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On Tuesday I wrote on my blog that the story of the week is not the Christmas blizzard of

2009. The story of the week is that a baby was born over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. A baby

who was sent as a divine gift of love. A baby, born in a room—maybe smaller than this one;

born to a mother—who was a teenager and who was not guided by doctors or nurses or the best

of 21st century medicine. As far as we know Joseph was the only one at her side. A baby was

born—and this baby grew up to be a man and this man changed the world more than any other

person in the history of the world. We’re celebrating this baby’s birth—that’s the story of the

week.

Of course, we know what story has been reported as the story of the week. Right? The

blizzard. Whenever we turned on the TV this week, picked up a newspaper, listened to the radio,

or went on the Internet we heard about this story. This week we’ve been told with breathtaking

intensity------------------------it snows in December in Minnesota. We all know that.

But despite knowing this we’ve still been saturated with information about this blizzard. I even

found a Facebook page where people could join a group called “2009 Christmas Blizzard.” I

joined it.

I’m just having fun. I understand that for safety reasons we needed to know in advance

about this blizzard. Almost all of us travel over Christmas and none of us want to get stuck in a

car or stranded at an airport. We have to have information to keep us safe.

But once again the story of ultimate importance has been overtaken by something else.

So I’m glad that you are here—so we can focus on this wondrous story of Jesus’ birth.

I love the story of Jesus’ birth. It’s my favorite story in the Bible. I’ve preached on it

during Christmas Eve almost every year I’ve been a pastor. I never get tired of preaching it.

There are so many different pieces to it:

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• There’s Joseph being forced to go to his hometown to participate in a census. Imagine

the political turmoil that this caused. Can you think of the outcry that would develop

today if all of us were forced by the government to go to our hometown to be counted?

• There’s Mary traveling over a long distance as she was pregnant. We have a picture in

our mind of Mary traveling on an animal. But the story actually doesn’t tell us that. The

two places in the Bible that have the Christmas story are Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 2:1-

20. You might want to write those verses down in your sermon notes. In neither place

do we read of Mary traveling on an animal. Mary travelled a long distance—probably

walking—as she was close to delivering a baby.

• When the little baby, Jesus, was born he was wrapped in bands of cloth and put in a

manger. Some people think that this manger was a feed trough from which animals ate.

This is where we get the tradition of animals being present at Jesus’ birth. Despite our

Christmas pageants and words to “Away in the Manger” the story doesn’t say that

animals were present when Jesus was born.

So many different pieces to this story of Jesus’ birth. This week as I read and studied this

story the part that I came to focus on was when all the angels were singing to God. I want to

focus on this part of the story.

It’s interesting that the story in Luke was 20 verses. But only one verse actually tells us

that a baby was born. That verse doesn’t even share the name of Jesus. It’s verse seven and the

first part of the verse reads like this—she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in

bands of cloth. That’s it. Luke describes Jesus’ birth as if a reporter was writing something in a

newspaper. A baby was born.

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Of course, the birth was important, but Luke wanted to focus on how this birth changed

everything. For the rest of this story we hear of this marvelous intersection of the angels and the

shepherds.

We remember how this goes. I’m guessing we’ve heard this part of the story in

Christmas pageants. Verse 8, “there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their

flock by night.” In that day shepherds were known as shiftless and dishonest. Shepherds were

known as people who would try to graze their flocks on other people’s lands. There they were

outside of Bethlehem doing their job as they had been doing it for years. And then an angel

came to them.

It was an angel of the Lord. We don’t know this for certain, but we’re guessing that the

angel who appeared to the shepherds was the angel, Gabriel. We think this because Gabriel was

the angel of the Lord who had appeared in the Temple to Zechariah, Jesus’ uncle; Gabriel was

the angel of the Lord who had appeared to Mary telling her that she would bear God’s son.

Outside of Bethlehem to these shifty and dishonest people the angel Gabriel shared a

message which changed the world.

“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a
child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

This is where I think the story gets very interesting. I wonder what the angel Gabriel

looked like to the shepherds. Was Gabriel big, white, did Gabriel have wings, was Gabriel

suspended in midair. We can guess that the shepherds were frightened when Gabriel first came

to them because Gabriel told them not to be afraid.

If the shepherds were afraid of seeing one angel, imagine how they felt by what they saw

next.
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“Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host

The heavenly host is known as God’s army. The word that we read as host could be

translated as army. We don’t know how many angels joined Gabriel. Maybe it was five or

maybe ten, or a maybe a hundred or maybe even a thousand.

This multitude of God’s army of angels suddenly praised God. The story doesn’t say

this, but I imagine that they were singing.

This is the image that has captured my imagination this week.

Luke shared a few words that the angels said, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth
peace among those whom he favors.”

Can you imagine what this looked like? Too bad one of the shepherds didn’t have a digital

camera. Can you imagine the sound of all of these angels singing praises to God? Too bad one

of the shepherds didn’t have a handheld recording device. If those songs of the angels were put

on I-Tunes the web site would break from crash.

Many of the best composers in the world have tried to capture this sound of the angels’

singing. Maybe the angels’ song sounded like Joy to the Word.

SINGING

“Joy to the Word the Lord is come: let earth receive her King”

Maybe the angels’ song sounded like this, words written by Charles Wesley:

Hark the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled. Joyful, all ye nations, rise (here it is, listen to this)
Join the triumph of the skies; with the angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King

Maybe the angels’ song sounded like this

The first Nowell the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay; In fields
where they lay a keeping their sheep, on a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
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This week I wondered about other places in the Bible where angels sang to God. I didn’t have

the time to look through my concordance, so I asked my Facebook friends about places in the

Bible where the angels sang. I was immediately directed to many places in Revelation where the

angels sang praises to God. I’m actually reading through the book of Revelation right now

This is a task of the angels—to be singers for God.

The Scriptures don’t give us a clear idea of what heaven is like. Personally I’ve always

imagined heaven being a place where the angels sing to God. In fact I’ve always wondered what

it would be like to be an angel who sang to God. I want to do that. If they have a sign-up sheet

in heaven for being an angel who sings to God, I want to be the first to sign up. What a privilege

it would be to be in a space that doesn’t know the boundaries of time or space and just sing—to

God; a place where we are not burdened by sorrows or pain. A place where we just sing praises.

I think this is what the shepherds experienced. Heaven broke into the earth through the

angels. And the shepherds saw it all.

You know, I think this story has some really funny parts to it. After the angels had left

Luke records the shepherds saying,

“Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place which the Lord has made
known to us.”

I trust what Luke wrote, but I think a lot more happened than just those words that Luke

recorded. That sentence sounds like a child’s recitation in a children’s program:

I think what really happened is the shepherds soiled their pants. I would have! After seeing the

army of angels singing praises to God?

It’s fascinating to me about what happened next. The shepherds went to see Mary and

the baby. They went with haste—the same word that described Mary going to see Elizabeth—

we talked about this last Sunday. The shepherds found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in a
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manger, a feed trough. They undoubtedly shared their experience of encountering the angels and

seeing and hearing the angels sing. Then the shepherds left, presumably to go back to the fields.

At the end of the story Luke recorded that the shepherds were glorifying and praising God. It’s

as if the shepherds were singing. These shifty and dishonest people were singing praises to God.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they were singing the same songs that they had just heard the angels

sing. As a poet wrote, “How could they keep from singing?” The shepherds were singing the

angels’ song.

I want to wrap up this sermon with a question. “Do you want to sing the angels’ song in

2010? Do you want to sing the angels’ song in 2010?

As I said this story shares a glimpse of heaven. And in this place all comfy as we are it

almost feels like heaven. In fact in Communion John Calvin wrote that the Spirit lifts us up to

heaven. But when we leave this place and the good feelings that we have we’ll encounter

different messages.

Blizzard

Some of us have challenging financial situations. Even though the economy is getting

better people (and some of us) are still hurting. Some of us have health concerns or family who

have health concerns. This week I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom receiving

reports on my Dad’s angioplasty procedure. It went well and he’s home now. It’s a modern

miracle what doctors can do with the heart. But it’s not heaven to talk to my mom bout my dad’s

heart procedure.

When we leave this sanctuary we will encounter a lot of messages, so I ask—do you want

to sing the angels’ song in 2010.

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That’s what we’re going to be about at Chain of Lakes. We’re going to help people sing

the angels’ song. We’re going to help people encounter the holy. We’re going to be a place

where strangers become friends; friends become disciples and disciples impact the world. Above

all—we’re going to help people sing the angels’ song.

I can’t think of anything better to do in 2010. Come and join me. Let’s sing the angels’

song.