Glenkirk started a series last week called "Songs you know by heart" and the first song was "The First Noel." Ryan Tirona spoke on this beautiful hymn, and you can hear his full sermon on the Glenkirk website, glenkirkchurch.org
The First Noel means the first Christmas Song, and you would be hard pressed finding someone who does not know this beautiful song by heart.
The first Noel the angel did say
Was to certain poor shepards in fields as they lay:
In fields where they lay a keeping their sheep
On a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Noel Noel Noel Noel
Born is the King of Israel.
I absolutely love Christmas music!!! I don't mind at all that it starts playing on the radio two weeks before Thanksgiving! My playlist is full of fun songs, but the ones that stir me the most are about the night that Jesus was born. The fun songs are about an untrue myth, Santa Claus, but the songs like "The First Noel" are about a true story.
How can this outlandish story be true? Because it is not an impossible story when you factor in the limitless power of God. Each year, as I ponder the true Christmas story, I find it even more believable when I look at it through the eyes of the God I know, and love, and what he has done for me in the past year.
I have found, through cancer, that God does the unexpected and not for fame and glory, but for the quiet purpose of bringing the lost to Him. He touches hearts in a deep and meaningful way, not by flashing lights on a billboard in Time Square. So, when I look at scripture and read that the shepherds were quietly watching their sheep (probably in the mild temperature of April), and they suddenly saw an angel appear, I can totally see the hand of God in this scenario.
Luke 2
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
This description fits in with the God I know, and have loved my entire life. Ryan, our Family Life Pastor, acted out a scene in which the angels anticipated singing in front of Caesar, or somebody really important. But, God had the most incredible choir of all time singing to a bunch of lowly shepherds. Why? Because God's glory would have been lost on Caesar, but these shepherds had the most amazing night of their life, and obeyed the angel and went and found baby Jesus so they could worship him. These social outcasts were given a role of a lifetime. They became the first witnesses, and I am sure they told their story to each new generation; never forgetting that glorious night.
God taught us all that night about humbleness. He could have set His Son up for success by giving Jesus a family of wealth and prominent standing, but that is not God's way. It was never His way. If you read right through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, you will never find God bringing attention to himself through worldly glitz.
What does this mean to me today????
This true story means everything to me because it is the beginning of Jesus' life on earth that would eventually result in His payment of MY SIN on the cross. This was God's plan from the start. This was plan A, and God does not deal with plan B's. This also gives me comfort in my own situation with cancer. God is working on Plan A in my life. I don't have to scramble to make sense of everything because He has already worked it out, though I have not seen the completion of His work, I know in the end that I was part of the God's grand plan, and that my life counted.
I love what Max Lucado wrote:
Jesus’ death was not the result of a panicking, cosmological engineer. The cross wasn’t a tragic surprise. The death of the Son of God was anything but an unexpected peril!
Jesus’ death was part of a plan. A calculated choice. The cross was written into the script. It was no accident. Jesus was born crucified. Whenever he became conscious of who he was, he also became conscious of what he had to do. It explains the resoluteness in his words: “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John 10:18).
So call it what you wish. An act of grace. A plan of redemption. A martyr’s sacrifice. But whatever you call it, don’t call it an accident. It was anything but that!
God did not accidentally send the angels to a field of shepherds, nor did He forget to make a reservation for Jesus to be born in the Inn. It was not a mistake that He chose two humble kids to be Jesus' parents, or that they were part of the line of David and traveled to Bethlehem because of a census just as Mary was about to give birth.
What does that mean to you?
You are not a mistake. Your trials are on God's radar, and he can use you to shine a light on this dark world, even in personally dark times for yourself. You are not a speck of dust on this earth, you are cherished, created special, and loved unconditionally. The proof is in what God did by sending His Son. This story is for you!
Love,
Sandy
