1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate Christmas Day is taken from Luke 2:8-11. It’s entitled, “An Angel Brings Hope with a Sign of God’s Presence in the Newly Born Christ Child,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. After gazing at the glittering angel high atop the altar’s tree, young Daniel walked over to the nativity scene nearby. He studied the various figures in the little rough wooden shed. He found the familiar Mary and Joseph figures, Mary dressed in a blue cloak, the little baby Jesus in a manger, a shepherd, and even three Wise Men bearing gifts, although they actually came later. As he continued to study this scene, he saw atop the simple crèche another angel. In other nativity sets, the angel sometimes stood to the side like the other figures. Regardless, there was always an angel. Again, he wondered why. Why was an angel needed here, far below the lofty heights of that tree, so far from heaven’s glory? What was it doing? Standing as a sentry? But no danger appears. The only one nearby is a kneeling shepherd. Was it just a decoration, a way to show some heavenly splendor in an otherwise rustic scene?
3. This angel was none of that. This angel again comes as a heavenly messenger, with a simple but powerful word straight from the Almighty. The message this time involves a sign, to reveal, to guide—and to give hope! The angel brings hope in a sign telling the shepherds where they might find the promised Savior . . . and where we might find God’s enduring presence among us.
4. This angel appeared out in the field to the shepherds along with the entire “multitude of the heavenly host.” But its place here, sitting much closer to the other figures in the scene, reminds us of its important announcement. “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’ ” (Lk 2:8–11).
5. “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” What an honor to bear that message! And a surprise! Especially that God would make such an announcement to lowly shepherds. But where would these men find such an infant in all the “city of David”? What would such a great person look like? Would he be in the palace of a prince attended by richly adorned servants? Would they see him surrounded by powerful armies in a parade coming through their city? Would his cradle be bathed in a bright holy light shining out in the darkness? If God had come among them, how would they know? So, the angel gives them a “sign.” Hope is kept alive if only we have directions, if we’re shown where to find where God is at work. And the “sign” the angel gives will validate the ancient prophecy when Ahaz was first given “a sign of the Lord [his] God”: “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Is 7:10, 14).
6. The Gospel writer St. John records numerous “signs” our Lord gave to bear witness regarding who he was and why he came. Some identify seven of these. He miraculously changes water into wine at a wedding, showing a command of creation and a desire for joy (Jn 2:1–12). He heals an official’s son who is deadly ill, reversing sin’s curse (4:46–54). He heals again, this time a paralytic at the Bethesda pool (5:1–17). He feeds five thousand with only five barley loaves and two fish, showing himself to be the great provider (6:1–14). He walks on the surface of the Sea of Galilee at night during a storm (6:15–21). He restores sight to a man born blind (9:1–7). Then, as a final great sign pointing to the greater miracle to come, he raises his friend Lazarus from the grave (11:1–45). All signs that God is active in Jesus, that the kingdom of God has broken into our time and space.
7. But when the Jews demand a “sign” from Jesus, it’s obvious they want something different. He points them to the crucifixion and resurrection, the true signs of God’s love and work. But they don’t understand (Jn 2:18). People often miss the real sign and claim they won’t believe unless they see “signs and wonders” (Jn 4:48). The sign stood before them, but they always seemed to be looking beyond it.
8. Part of this came from the fact that the “sign” from heaven was so simple, common, and ordinary, for Jesus came as one of us. And as the shepherds prepare to leave their flocks and head out to Bethlehem, we wonder: Who would look for a newborn child in a manger as a great sign of God? How many would pass right by without a single notice? Just a child? Wrapped in swaddling cloths? Not bathed in glorious rays of light? How many today still look for “signs and wonders” to assure them of God’s work and presence, and miss the one sure sign of where to find him? How many become lost in their own emotions and need for the spectacular and walk right past the God in front of them? So, God sends a heavenly messenger, to show them that this is where God will reveal himself. An angel who speaks with God’s own authority that they should look nowhere else, but see in the face of this ordinary little one the very Savior of the world, the Messiah, God in human flesh.
9. And even in its simplicity, this “sign” would be “good news of great joy” to those who found it. The shepherds would head off to Bethlehem to tell the world of the “sign,” and many “wondered” at what they told them (Lk 2:18). The shepherds went back to their work changed men. They return, Luke tells us, “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:20). They had seen God’s given “sign.” In faith, they see it: God among them. They know that as unbelievable as it might seem to some, this tiny little newborn child will one day grow to become the deliverer of the world from sin, death, and the power of hell. They may not yet grasp how he’ll accomplish this—by his suffering, death, and resurrection—but they know he will deliver them, because God’s messenger proclaimed it and faith accepted it.
10. And now they have true hope. So many in our world today wonder where God is. And because God so often appears hidden under suffering, people are distracted by the evil and hardship and see only darkness and emptiness. Because God reveals himself in common ways, they are put off and wait for another more impressive, convincing sign. The baby in a manger becomes the man hanging from the cross—one looking weak and helpless, the other looking weaker and more helpless. Neither a very impressive sign. So people see the “sign,” but they see it apart from the heavenly messenger sent by God. Water without the Word of God is only water, Luther reminds us. But combined with God’s Word it is a saving water. Any sign apart from the divine Word leaves us looking for more, and leaves us lost.
11. To hope truly must have the assurance of God’s presence in Christ. So it was for Zechariah and Joseph and Mary and the shepherds. And we must be able to find that Christ in the midst of the broken, torn-up world, where God’s presence is not always immediately obvious. We must be able to find him through the fog of doubt and evil’s deceptions. We must be able to see him despite our fears and our hesitation to believe the impossible. But we must also listen to the message of heaven as we see the sign the messenger reveals.
12. Along with Good Friday and Easter, today is one of the “twin peaks” in the sacred calendar of our annual worship. A high point of revelation. This is the day we first see our God in human flesh and living among us in the midst of our fallen world (Jn 1:14). It is foundational for how we worship, why we worship, and how we encounter God. When we come to this place looking for God, we need to look outside of our own hearts, beyond our own ideas and wishful desires. We need to listen not to the voice in our heads, but to the voice of the angel who speaks from heaven by God’s direction and with God’s authority. And we need to see God in the promised “sign” of his presence the angel reveals.
13. It is interesting that in the Book of Revelation God calls the pastors who proclaim his Word “angels,” or “messengers” of this heavenly sign. The messenger in that pulpit may seem ordinary. But listen to the words God has commissioned him to share. Listen to the angel, look past the man. And as you hold within your hands the very body of Christ crucified in the bread you eat, and as your lips taste the very blood Christ shed on the cross in the wine you drink, you see again the “sign” that the angel revealed: Jesus, God made flesh. This is the same one who once laid in a manger newly born. This is the true presence of God who has come not just to Bethlehem, but to our space and our time, wrapped in our very human flesh, in our hands and on our lips and in our ears. Where is God? He’s here among us where the angel said he would be. The sign of the Word made flesh.
14. And that, again, is the heart of hope. Throughout these past few weeks, we saw that the angels brought messages that encouraged true hope by addressing first the enemies of hope: doubt and fear. We heard them echo the eternal voice of God by assuring us that with God nothing is impossible, as Gabriel announced the miracle of the conception of our Lord in Mary’s womb. We then sang with a multitude of the heavenly host last night as they announced a true peace for all who believe in this newly born Prince of Peace. Finally, today we are drawn to the place where this hope is to be found and realized: the Word made flesh in Jesus.
15. Hope looks to the future. It does not remain in the present or lost in the past. What we have seen and heard then, and even today, will provide a true light for the days to come. And because it is anchored in the certain promises of our holy God, hope can never be disappointed. Hope, even in the worst of times, endures. It endures because it is in Christ, the eternal Son of God, revealed before us to see and hear and worship. In his name. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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