May I speak in the name of the living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
I would like to dedicate this message to my father who is in hospital this week and to my mother and the hospital staff who are taking good care of him. I dedicate this to all those who find themselves in difficult circumstances and would like to have a more cheerful Christmas season. May this message bring a little cheer in your lives!
Today's Gospel reading is taken from Luke's Gospel. It is the second part of the story about the angels and the shepherds near Bethlehem, and it provides a conclusion to the previous passages concerning the birth of Jesus. Yes, it's about his birthday.
Before we consider this familiar passage, let's take a step back to view how meaningful this story might have been for the first readers of Luke's Gospel. It is the beginning of a story that should not have happened. Humanly speaking! But God had greater plans that no one could have imagined. In fact, who would have thought that this Jesus, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, thirty years later would be crucified in Jerusalem under the authority of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor? Why should he care about a peasant from Galilee? And 30 years after that in AD 60, the apostle Paul would arrive in the capital of the Roman empire announcing that Jesus of Nazareth was the saviour not only of the Jewish people but also of every nation on earth, including the Romans. And this from a man born in Bethlehem! That might have meant nothing to the Romans, but for the Jews, Bethlehem meant everything. It was the city of David, from whom the Messiah was to come!
I repeat these things, because it is sometimes easy to forget how miraculous the whole story is. In other words, the story of the Messiah is not only composed of "smaller miracles," but it is also one great miracle itself. This is how great the story is...even in secular history.
Mark Earey captures this meaning beautifully in the final verses of his hymn "Advent candles tell their story":
Mary's gift, beyond all telling,
was to give Christ room.
She gave God a human dwelling
in a mother's womb.
Who could guess the final story?
... cross and glory;
empty tomb!
It is exactly for this reason that Luke, an historian in his own right, passes down several smaller stories that occur before and after Jesus' birth. They are remarkable in their own way and they foreshadow future events of equal grandeur.
We are going to explore this passage in two parts: Jesus' birthday party and Jesus' naming. The first part is found in verses 15-20. Luke invites us to the greatest birthday party ever. Luke encourages us to wonder, treasure and ponder this event. But how great is it? It is not great in the sense of the birth of a prince, located in a palace somewhere in the Mediterranean basin. Rather, this moment is great, because of its theological consequences, because it marks the beginning of a chain of witnesses on earth who bear witness to the life of Christ.
In Luke's Gospel, this tranquil and modest scene is found between two events: the spectacular announcement of the angels to the shepherds near Bethlehem and the confirmation of Jesus' role as saviour through the blessing of Simeon and the testimony of Anna in Jerusalem. These are the first recorded witnesses of Jesus' life. Both angels and shepherds. Once more we find again a paradox, an apparent contradiction. For such a great event, we find it easier to understand the involvement of the angelic choir. But why shepherds? Who would we have chosen? Maybe someone more respectable in society. Someone influential who could write and speak with flare in order to announce this to the people in Bethlehem and beyond. Once again, God's choices baffle us.
What we do have here is the beginning of a chain of witnesses. Notice how Luke is careful in saying "which we have been told" and then "they made known what had been told them about this child." Shepherds could do this. We notice how there is movement and communication in this passage. As the angels return to heaven, the shepherds leave for Bethlehem. Then when the shepherds' task is done, they return to their flocks. Did the shepherds understand everything? Probably not. But they believed, and evidence of this is their attitude of worship: they were glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them." These were some of the first eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of Jesus' life.
This attitude of worship echoes the passage that we read in Isaiah where we find a sense of expectation for God's interventions on behalf of his people (Is. 61:10):
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
Salvation and righteousness, now these are important words for the Christian story.
Luke then tells us that Mary treasures and ponders the things that the shepherds told her, that is, about the angels and their message about Jesus. Did she understand everything? How could she have? What she does is to continue in her attitude of wonder and reflection. We find this sense of amazement again in later passages (Lk 2:33, 48, 51). She also becomes one of the most important links in the chain of witnesses about the birth of Christ as she most certainly passed on this information to Jesus' disciples (Acts 1:14).
Let us now consider the second part of the story. After the shepherds' departure, we are brought to the next big event in Jesus's life: the day when he receives his name. Luke does not provide many details about this. He seems to want to focus on the name itself. Jesus.
Let's talk about names for a moment. Does your name have a particular meaning? I suppose that if we took a survey at St Ursula's, there is a good chance that many of us received a name from the Bible. Perhaps the name of an important person like Joshua, Samuel, David, Daniel, John or Johanna, Esther, Anna, and of course Mary. Or maybe your name was inspired by an important biblical virtue like Faith, Hope, Grace or Loveth.
I remember a conversation with some African friends who were describing their names and the importance of names in their culture. I found it fascinating to hear about the significance of naming ceremonies. Frankly, giving a name to a baby is not an easy task. And what if your culture asks for two names or more? In my case, I don't think it was too difficult for my parents, because I'm named after my father "James" and my grandfather "Maurice." James Maurice. Fairly straightforward. It's an honour to be named after them. Something you might want to explore is to see if your name is actually from Hebrew origin, but it doesn't sound like that anymore. That's the case for my first name James, which derives from the Hebrew name Yaaqov (Jacob). Hmm. I'll spare you the details.1
So, let's return to the name Jesus. Looking at Jesus' life, what name would you have given him? Mary and Joseph didn't have to worry about it all. The name was given by God through the angel Gabriel (Lk 1:31). But why this name? Was it random or purposeful? Gabriel also tells Mary that this special child will also be called "the son of the Most High" (Lk 1:32) and "the son of God" (Lk 1:35). But these were not personal names, but rather titles of his status. In other parts of the New Testament, Jesus is even referred to by a string of these titles like "the Lord Jesus Christ."
Why then the name of Jesus? Quite simply, it's the best one that fit. For some people, the name Jesus or Jesus Christ has little importance, and it comes quite easily to their lips. I will not provide examples here. But if we remember that his name means "Yahweh saves," and we think about how he lived and how he died, we realise that his name was not only full of meaning, but it was also fulfilled.
The importance of his name and the use of his name come through very clearly in several Bible verses, creeds, and hymns in which the name of Jesus and the notion of salvation appear together. For example, people are baptised in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38; 4:12). And, when Jesus appears, salvation also appears (Lk 2:30; 3:6; 19:9; 24:44-49; Acts 4:12; 13:26; 28:28; Rom 10:5-13; Phil 2:5-11). Also, in the Creed, we proclaim every Sunday, "For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven."
So, through the Gospel of Luke, we have been invited to contemplate the greatest birthday party ever! How shall we respond? Like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and all those who were with them, let us ponder, treasure, and wonder afresh, the significance of this event and of his life. But lest we become too quietist, let us also join in the chain of messengers on earth like the shepherds who proclaim the Good News of Jesus, by word and deed.
I close by reading again the reflections of a Pharisee who met Jesus ("Yahweh saves") on the way to Damascus and whose life was dramatically changed. The apostle Paul writes to the churches in Galatia (Gal 4:4-7):
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God."
Amen.
James Morgan