I wonder if you’ve announced anything this year? An engagement, a wedding, a birth, a new job, a graduation? Politicians are announcing things all the time. It's one announcement after another in Luke’s gospel. Angels pop up everywhere – in the temple in Jerusalem, in the town of Nazareth in Galilee, on a hillside outside Bethlehem. Each time the angel has news to announce. Angels after all are messengers. They have a message to announce. If Christmas is anything it's a time of announcement. The wait of Advent is over, there is news now to proclaim.
The announcement on each occasion, to Zechariah, to Mary and to the shepherds is first ‘Do not be afraid.’ In a world, in which announcements can often be ones which fill us with fear, that leave us ‘greatly troubled’ or simply terrified, the announcement of the angels is ‘Fear not.’ In Luke’s telling of the story he names some reasons why Zechariah, Mary and the shepherds might be afraid. Yes an angel has appeared, but at the same time, and a source of more on-going fear are the names of Herod and Caesar. Herod and Caesar ruled by making sure they were feared. They traded on fear to keep the people under control. I wonder what names make you afraid? God comes to us to say do not be afraid, do not let your lives be marked by constant fear. Christmas is the announcement, that God has come to make us less afraid. God has come to cast out fear, by causing us to overwhelmed by the opposite of fear: joy. Do not be afraid. I bring you news of great joy!
The second part of the announcement is that this is a message of good news, joy-bringing news. Why should we not be afraid, because God has good news. Into the world, a world of kings and kingdoms, emperors and empires, comes news that will bring rulers down from their thrones, and see the humbled lifted up: a Saviour has been born. Where the announcements to Zechariah and Mary, were of good news coming, the shepherds receive good news for today. No waiting – the good news of great joy is alive and kicking! The good news is lying in a manger. When a baby is born, nearly always, the announcement is one of joy, life has come into the world, with all the promise and potential that they bring. Hardly ever though do we claim that a new child is a saviour, but this is the astonishing announcement of the angels. God’s gift of salvation to the world, begins not at the resurrection, not at the cross, but in the birth of Jesus. God’s joy bursts forth in a bundle of arms and legs. God’s love pours out in glorious song. Here in Jesus, is the marriage of heaven and earth, and that is something to celebrate.
The final piece of the announcement is something happens to us. Zechariah is silenced, Mary’s womb is filled with growing life, the shepherds are unable to sit still, they have to go and see. There is a definite place for silence at Christmas, amongst all the noise and singing, all the feasting and laughing, there is space for being silent before the manger, allowing the wonder of this birth to fill our hearts once again. Like Mary to treasure and ponder the gift of Christ Jesus the Lord. There is a definite place for life at Christmas, to open ourselves to God to grow his life in us, to become impregnated with the promise: the truth, the grace, the love, the joy, the faith, the hope that is God with us. To let fear go from our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to overshadow us that we become children of God. Like Mary to say, ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ And there is definite place to go and see at Christmas, to go and find the manger, to hurry from where you are and to see this thing that has happened. The angel announces, and it’s an invitation, God’s invitation, to see that the good news is for you today. A Saviour is born.
O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem; come and behold him, born the king of angels: O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Amen.
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