Rise Up

Let there be light…and there was light. Arise, shine, for your light has come. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

The angel appears to the shepherds in the night sky. When we put out our nativity at home, the shepherds are always grouped together along with their sheep. But the angels, some are near Mary and Joseph and the baby in the manger, some are closer to the shepherds…but all of them are beautiful. Sweet and kind…one holds a candle, another cradles a lamb…not fear-provoking in the least.

Yet, throughout the Bible, every time an angel appears to share a message from God, the first words the angel speaks tell us that my nativity scene angels are not good representations of angels. Whenever an angel appears to a person, the first words they speak are “Do not fear.” Angels scare people, they deliver messages from God about how your life is about to change.

An angel appears to the shepherds where they were living in the fields with their sheep. They took turns watching and sleeping through the dark night in the hillside of Judea. No one ventured out this far, especially not at night. There were no streets, no street lights, no flashlights, only stars on a black sky. So, the voice startled them.

“I bring good news—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.”

When the angels left them, the shepherds rise up and go immediately to Bethlehem and see this baby. It seems awfully inconvenient, to rise up and gather their belongings, rouse the sheep from their slumber, and head in the dark toward Bethlehem. And they find the babe, lying in a manger, just as the angel had told them.

Have you noticed that at Kroger every single checker, every single time you check out asks “Did you find everything ok?” They are actually required to ask that now…and evidently we are expected to respond “Yes, thank you” regardless of whether we found everything or not…I mean like you are going to leave line, leave your groceries on the conveyor, and head back to aisle 4!

The day of Christmas has arrived. Christ is born! “Did you find everything ok?” And if you say yes, when you didn’t, you will leave without what you came here to find. What you came here to find is tiny and fragile, wrapped up so that he isn’t too cold, laid in a feeding trough because there’s nowhere else to put him. What you came here to find is born for you today. Even in the darkness, rise up, come to Bethlehem and see.