This is sermon #2 in a series of sermons from the series "Shopping for a Savior." Find these and other Christmas sermons in our index: Thanksgiving and Christmas Resources for Pastors.
It was the fall heard around the world. A mob of Wal-Mart shoppers rushing for a $29 DVD player trampled Patricia VanLester and knocked her unconscious on Friday, November 28, 2003 the day after Thanksgiving. Her sister, Linda Ellzey watched, “She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants. I told them, ‘Stop stepping on my sister! She’s on the ground!’”
Crowds are synonymous with Christmas. Haven’t you noticed? The Malls are packed, the check out lines wind around forever, the roads are crammed with cars, airports are jammed, even churches have a few more people than normal. Even our homes are teeming with additional decorations, parties, and activities.
The problem with crowds at Christmas is that they tend to trample Jesus, just like the mob of shoppers that trampled Patricia VanLester. We get so involved in the shopping that we miss the Savior. We are so busy with travel that Jesus is left home alone. We slide into a seat at church that is not our usual place because someone else is sitting in our place and we don’t focus on Jesus because we are angry with that unfamiliar pew occupant. We are in such a hurry at Christmas that we aren’t living well, our souls are in need of a break, if not intensive care.
Richard Foster wrote in his book Celebration of Discipline, “In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.” At no time of the year is this observation a greater reality. Could it be that the crowds, the shopping, the incessant bell ringing and music playing, the increased numbers of activities, the fast-paced lifestyles are simply a ploy of Satan to keep us from the Savior?
Many years ago a very wealthy European family held a christening for their child. Many guests were invited to the home for the occasion. They arrived in their big cars wearing the high style fashions. Their jackets and coats were carried to a bedroom and laid upon the beds. After hors d’oeuvres and the usual lot of conversation and commotion, they were ready for the christening ceremony.
“Where’s the baby?” someone asked.
The nanny ran upstairs to look. She returned several minutes later. The baby was nowhere to be found. Someone remembered that the child had last been seen lying on one of the beds, and after a frantic investigation the little child was found smothered under the coats and jackets of the guests. The chief reason why they had come had been forgotten, neglected, and destroyed.
Crowds and clamor have a tendency to smother Jesus at Christmas. He, more often than not, is forgotten, neglected, and if we aren’t careful, destroyed.
1. Those Who Did Not Hear God's Message
The first Christmas, in some respects, was not unlike Christmas today. The tiny hamlet of Bethlehem was crowded. People were stirring everywhere. People were probably sleeping on the streets, in alleys, or anywhere else they could find a spot. The merchants were up earlier than usual waiting for the influx of visitors to purchase their wares. The barking of street dogs and the complaint of donkeys pulling carts awakened children.
The owner of the inn had awakened earlier than most in the town. His inn was full. All the beds were taken. People were everywhere, on mats, in chairs, curled up in every corner.
The crowds and the clamor hushed the cry of the baby born outside the inn probably in a cave, placed in a manager, normally reserved for sheep, for a bed. The baby boy was wrapped in strips of clothing to keep him warm.
And, God, the proud father, sent out a birth announcement like none other. And it should be like none other because never before had God taken on human flesh. The transcendent God was now living in human flesh. This child, God incarnate, would change the world.
The citizens of Bethlehem did not hear the announcement of the baby. The tiny town was too jam-packed, too noisy, too consumed, too preoccupied. The mayor of Bethlehem didn’t get the announcement. The High Priest in Jerusalem was left out of the loop. So, too, was Caesar Augustus and the members of his Royal court. None of the officials, none of the power brokers received the announcement.
The palace didn’t hear, the temple didn’t hear, Jerusalem didn’t hear, Bethlehem didn’t hear. Why? Too crowded, too busy, too noisy, too pretentious.
2. Those Who Heard God's Message
God’s birth announcement regarding his son entering human history was heard by an unpretentious group on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Listen to Luke’s accounting: “In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a manger’” (Luke 2:8-12 HCSB).
The announcement of Jesus’ birth came to sheepherders. Sheepherders? Sheepherders were today’s social equivalent of a homeless person living on the street who does odd jobs for minimal pay.
A. Shepherds were borderline social outcasts.
They didn’t fit in with the culture. They were always traveling and moving with their sheep, they didn’t have much of a home life. They lived and traveled around with sheep. They didn’t look good. They smelled pungent. Their language was crude and harsh. They were uneducated and unsophisticated men.
You know the type. These folks aren’t up on the latest trends and fashions. Don’t have the latest gadget or the newest toy. Haven’t gotten a personal web page, or laptop, or email address for that matter. They are, shall we say, backward.
B. Shepherds were religiously unclean.
In Jewish tradition to fully participate in the religion one had to undergo certain rituals and attend festivals and services to be considered clean and acceptable to God. Because of the shepherd’s work schedule and constant migration, they could not attend those services and perform the necessary ritual of purification. When they did go to the Temple Mount, the religious establishment overlooked them.
You know the look. “You don’t belong here. What is your kind doing at our church? Clean yourself up then you can come here.” They were led to believe that they were not good enough for God.
C. Shepherds were loners.
Tending their sheep out in the fields under the stars away from the city and the crowds. I’ve seen sheepherders in Israel. Not for long, mind you, but I have seen them. One leading his sheep came by as our tour bus had stopped to visit a cave similar to the one Jesus might have been born in. The shepherd, probably twelve or thirteen, dirty shirt and pants, smiled and wandered on with his sheep. No fences existed. We were miles from the nearest town and nothing but Judean wilderness in all directions. It was an incredibly lonely, desolate life.
You know the sort. It is the cowboy on the western range, who is singing…
Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,Where the deer and the antelope play,Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,And the skies are not cloudy all day.
These people live a simpler life. Less hectic. Slower. Calmer. Noise free. People-less.
As a consequence, sheepherders avoided crowds. They preferred a life of solitude, quietness, separated from the others. Interestingly, it is to these people that the angel spoke regarding the birth of Jesus. God made his announcement of his son’s birth to people that were considered outcasts, overlooked, and outsiders. People who were not among the socially privileged. People who did not merit the standards of the religious elite. People who were separated from the crowds.
Here’s the point: God’s birth announcement came to those who were not in the crowded city, but rather to those men separated from society. They could hear because they were in a place to hear. Sometimes we don’t hear God because it’s too crowded and loud. If God would speak to those who are outcast by society, overlooked by religious leaders, and outside the hustle and bustle of the city, then if I get in a similar place I can hear him speak to me. If God spoke to the shepherds, then there is hope for me.
3. How To Hear God’s Message
What must we do? Travel to Israel and become a sheepherder? Move to Montana, join a cult, and never bathe again. No! What must we do to prevent the crowds from trampling out Christ at Christmas? What must we do to hear God’s message like the shepherds, the first recipients?
A. Be still.
Christmas, by its very nature, anticipates something on the horizon the like of which we have never seen before. Yet it is possible to not see it. To miss it. To turn just as it brushes past us. And, once past, once we have missed it, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s back fade in the distance, we grasp that we have failed to notice it. So move away from the hustle and bustle. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. There will be time enough for running, for activity, for pushing, for worrying, for crowds. But for now, stay. Wait. Be still. Something is on the horizon.
“Stop . . . and know that I am God” (Psa. 46:10 HCSB), writes the Psalmist. Like the shepherds, we, too, need to refrain from an overload of activity to see Christ. This will mean that we deliberately choose to stop, to wait, and to push back.
B. Find a place of quiet.
Christmas comes packaged with a lot of noise. It’s everywhere. There’s music playing, bells ringing, people chattering, paper rustling. The nature of crowds prompts noise. It can’t be avoided. The only way is to move away from the noise to find a place of quiet.
This entire message is focused on four words from Luke 2:8. The shepherds were “out in the fields” (Luke 2:8 HCSB). Out in the fields implies that they were away from the clutter of life and the crowds that accompany that mess. They had found a place of quiet. A place of quiet is not always a physical place. In fact, often when we need quietness the most, we can’t get away from the crowds. A quiet place is a place of the heart. Like the eye of a hurricane, the storm rages around us, but internally there is calmness, peace, and silence.
I know it wasn’t sung on the first Christmas morning, but it could have been. The shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night understood the meaning of Silent Night. Listen closely to the words.
Silent night, holy night; All is calm, all is brightRound yon virgin mother and child! Holy Infant so tender and mild,Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.
That’s what I want to experience, don’t you? Silence. Calm. Sleep. Peace.
Country music star Travis Tritt spent many years playing out-of-the-way joints before he made it big in the music industry. He reports that many of the bars were dangerous places, with drunken fans starting fights over the smallest matters. Crowds can easily become uncontrollable mobs. But Tritt found a unique way to keep the peace in such situations. He says: “Silent Night proved to be my all-time lifesaver. Just when [the bar fights] started getting out of hand, when bikers were reaching for their pool cues and rednecks were heading for the gun rack, I’d start playing Silent Night. It could be the middle of July—I didn’t care. Sometimes they’d even start crying, standing there watching me sweat and play Christmas carols.”
Find the time, and if you can, the place, to enjoy the silence, the calmness, the peace this Christmas. Move away from the crowds and listen to the still, silent voice of God. “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to draw near in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools” (Eccl. 5:1 HCSB). Find a place, apart from the crowds, to be silent.
C. Be intentional.
There’s a word about the shepherds that stuck out to me in Luke’s narrative of the birth of Jesus. It is the word living. Notice Luke 2:8. “And there were shepherds living out in the field nearby . . .” (Luke 2:8 NIV). They were living. Now I’m sure Luke means that they were eating and breathing while performing their job. Could it mean more than that? Perhaps, it expresses the intentionality of their lives. They weren’t just going through the motions. They weren’t just waiting for the paycheck. They weren’t hoping for the weekend so they could party till they dropped. They were living. They weren’t in a hurry. They weren’t bombarded with peer pressure. They weren’t exposed to the latest fads and facts. But they were living.
I wonder if the same thing can be said about me? Am I really living?
I’m afraid I’m guilty of pretending to live. There’s a lot of pretending going on today. The story of the Wal-Mart shopper trampled has a dark side. It turns out that Patricia VanLester is a former Wal-Mart worker who’s filed 16 injury claims against her former employer and other businesses. An investigation by CBS television affiliate WKMG in Orlando revealed that VanLester had received thousands of dollars in settlements and workman’s compensation since 1987.
Could it be that Patricia VanLester is a fake? Before we pass judgment, perhaps we need to look in the mirror. Are we pretending to live or are we really living?
Remember reading about Henry David Thoreau? He escaped the crowded world to live at Walden’s Pond. So he could live more deliberately.
Christmas is about God living in human flesh. That same God lives within us enabling us to live.
Will you hear the message of God this Christmas, and everyday for that matter? Will you stop long enough to be still to listen for God? Will you find a place of solitude? A place that God can break through the clamor. Will you determine to live intentionally? Will you stop pretending, stop going through the motions, and live the life God intended for you to live? Let’s not trample Jesus out of Christmas.