Sermon for Christmas Day 2019 - A host of angels

Luke 2:8-20 The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸ In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹ to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,^[a] the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,    and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”
¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

A sermon for Christmas Day 2019 - St Cyr, Stinchcombe

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you,
   O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

Merry Christmas!          

                     

There’s something about Christmas Day, which tells me that today isn’t a day for an in depth, verse by verse, interrogation of the Bible passages we have just heard, so I’ll try to avoid that.

In our modern, technology filled world, it can be very easy to lose sight of God, when many events and images from the Bible can portrayed using, “computers,” to seem real.

Yet, I wonder, if we heard a sound, outside the church, like a choir, but one that could fill the Albert Hall, but with more resonance, depth and passion than anything we could ever imagine and then, we stepped outside and saw a, heavenly angelic host surrounding the village, shining and burning so brightly it would seem like a baking hot, cloudless, bright day in June, how would we react?

Would we be looking for the hidden cameras or would we be so overwhelmed and awestruck by the light and sounds of thousands of angels praising God, that we would fall to the ground in shock and wonder?

I have a feeling it would be the latter, the shock and wonder, because it would be unlike anything we would have experienced before, perhaps beyond our comprehension or understanding, so when the heavenly host appears to shepherds, it is little wonder they unquestioningly had to do as they were bidden to go and witness an earth-changing event, and yet, without the angel standing before them, what they then saw in a manger would have seemed quite normal and ordinary.

But these shepherds, the humblest of all who laboured in Palestine, were the first to witness the messiah, and taken there by a heavenly host.

So, the Good News, about the birth of the good shepherd, was passed on by Shepherds. And we know their story because they told people, and they were believed.

They were believed. They must have been believed, and for a moment, let’s let that sink in.

The Adoration of the Shepherds - Murillo - c.1650

The tale the shepherds told was believed, so much so, we have just heard it again now, millennia later.

What was the effect of this?

One effect is that outcasts from society, shepherds, were drawn back into fold of community – so today, perhaps it may be Angels can be there for the marginalised, the lonely and outcast in society today? Are angels among us, doing good works?

It’s interesting that belief in angels is stronger among isolated groups in society, ethnic minorities, working class women and the young, perhaps this is how we reach out to the people who say they aren’t religious, but are spiritual.

Because these, spiritual people, often have faith in angels, so as well as existing for Christians and in other faiths, like Islam and the Jewish, they also exist for the spiritual.    

Traditionally, angels are messengers, protectors, guides and they direct the faithful to hear the good news. And while we may not each have an angel protector; they do serve God to whom we pray.

Angels have appeared throughout the Bible, in Genesis, three angels spoke to the aged Abraham about his child to be born, two angels were sent to save Lot and to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, an angel fought with Isaac.

The prophet Daniel was the first to name Angels; Gabriel and Michael and while they appear again, no others have been named in the books of the Bible.

In the New Testament, an Angel tells Zechariah about his son, John the Baptist, Gabriel visits Mary to bring the news of her virgin birth to come.

The shepherds meet a heavenly host, and then Jesus was ministered to by Angels after being tempted by the devil, a fallen angel, in the wilderness.

In Luke, an Angel comforted a despairing Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the all the Gospel’s, Angel’s appeared to announce the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

We often underplay their significance in our faith, but Angels were there at the beginning, when Jesus was born and when he rose again. They were there at the end of his mortal life and the beginning of his immortal life.

So on a day like this, let us rejoice for and with the Angels and the part they have played in our faith, but especially, in the birth of Jesus Christ, a baby, a God, born in a humble stable to a young, desperate couple, miles from home, who, amid all that stress, were joined by shepherds, whose faces glowed from their encounter with a heavenly host, praising their son, bringing home the truth of all Mary had heard from Gabriel.

And as some of our faces may be filled angelic glows through today, from food, and drink and heavenly hosts – and I do hope they turn up on cue at the end of the service, let us also celebrate and rejoice once more, in the birth of God made man, the greatest gift the human race has ever been given.

Amen

NB. Some ideas were developed from a fellow curate's dissertation on Angels, details available on request.