The Fourth Sunday of Advent

“Angels Among Us!”

Luke 1:5-13; 26-28; 2:8-11

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Listen to this Sermon!

Angels!

The Christmas story is full of angels! An angel appears to Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband…and to Joseph…and to Mary…and to shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night!

What would Christmas be without angels?

On our church web site – www.tellicochurch.com – I’ve posted some video clips from this year’s beautifully creative Christmas pageant presented at Greendale Peoples Church in Worcester, Mass. That’s the church I served before coming here, and our son Peter and his family still belong to that church. They were all involved in this year’s pageant. In one clip, our grandson Ryan is a little shepherd boy with a blue striped head covering who gets to pet a real live goat. In another scene, Pete’s wife Melissa plays the role of Elizabeth, cradling in her arms our little 6-month old granddaughter Becca portraying the baby John the Baptist! Peter is not IN the pageant, but took the video, which is why his family is so prominently shown in so many scenes! And I maintain the church web site which is why you can see my grandchildren all over it!

The pageant is called “Angels Among Us” and one of the really creative aspects of it is how the angels are presented – not as white-robed creatures with cardboard wings and aluminum foil halos, but rather as ballerinas. Melissa involves the ballet students from her dance studio, and they are so majestic as they glide in from scene to scene and dance among the characters. People oooh! and ahhh! Everybody loves the angels!

One year, I had to sub for one of the Wise Men who called in sick at the last minute. Trouble was, I was also playing the part of the narrator, so when the time came for the Magi to follow the star to Bethlehem, I had to run downstairs in the dark for a quick costume change. I threw on the Kingly robe and kicked off my shoes, and ran back up the stairs – only to almost trip over a kid and step into something warm and wet and rather disgusting.

It was one of the little ballerina angels, and she had gotten sick – all over me.

You never know when you’re going to bump into an angel!

Christmas is full of angels!

The Gallup organization tells us that 75% of Americans believe in angels, and that number includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even people who don’t identify with any religion. And beyond believing in angels, Americans love to watch plays, movies and TV shows about angels.

In 1946, we met and fell in love with a heavenly creature called “Angel Second-Class Clarence Oddbody” who was sent to guide George Bailey in the beloved movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life”. Sixty-two years later, we’re still watching and loving that Christmas classic. And more recently, who among us didn’t sit and watch at least a few episodes of “Touched By An Angel” during it’s 9-year run on CBS?

People LOVE angels, and its important to understand that most of what we think we know and believe about angels – and the inspiration for many of the books, movies and TV shows about them – is drawn directly from the Christmas story.

“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, and the virgin’s name was Mary.””

Angels come to Mary, and to Joseph, and to Zechariah, and to the shepherds. The Christmas story is full of angels. And it’s important to know why.

You see, the word “angel” means “messenger.”

The angels come to bear the MESSAGE of Christmas!

And in encounter after encounter with the Christmas angels, the message is basically the same.

First of all, the angels say, “Don’t be afraid!”

You know, a lot of people are afraid of God.

Some us were raised in religious traditions that misinterpreted the meaning of the words “the fear of God.” That phrase really means to be in AWE of God – to revere God, to fully appreciate God’s majesty and power and glory the way you are in AWE when you wake up in the morning here in East Tennessee and look out the window and see the golden shafts of dawn’s early light peeking over the dark ridges of the Smokies! Isn’t sunrise in these parts an AWESOME sight?

But many of us grew up in homes and churches where “the fear of God” meant something quite different than awe. It meant to be literally AFRAID of God. And that fear was often generated out of a sense of guilt that was placed upon us. We were told we were sinners - repeatedly. We were taught we were unacceptable. We were indoctrinated into a religious worldview that is all about what is wrong with us and the world. And we’d BETTER be afraid of God because, if we don’t straighten out, God is gonna come and get us!

A lot of people are afraid of God.

That’s why the angels were given the message that was repeated in encounter after encounter in the Christmas story. “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah…don’t be afraid, Joseph…don’t be afraid, Mary…don’t be afraid, shepherds.”

And now would you whisper YOUR name when I repeat the angels’ message?

“Don’t be afraid…(Marty).”

That’s the first part of the Christmas message the angels sang. “Don’t be afraid anymore.”

The second part of the Christmas message is about WHY you don’t have to be afraid anymore. And in every case, the reason is that God LIKES us! Zechariah is told that God likes the prayer he has offered. Joseph is told that God likes him enough to let him marry God’s special little girl. Mary is told that she has found favor with God! And the shepherds are told that God declares peace on earth and good will toward all!

Every once in awhile on a Saturday night, I’ll be flipping channels and come upon “The Hour of Power” from the Crystal Cathedral in California. And invariably, I’ll hit the program just about the time Robert Schuller is repeating his most famous phrase, “God loves you and…!”

Now I LIKE that message! I think more preachers ought to proclaim it. But, I think we need to change it. In so much of American Christianity these days, the words “God loves you!” are sort of muted by the subtle message that there’s a BUT that follows: God loves you…but God doesn’t necessarily LIKE you all that much! You know, God sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good so…”

No, wait a minute! That’s Santa Claus!

Even so, the message of many Christians is that God loves you, but not all that much and you are smack dab on the heavenly Naughty List!

There is a church out in Memphis whose new pastor rented a billboard that pictures a very diverse group of people and says, “God loves you just the way you are.”

Now he’s been brought up on charges of apostasy. After all, no one should ever confuse God’s love for people with God’s disdain for people. Do you understand what I’m saying? Too many Christians find ways to weasel out of the meaning of love.

So I think we need to change that saying from “God loves you, and so do I!” to “God LIKES you, and so do I!”

That would mean then that God truly values us, and thinks we’re kind of cool, and that we have something to offer to the world, and that even the worst of us has something good in us that’s worth redeeming, and that God wouldn’t mind at all hanging around with us, and living among us, and eating food and drinking wine with us, and even laying down his life for us if we needed him to!

You see, that’s the story of Jesus – God-come-among-us! He loved us so much, he actually LIKED us!

And this is the revolutionary message of the angels – God LIKES Zechariah enough to hear his ridiculous prayer for his barren wife Elizabeth to have a child in her old age – God LIKES Joseph enough to think he’s good enough to marry someone as special to God as Mary – God LIKES this unmarried, pregnant teenaged girl enough to ask her to help him save the world – God LIKES those smelly, never-go-to-church shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night!

And God LIKES…YOU and ME!

“Peace on earth, good will toward all!” the angels proclaim the message of God to the world!

Don’t be afraid! God not only loves you, but LIKES you! And…

…come and join God’s plan for transforming the world into the beautiful kingdom of heaven where every person is loved, every child is fed, every family dwells securely, and tears are wiped away from every eye.

Have you ever noticed that every angel visit in the Christmas story involves people being called to raise and nurture children?

Zechariah is told Elizabeth will have a baby and they should name him John. Joseph is told to go and love Mary and her child. Mary is told her baby will save the world. The shepherds are told to go and welcome a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laying in a manger.

The message of the angels is that the dawn of God’s beautiful kingdom will come about through the children of the world.

So the angels tell us that God sends our children to us for a reason, that each child has a purpose, and that we grown-ups are charged with the God-given responsibility of raising and nurturing them as the children of God who will bring about the future.

What kind of world do you want this world to become?

Then raise your children to make it happen.

Don’t be afraid! God LIKES you!

So come and embrace the child of Bethlehem and all his sisters and brothers!

That is the message of the angels!