This Sunday and the first two Sundays of the New Year we will be following the theme – Growing with Jesus. Commencing with a baby boy placed in a manger at his birth, we will see him grow into a young child visited by scholars from the east who have followed an unusually bright star to find him. Fast forward several decades and it’s made clear who this young man is.
Our Bible Reading for Sunday is Luke 2:15-21. It’s a story of shepherds and angels, also a baby boy and his mother. It’s a few verses packed with surprises: shepherds, not expecting anything out of the ordinary as their night watch over their sheep explodes into an intense light they had never seen before, accompanied by an angel who speaks to them – really? - telling them that the long-awaited Messiah, the Saviour of God’s people, has been born just down the hill. Amazing! This would have to be the last thing they expected on their hillside near Bethlehem. To have one angel joined by countless others singing God’s praises would have overwhelmed their senses. But then their natural curiosity kicked in, to check out what the angel had told them.
Leaving their sheep, racing down the hill and searching through Bethlehem, their curiosity is rewarded – but not as they might have expected. A baby boy lying in an animal feeder? The Messiah, the Saviour of the world?
Sure, the angel told them that’s what they would find. But really? And an amazing thing happened. Somehow what they saw and what the angel had said meshed together. And they couldn’t contain themselves! Having looked for this baby as the angel told them and having found him, they were overcome with the certainty of who he was – this baby really is the Messiah, the Chosen one of God.
They told everyone they met what they had seen and what the angel had said. And their lives were never the same. But watching all this was the baby’s mother whose life had also been changed when an angel came to her, telling her she was to bear the Son of God. She treasured everything of that miraculous night which confirmed even more the incredible privilege that God had given her.
The shepherds searched for Jesus, shared the good news of his birth, then worshipped him because their lives had been changed by the message of the angels and what they saw of the newborn child in the manger.
It’s a good time to search for Jesus, this period after the main celebrations of Christmas. There’s room to ‘do a Mary’ and reflect deeply upon what you’ve seen and heard at Christmas that’s caused your faith to grow and will help you respond thoughtfully when others ask you ‘Well, what did you do over Christmas?’ Put on your shepherd’s mantle and share the difference this Christmas made to your life.
For many it’s holiday time when people are more relaxed than usual and are open to conversations about many things, whether it’s over a shared barbecue, or as you sit between your caravan or tent and the site next door.
This is a time for sharing with others the impact this Christmas has had on you and for letting that be seen and told in your interactions with others.
Peace be with you,
Rob
