READING: LUKE 2:1-20

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

REFLECTION

Hi my name is Alannah and I’m part of the team here at STC and I help lead the leadership/discipleship year called STC College we run here.

As you already know, the Bible reading this week is from Luke 2:1-20. I want to encourage you to read it all again when you get the chance, but today I’m going to concentrate on the very last verse, verse 20:

“The Shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

When reading this passage the question that came to my mind was “What did life now look like for these Shepherds as they returned to their everyday?”, after all the emotion and excitement began to die down and they got back into their ordinary routines?

I think the shepherds had to face the challenge to choose to live out this transformative time in their everyday lives.

I don’t know about you, but I love going to our church gatherings on a Sunday and worshipping Jesus as one body. I love meeting with Him as a community and often find I experience Him at work in incredible ways during that time. However, when the gathering comes to an end and my husband, Andrew, turns to me and says ‘Right, we need to pop into the shop on the way home and get food for our lunches this week’, suddenly that incredible moment of meeting God seems to come crashing back down to the everyday reality, and I always find it so boring and frustrating!

I think it’s great when we have those amazing God experiences, where He speaks to us powerfully and we really experience His presence profoundly in our lives: whether that be at church, at a big event or during a certain life event.

However, I often find that after those incredible experiences, the level of emotion and closeness to God inevitably doesn’t last forever, especially once we have to start continuing on with the everyday and thinking about the things that are stressing us out or even what sandwich fillings we want this week. I think, like the Shepherds returning back to their lives after such an incredible moment meeting with God, we have to choose to bring that transformative time into our everyday, and ask God what that looks like.

I think this can also be the same with the Christmas message. Years after becoming a Christian and doing Christmas every year, the initial excitement and meaning of the Christmas story can wear off. We can so easily forget the reality and significance of the situation Jesus was born into and get caught up in presenting the perfect, happy Christmas our culture tells us we must have.

The truth is, the real message of Christmas is not one of perfection. Jesus was born into a smelly stable full of animals and born into a dangerous time. We learn later of Herod’s plans to kill him.

For many, Christmas can be a very difficult time of year, far from happy and perfect. The reality is that Jesus was born into a very difficult situation, but the glory of God was at work. We see expressions of Hope, Joy and Peace amongst the difficulties.

So my question to us all today is, How are we rediscovering the message of Christmas this year? And how are we choosing to live it out?

Are we really connecting again with the Hope, Peace and Joy the Christmas message brings of God becoming flesh, to live among us and save us?

It might be for you that you’re aware of people who are finding Christmas difficult this year, and God is calling you to be a friendly face, a helping hand or prayerful support to those people.

Or maybe, you’re that person who could do with friends and community around you this Christmas and needing to know afresh the Hope, Peace & Joy of the Christmas message.

PRAYER

Father God, we thank you for sending your son to be Emmanuel – God is with us. We thank you that Christmas is so much more than presents and perfection, and so much more about a message of light in the darkness and hope of a world fully restored to You. We pray that as we rediscover this story over the coming weeks that you would help us to choose to live out the message it brings in the ordinary, everyday. I pray that you would transform our ordinary into the extraordinary. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.