cannot leave sheep even for an hour! So, most shepherds could not participate in the regular feast days of the Jewish calendar. They were like the ancient equivalent of today’s shift workers who can rarely go to church services because of their work schedule. It is not their fault, it is just that their job precludes them from much of the spiritual life of the community.
If the facts about shepherds were not bad enough, the public perception gets even worse. Some scholars believe that by this time shepherds had developed a bad reputation among the people. This was, in large part, due to the nature of their work. Shepherds were always on the move. They had to keep looking for green pasture land and watering holes to provide for their flocks. Consequently, they lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle and came to develop a similar reputation that Gypsies have today. Most people believed that they were not to be trusted. If something in town turned up missing, you can be sure it was those shepherds in the hills outside town. A shifty bunch, you cannot trust the lot of them. Eventually their reputation became so bad that they were no longer allowed to testify in court as they had lost all credibility with the people.
So, between the reality of their humble state and the public perception of their lack of integrity, the shepherds seem a poor choice as messengers of the good news. They suffer from a complete lack of credibility. And yet, God chooses them.
At the risk of insulting you, I want to suggest that perhaps many of us are not that different from the shepherds. Think about it for a moment. There is nothing particularly impressive about us or our church. Very few of us hold positions of prominence or prestige in our community or government. To my knowledge, there are very few M.D.’s among us. There are no Ph.D.’s or lawyers either. For the most part, our church is made up of farmers and teachers, nurses, homemakers and factory workers. There is nothing exceptional or noteworthy about us as individuals or as a group. We are very common, ordinary people.
But if the facts do not seem enough to disqualify us as messengers of God, one would think our reputation would. We all know that the general public perception of us as followers of Jesus is not good. Many perceive us as being narrowminded, judgmental, hypocritical, and out of touch with the culture of the real world.
So, between the reality of our humble state and the public perception of our stubborn irrelevance, we seem to be a poor choice as messengers of the good news. And yet, God chooses us. Is it possible that, like the shepherds, this is precisely why He chooses us? Is it possible that God chooses us precisely because we are an unlikely choice?
I would like to read just a few verses from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.” That is, think about what you were when you were first called to follow Jesus as His disciples. “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
All I want to do tonight is raise the question: Could it be that God has chosen us precisely because we are unlikely candidates? We are not a likely choice as messengers of God’s good news. There is nothing extraordinary about us. We are just common, ordinary, everyday folks. But in spite of this, or perhaps even because of this, God has chosen you and me to do exactly that - carry His message to a hurting world.
So then the question that remains is this: Will you and I be as faithful as the shepherds?
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 March 2009 10:23 |
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