Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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"Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing," said the shepherds. May we go along? We too have heard the good tidings, though not as dramatically as you. We have heard God's love proclaimed not by angels in the sky, but in churches, on many a Christmas Eve. Yet we have not seen the baby as you are about to do. May we join you, shepherds? Which way to Bethlehem?

At first, only the shepherds knew. To be a shepherd back then was to be despised. We think good thoughts about shepherds, envision green pastures, still waters; we think of young David as a shepherd boy with his sling, or we picture those very early statues of Jesus, with a lamb over his shoulder. But at the time of his birth, shepherds were scorned; they were thought of as a shiftless, dishonest bunch, who (if you turned your back) would graze their flocks on your land. Social parasites. Garrison Keillor says they were "the used car salesmen" of Bible times.

That shepherds should be told the great news first, is part of the "scandal" of Christ's coming -- which is how Luke tells the story. A truly scandalous, shameful and improper thing: that the Messiah should be born "on the road", turned away from an inn, laid in hay where the animals ate, with his arrival proclaimed first to shepherds. From the start, the story of Jesus is a scandal to proper people. If you want to be proper, Jesus is not for you. To only a chosen few, and they often the most uncouth, he revealed himself. Nobody but God would have dreamed that up.

People come to Bethlehem, they find Christ in different ways. The shepherds came because of a breathtaking experience they had under the stars. I love the soprano solo in Messiah, when, if the soloist sings it right, she sounds as if she is going to burst with excitement: "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and singing." Yes, an angel chorus appeared to the shepherds, told them not to be afraid, and said that, at that very moment, God was being specially glorified in heaven and on earth by men of good will, because the Savior of the world (the Messiah) was being born.

I have known Christians who came to Jesus the first time through some breathtaking experience -- something happened to them, something which they could never fully describe, but which forever after defined their lives. Good people. Committed to the end. Notice, if you will, that a visit to manger side is offered by the angels almost as an afterthought. Oh, and this shall be "a sign unto you -- so you will believe what we have said, so you won't wake up tomorrow and think we were figments of your imagination, the result of a little too much wine, we'll tell you where you can find him." "Don't take our word for it. See for yourselves." They came but they already knew -- because they had seen God's angels, quaked at the sight, and knew that life would never be the same again. Many come to Bethlehem through such experiences.

Are there other ways to Bethlehem? The wise men came by learning. They were astrologers, had invested their entire lives studying stars, so they knew when something was amiss. We can't get to Christ by study alone, anymore than we can get to China by car. But, certainly, important parts of the trip may be taken that way...and need to be. It will never require a college degree to be saved. (It will never even require good sense, thank God!) But learning about Jesus, what we can and when we can, is important. Our enemies will always mischaracterize our faith. They will say that Jesus was misunderstood by the New Testament writers. They will portray all Christians to be like Jim Baaker or Jimmy Swaggert. They will belittle the good that Christians have done, and turn the history of the church into a history of warfare. We must be able to answer these charges, for they are not true. And the only answer is study, learning, knowledge. As time passes, and our world becomes so different from the world of Christ, serious study becomes more and more necessary so that we can know the facts of our faith and defend it.

How else to Bethlehem? Sometimes we find it in everyday life, as did Mary and Joseph. Trying to live by the rules, being good citizens, going where they were told. There is a purity here, especially in the Virgin Mother, which we Protestants have sulked about too long. God picked Mary out, an innocent young girl of great faith, to make her "mother of God", indeed he did! She even says of herself, "from henceforth all generations will call me blessed." We need to start doing that again. But at the time Mary and Joseph were ordinary people -- trying to make a living. At Yorktown, when George Washington accepted the British surrender from Gen. Cornwallis, the little colonial band played a tune called, "The World Turned Upside Down." The American Revolution did turn certain worlds upside down. But the coming of Christ reversed everything. For God would choose innocent ones like Mary and Joseph, a baby in a manger laid, shepherds in the field -- and bypass the high and mighty, as he always does. You can get to Bethlehem through ordinary things. In fact, when we try to get there some other way, (some fancier way, some more sophisticated way) we always get lost.

Look for him not in the vulgar, commercial carnival that sometimes passes for Christmas, look for him not in high places, look for him in ordinary things, like Bethlehem, for he turns this world upside down.

Mary and I were lucky enough to be in Rome, ten years ago, when they were cleaning the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. Right down the middle of that huge room was a high scaffold, with a tent covering the top, so you could not see the technicians. But you could surely see the results of their work. On the one side were dark, shadowy figures, wonderful, but not exciting. On the other (where they had finished restoring the painting) the figures appeared in bright colors, almost like a cartoon. "That is what it looked like when Michaelangelo painted it," the guide said.
 

"We're not adding a drop of paint or color. We're just cleaning off the coats of varnish, and the grime and soot of the ages." We really have to do that to Christmas. It's been so encrusted with sentimentality and commercialism. We have to clean it off, in our hearts, and see its stark colors. For it is exciting. It does upend the world. In the light of its beauty, this tawdry world (with his quest for toys and goodies) is seen as the real scandal. And the truth of God shines through.

Ralph Sockman, a great preacher of a generation ago, used to tell of a painting he had seen of the shepherds in their field. They have fallen onto their knees, and are watching with rapt attention the angel chorus in the sky. But their sheep dog is also there, and (while he is obviously alert, with his ears perked up) he is looking in the wrong direction. He seems to know something interesting is happening, but is looking for it someplace where it is not. Sockman says the dog represents many of us. Christmas comes and Christmas goes, but we do not see it -- not in its true colors, not in its shocking, scandalous nature. Just holiday, just celebration. The real message of the angels is the radical message of God's grace, the "wonders of his love," as the carol says. Christmas challenges us with a question: will we keep on following the ways of this world, believing in its many fictions, or will we find our way somehow to Bethlehem? Will we learn where real power is, and real love, and true health, and the peace that is beyond all peace.