December 24 “Christmas Angel” Luke 1.26-38 Pastor Jacqueline Hines
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There are so many
angels in the bible. Thirty four of the Bible’s books are said to have angels. Angels
always come with breaking news [slide # 1 breaking news] to
help us move to the next spiritual level. We can imagine an angel coming to us,
saying, “We interrupt your life with breaking news.” Then our ears perk up. How
we respond depends on the nature of the news, of course.
In Exodus 3 the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in flames of fire from a bush, [slide
# 2 burning bush] saying ‘I’ve seen your misery and you are about to be delivered from
slavery to freedom.’ After that angelic visitation, Moses decided to partner
with God for the liberation of God’s people, who evidently were not in the
biggest hurry to leave their current state of affairs.
An angel appeared to Jacob even though he had cheated
his brother Esau out of his inheritance. He knew Esau was going to kill him, so
Jacob ran for his life. He formed a caravan of all his family and his
belongings – animals and all – and traveled out of sight to Bethel where he saw
angels in his dream. They were going up and down a ladder to Heaven. [slide # 3 Jacob’s
ladder] In Genesis 28 he heard God promising to bless him
with land upon which to rest his feet and a wonderful family to surround him on
that land. After seeing those angels, he pledged a tithe; he vowed to give God
ten percent of his income.
In our text from Luke this morning, we read how as
a young girl, Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel who told her just how special
she was, in the same way that each and every one of us is special in some way
or another. [slide # 4 Mary and Gabriel]
The angel told her the Lord was with her, and she
was going to have a baby who was special in all the ways God designed him to
be. After that conversation, she submitted her heart and soul to doing God’s
will. She married a most wonderful and righteous man, and she became a great
mother, faithfully following God’s plan all the way to the cross. [slide # 5 Mary
at the cross with Jesus]
In Luke 2 there were shepherds living in a field
when they heard that Jesus was born. It takes special skill to live in a field.
It takes a special heart and special skill to take care of one animal much less
several animals. [slide # 6 shepherds] Anna and Dorene and you folks who live with
animals have what it takes to connect and care for God’s creatures.
In our vicinity, if there are people
living in a field it is not because they are being dutiful shepherds. People
living in fields, under bridges, in their cars, truck-stops, or hotels are not
trying to be seen.
I learned recently that
in Chester County there are over 500 persons who are homeless every
night. [slide #
7 Hard times Hall] The average age is
nine years old. Twenty-five percent are under age 17. The next level of homeless are ages 45 to 61. One organization has as a goal
to end homelessness by 2022. [slide # 8 man with sign] They
believe it is possible and when that long-expected day arrives, there will be a
celebration.
Suddenly, the shepherds, who were living in the
fields, heard a chorus of angels. The angels probably looked and acted like our
Bethel choir, their halos were shining so bright, their voices ringing out to
the glory of God. The angels told the shepherds that it was Jesus’ birthday,
and they believed it, just like the choir stirs up our faith and we believe. The
shepherds hurried off to Bethlehem to welcome the new born king which they had,
no doubt, been expecting and preparing for all their lives. It was a part of
their culture. The savior was finally here and they were so excited that the
day had come.
Angels are messengers who bring breaking news that
helps us take an important step in the right direction. Their words come
as a special delivery [slide # 9 Fed Ex] whose arrival can be a pleasant surprise or a
cause for concern. Most often special deliveries are expected and excitedly
anticipated. Many of us order things on line or on the phone and when they
arrive by mail, or delivery, or for pickup we usually get what we expect, and
we get it in no time at all. Gone are the days when we would order something
and read small print that says, “This takes 6-8 weeks to deliver.” There is
even talk of drones [slide # 10 drones] delivering our purchases so that we can get them
even faster. Speed is served slavishly, if not reverently. Fast is where it’s
at. [slide # 11 Amazon]
Do you think there will come a time when one can
speed up pregnancy to 9 days instead of nine months or the growing of asparagus
to 3 days instead of 3 years?
Marketing is almost a religion these days. The
competition for our dollars and our time is quite fierce and loyal. Corporations
spend millions working to convince us to give up our cash; unfortunately they are
not all above stealing, killing, and destroying in order to sell us a bill of
goods.
Marketing can be a powerful magnet. [slide # 12
magnet ] We are drawn and tempted and easily persuaded to go mindlessly in
various directions like a puppet. [ slide # 13 puppet]
Once I bought a magazine and read it from cover to cover. I
saw an ad on television for that same magazine and bought it again. The
advertising drew me in, but evidently the contents did not match what I was
really looking for. Such simple experiences remind us how easily we can be roped
into certain ideas and how important it is to think and reflect about the
choices we are inclined to make.
Marketing magnets draw because opposites attract. It is the
same in relationships. As one counselor put it, sometimes we think we are in
love when really the bump in one head fits perfectly into the dent in another
head. It is not really love from above, but more like a falling in love – and
falling is not usually a good thing. [slide # 14 falling ]
The evil of this world naturally seeks out the God in us, tugging,
clinging, pushing, pulling, hoping to win us over. In the process, we may get
stuck in an unholy rut, mired in the mayhem of mean mud, captured by some despicably
cagy enemy – like a computer hacker or overseas financial scammer. When the
time is right, that is when the fullness of time has come, God dispatches
angels on our behalf to lead us to places that ultimately fulfill the deepest
desires of our hearts. [slide # 15 angel on a bridge]
The story is told in Guidepost [slide # 16 Guidepost mag] of a 9 year old girl named *Rachel who was surrounded
by guardian angels. She went into the hospital for surgery and when the doctor
came out, he was not smiling. She had a tumor that they discovered had probably
started growing in the fall.
The fall season was about the time her mother saw her in the
back yard swing, transfixed, staring in space, looking up, her eyes wide and her mouth open.
She
ran out to her daughter, thinking she’d had a seizure or something. But by the
time she got out there, she was smiling. “Mommy,” she said. “I just saw an
angel!”
A
while later, it happened again. They were heading home, driving across a busy
bridge. Rachel’s mother said, “I just happened to check the rearview mirror and
saw her looking out the window with the same expression. “Rachel,” I said.
“What are you looking at?”
“Can’t
you see them?” Her eyes were wide with wonder. “See what, Sweetie?” “They’re
everywhere. All around us. Mommy!”
She
described the angels as male beings with shining faces, wearing white robes
with gold cords around their waists. “Not cords of cloth,” she carefully
explained to me, “but real gold. And Mommy, their feet don’t
touch the ground.”
I was
in awe of the angelic visitations and grateful for the peace she said they
brought her. But it also troubled me. What was going on? Why Rachel? Why now?
She was a very special child, using her allowance to buy bibles for those who
needed them and making prayer pillows to be sent out to the foreign mission
field.
When I
went in to get her after her treatment, she leaned close to me. “The angel came
back,” she whispered. “He was there the whole time I was on the table, and this
time he smiled at me. Then, when you opened the door, he left.
Mommy, he was so comforting.”
That
evening her cousin and inseparable best friend Katie, spent the night at
our house. The two of them were upstairs in Rachel’s
bedroom reading the Bible, and John and I had settled into
the living room, when suddenly Katie came flying down the stairs,
trembling with fear. All she could blurt out to us was, “Rachel!”
We
raced up the stairs, dreading something terrible. When we got to her doorway,
there Rachel was, transfixed like she’d been on the tree swing and in the
car—wide-eyed and looking up, her mouth open.
Then
our daughter turned toward us and began to cry. “Mommy and Daddy,” she said,
“the angel said my name! He said it like no one’s ever said my name.”
Katie
told us that she hadn’t seen the angel herself, but that she had started
trembling when she felt the presence in the room.
When
Rachel passed away, her mother was unbearably grief stricken and a little angry
that Rachel’s healing did not happen on earth and that there were no angels
around to comfort her like there were for her daughter. She could not even feel God’s presence, but the ladies
of her church came to her house every Monday for two years to bring food,
fellowship, help around the house and make sure she got some fresh air. Eventually,
she decided that they, too, were angels sent by God.
Over half
the bible talks about angels. If we think about it, we can probably find angel
stories in over half of our lives. We are all just that special to our creator.
Every angel knows us by name and we can hear the echoes through time of Gabriel
saying in verse 30 “Do not be Afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
Or as the Living Bible translation says, “30 “Don’t be
frightened, Mary,…for God has decided to wonderfully bless you!” [slide # 17 Do not be afraid….]
God
speaks to each and every one of us. All of us are special. So when God
interrupts our lives with breaking news in order to bless us in ways that are
out of this world, may we hear in our hearts an angel say, “Do not be afraid,
for God has decided to wonderfully bless you.”
On our
way to Christ being born again in our lives this Christmas, may we find bigger ears
for listening and hearts open wide enough to receive God’s great love for each
of us. Amen. [slide
# 18 Merry Christmas]
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