Scripture:
Hebrews 1:1-4 and John 1:1, 14

December 28, 2003

Rev. Marietta T. Smith
Associate Minister

Hebrews 1:1-4

John 1: 1

John 1:14

This is the last Sunday of 2003. In just about three more days, this year will be history and we will have embarked on the 366 days of the journal of 2004. Three hundred sixty-six blank pages upon which we shall live our lives. Time is the most expensive thing we can spend, for it can never be regained. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. How we spend our time is a key to our character. What we do with the days of our years is an indication of what we value most in life.

In this fleeing holiday season we spent a lot of time shopping and going to parties, writing cards and wrapping gifts, visiting with friends, and eating and drinking and making merry. We have all spent more than we should have, eaten more than we needed, partied with too much revelry, only to discover that those old feelings of loneliness and fear have not been prevented by all this activity, but merely set into the background for a little while, stuffed beneath the veneer of the Season to be Jolly. Now we look down the uncharted corridor of 2004 and we wonder what awaits us. And there comes a little tinge of anxiety; a little air of dread or of fear comes into our thinking and we wonder if there is any message of hope for a new year.

Well, my friends, this is what Christmas is all about. The hopes and fears of all the years were met in that little baby in the manger. And there is hope in the Christmas message of Do Not Be Afraid.

The first time we hear that message is when the angel appeared to Zechariah in the temple. You remember that Zechariah and Elizabeth were upright and blameless before God. They had followed all the ordinances of God but Elizabeth was barren, and in those days barrenness was a sign of God’s disfavor, or was thought to be a sign of God’s disfavor. And Zechariah and Elizabeth had begged God for years to give them a son. And so, one day when Zechariah was fulfilling his priestly duties in the temple, an angel appeared as he stood at the alter. And Zechariah was taken aback that an angel should appear to him. To be afraid of the presence of God or his messenger was a common reaction in scripture and the angel often calmed the fears of those to whom they appeared with the Do No Be Afraid message. Such was the case this time when the angel calmed Zechariah’s anxiety by saying,

Zechariah stared in disbelief. “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."

But the angel said , "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”

The story continues as Zechariah was struck dumb because of his disbelief. So he finished his temple service and went home to Elizabeth and she did indeed conceive and bore a son. And Zechariah’s tongue was loosed at that time and he declared that the baby’s name would be called John, which, by the way, means the Lord is gracious, as indeed the Lord was gracious to Zechariah and Elizabeth in answering their prayers. “Do not be afraid, Zechariah. The Lord has heard your prayers.”

The second time we hear this Do Not Be Afraid message was when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. This same angel, Gabriel, who had appeared to Zechariah to announce to him that he would be the father of John the Baptist, appeared to Mary to announce to her that she would conceive and bear a child also.

Of course Mary was startled by this and questioned the angel:

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."

(You know, we heard those words, or similar words in the story of Abraham and Sarah when they told, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?)

And now Mary is told, “With God, nothing is impossible. Do not be afraid, Mary. Nothing is impossible with God.”

In Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus, we have this third Do Not Be Afraid message. This time the words are spoken to Joseph. You may remember that Joseph was Mary’s husband. But in those days, when a couple became engaged —or betrothed, as it was called in those days — they were called husband and wife, though there was no physical union for them for a period of up to a year. And during that time, the husband usually busied himself with preparing a place for him and his bride to live. And he would come with great flourish and take her to that place that he had prepared. And there would be this marvelous wedding procession throughout the streets of the city. Great celebration. This betrothal was more binding than modern day engagements and it could only be broken through divorce. There was another reason for this betrothal; it was to see if the woman was going to be faithful to the man. Never mind whether about whether or not the man was faithful. They just wanted to be sure the woman was faithful.

So, here Mary turns up pregnant and Joseph is very trouble by this. He is described as a righteous man and he is not willing to expose Mary to the public spectacle that normally was made in situations like this, and the stoning which custom demanded. He purposed in his heart that he would quietly sign the necessary documents for the divorce and just kind of let her go. But as Joseph slept, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said,

The name “Jesus”, by the way, means the Lord saves. Matthew continues:

“Do not be afraid, Joseph. God is in control.”

The fourth Do Not Be Afraid message was to the shepherds out on a hillside who were caring for flocks of sheep. The footnote of one my Bibles said that these flocks of sheep may have been the ones who were reserved for temple sacrifice, thus giving a very special significance to the job of watching over them. The shepherds were going about their business when suddenly an angel of the Lord stood before them. A bright and glorious light shone all around them and they were sore afraid, as the king James puts it. They were startled by this sudden brightness which surrounded them. Naturally they would have reacted in fear, but the angel put their fears to rest. “Do not be afraid, shepherds. I bring you good news of great joy for everyone around. There is a baby born in a stable in the city of David — a savior, Christ the Lord,” or as the Revised Standard Version calls him, Messiah, the Lord. This is a theology in miniature, when you stop to think about it. First, he is a SAVIOR, which is expressed in His name, Jesus. Then the is CHRIST, the anointed of God, the Messiah of Israel, and finally He is GOD THE LORD, manifest in flesh.

Now, probably there was more than one stable in Bethlehem that night. And maybe there was more than one baby born that night, but there was only one Son of God and He would be the only one found lying in a manger. That was the sign the shepherds were given. “The news is good, shepherds. A baby is born in Bethlehem, Christ the Lord. Messiah is born and He is lying in a manger in a stable! Go find Him.”

Now I don’t propose to think that there was just one stable in Bethlehem. How do you suppose the shepherds found the right stable with no more directions than this? Well, you remember the angel said to Mary, “With God, nothing is impossible.” So it was not an impossibility for the shepherds to find the right stable — and the right baby. As if the shepherds weren’t startled enough by that single appearance,

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Tape change)

….angel wings and the songs of the seraphim. The announcement is not made in the courts of the kings and princes but on a Judean hillside to simple shepherds. The shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see for ourselves this thing they have told us about.” So, Luke says that they came with haste; they hurried off. They ran. Regardless of whatever translation you read it, they were anxious to see for themselves that what the angels said was true. And it was true, for they did find Mary and Joseph in a stable and the baby lying in a manger. Immediately they began to spread the word to others and people were amazed when the shepherds told them how the angels had appeared and how they were told exactly who Jesus was and exactly what he was.

The shepherds were amazed and returned to their work, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard as it was told them, or as Eugene Peterson’s version puts it, it turned out exactly the way they had been told. Do not be afraid shepherds. God keeps His word.

So, we come up to the present time and reflect on the year past. Perhaps there are prayers that have gone unanswered this year, longings of the soul that seem to have fallen on deaf ears. We wonder if God really hears our prayers, much less answers them. Read again the story of Abraham and Sarah. Ponder the persistence of Zechariah and Elizabeth. God answered their prayers in His own time in His own way. The son born to Zechariah and Elizabeth had to be born at the time he was born because he was to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. He was the one who would proclaim Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

You know, sometimes there are others in these prayer equations that we pray. They have to come to the place where God can work with everybody who’s in that equation. “Wait” is an answer. Sometimes the answer we pray for is not the answer we need to have. God answers in another way, and we interpret that as “no.” Sometimes God’s answers are immediate and exactly what we ask for, and for those answers we should give Him a special thanks and praise. But friends, God always answers prayers. And He will answer your’s and mine in a manner that will bring honor and glory to him and good to the people involved. Do not be afraid friends. God hears our prayers.

In this past year we have encountered difficulties in pursuing our plans. We have run up against road blocks that just don’t seem to be movable. Well, maybe our plans need to be taken to God’s cleaning house to be sure they line up with His will. Or maybe we have bitten off more than we can chew. Or maybe, and most probably this is the reason: we just don’t trust God enough to see us through a new year. We work as if everything depends upon us, but we forget to pray as if everything depends on God. There is a song that we used to sing in the Baptist Church and I have heard it from Billy Graham crusades in years past, “Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. Nothing is impossible when you depend upon His word.”

What could have been more improbably than for a woman in her nineties to conceive and bear a child? What could have been more impossible than for a woman who had never had physical union with a man to become pregnant?

Do not be afraid, friends. God specializes in impossibilities. Perhaps as we come to the close of this year, your personal world is falling apart, or definitely, the world around us is falling apart. With all the wars and rumors of wars, and terrorist threats, and destructive weather patterns, and murders and kidnappings, and political upheavals all over the world, isn’t it ironic that there, in the land where the Prince of Peace was born, it has been anything but peace since His birth? We wonder, “Where is God in all of this?” Listen to James Russell Lowell’s words in his poem, Once to Every Man and Nation.” Listen to these words as we watch our world grow darker and more dangerous:

Isaiah 49:16 says Can a mother forget a child at her breast?

“Though others forget you, God says, I will not forget you. I have inscribed your names in the palms of my hands.”

And from the scriptures the words of our Lord in the gospel of John when He says,

And again, when He said in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

Nothing. No thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Do not be afraid, my friends, God is in control.

Perhaps in this year past we wondered if God really cares what is going on in our lives. We wondered just where He is in this great scheme of things. We wondered if we can really trust Him. We wonder if what He says in His word is really true.

The story the shepherds heard probably seemed incredulous, not only from the standpoint of the vision of the angels, but from the idea that the birth of the Messiah most definitely should have been announced to someone more important than ordinary shepherds. The Messiah surely would have been born in a royal palace instead of a smelly stable. And the baby ought to have been found lying in a nice little clean crib with clean, soft blankets instead of lying in the midst of hay of a manger. But that’s where the angels said they would find this baby, and that’s where the shepherds found Him. He, Jesus, came into our humanity to experience our human condition, to understand our human woes. Some of my favorite scriptures in all the Bible, in Hebrews 2:17.

And at the end of Chapter 4:

My friends, all that God promises, that He will never leave us or forsake us, is true. We have His word. All that God has told us about how He will guide us and direct us is true. All that He has said about keeping His word is true.

Maybe today you are thinking, “Is anybody there? Does anybody really care?” And the angels words to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph, to the shepherds echo down across the centuries of time to us, here, on December 28, 2003: Do not be afraid, my friends. The babe of Bethlehem has grown up! Halleluiah! Thank you, Jesus, for this most greatest gift of all!