Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Angels - December 23, 2007

Angels

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Luke 2

December 23, 2007

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

At one of the services last week I said that today was going to be Christmas Eve.  I have been corrected on that all week long.  It's gotten to the point where I can answer the phone, "Good Morning, Christ Lutheran Church, Pastor Garwick speaking who DOES know that Christmas Eve is not on Sunday, but on Monday, may I help you?"  I was just checking to see if you all were listening!

So, let me be the first to welcome you to Christmas Eve Eve - the day before the day before Christ is born.  On Tuesday morning we will celebrate the day that Jesus was born.  Tomorrow we will celebrate what happened right BEFORE He was born.  So this morning I want us to place ourselves at the day before all of this took place:  the eve of Christmas Eve.

If the consensus of scientific thinking is correct, the earth had taken close to four billion years to get to this point. God's Holy Scripture says that all of that was created through God's Son, as it says, "through whom all things were made."  Through all those years this Son of His had remained hidden.  This day - the eve of Christmas Eve - is the very, very last day of what could have been called The First World - the world that existed before the coming of its Redeemer.  This was the last day before this planet would never be the same again.

This was a world that had never seen its maker face to face, a world that had never seen a person who had come from heaven, a world where God was too awesome to face, a world where every sin against God remained a stain before God and where everyone who died stayed dead.

On this particular day, the day before it all began to change, I would imagine that everybody was pretty much doing what he usually did.  To my knowledge there were only two mortals on earth who had any clue that things were about to change.  And THAT was because of angels.

"In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.  Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus."  (Luke 1:26-28)

When Joseph planned to divorce his pregnant fiancée, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins."  (Matthew 1:20-21)

Both times it was one angel speaking to one person.  When Jesus was actually born it again was one angel speaking, but this time to several people, which is to say, the shepherds.  Then, in addition, a whole multitude of the heavenly host appears praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."  (Luke 2:13-14)

And that was it.  That's all there was, there weren't no more.  All that for just a few shepherds?  Really?!  It says the angel appeared to them, but it doesn't say JUST to them.  C'mon, folks:  Bethlehem was not that big, only a few dozen people at most.  A multitude..............of the heavenly host...........singing to beat the band...............just outside of town...........in the middle of the night?!  And NO ONE else picks up on this?  Let me tell you, a teenager racing around on a snowmobile would have gotten their attention.  But not a band of angels.

That's exactly right.  After a night of angelic hootenannies announcing the arrival of the Messiah that they supposedly had been waiting for for almost a thousand years, the people of Bethlehem just keep on doing what they have always been doing.  All human history has been changed for eternity, but no one      even     notices.  Like someone once said, when it comes to seeing angels, vision is a lot more important than eyesight.

These angels could not have been meant for just a few rag-tag shepherds.  Jesus himself said that even little children have, "their angels in heaven [who] always see the face of My Father in heaven."  (Matthew 18:10)  Since every one of us was once a little child, I would assume that this means that every one of us also has angels in heaven.

More than that, Martin Luther himself said that, "We Christians should have the sure knowledge that the princes of heaven are with us, not only one or two, but a large number of them...You should be certain that angels are protecting you when you go to sleep, yea, that they are protecting you also in all your business, whether you enter your home or leave your home...."

They are with us day and night announcing that God himself IS with us - Emmanuel, Jesus the Christ.  A few still hear the angel voices on the hillsides.  But many are fast asleep.  like the person said who is quoted at the bottom of the bulletin, "We're all kissed by angels, but some of us never think to pucker."

But the book of Hebrews tells us that some of us are even entertaining angels without knowing it.  (Hebrews 13:2)  The angels of Christmas are still among us, still trying to awaken us with the good news that Jesus Christ is born.