Ears to hear

This is the manuscript of the sermon I was able to preach at MERCYhouse, Dec. 21, 2008.


Two things used to always get me in the Christmas spirit for sure. One was going down the snack aisle of the store and seeing that the Little Debbie’s Snack Cakes had been changed from their octagon shape to the Christmas tree shape. It happens every year around Christmas and for me it always was the Yule Tide shot heard round the world. The second is this:



I love Charlie Brown because of its’ simplicity and directness. Linus becomes a prophet and preacher here when he proclaims, “Charlie Brown, this is what Christmas is all about”. This morning I want to explore a little bit more of what Christmas is all about.
We see in Luke 2:8-21 that Jesus has been born into the world fulfilling prophecy after prophecy and setting in motion the salvation of the world, the single greatest act of worship in all of history and indeed even the purpose of history itself. So after Jesus is born, something a bit strange happens; lets look:
“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 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. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luk 2:8-20)”
So we see that near where Jesus was born in the stable, there were shepherds watching their sheep at night. Shepherds… farmers… keepers of the land… rednecks….the lowest of the low. Being a shepherd stunk. (Literally & figuratively) Shepherd was the rung just above starving to death. So Jesus, the Savior and Redeemer of the world… the Messiah and promised King arrives to save and serve and the first people invited to worship and observe this arrival are … redneck sheep wranglers?
Jesus was born in a stable, possibly close to the Inn had no room for his parents and was full of people who could afford a room. Why weren’t the angels sent to the people of the Inn to come out and worship and observe this arrival? Why wasn’t the Inn Keeper, a small business man, the backbone of the Bethlehem economy and the one who had to turn Mary and Joseph away, invited to come celebrate? What about the King over the land, Herod, why wasn’t he there to celebrate… wait, he had other plans for Jesus in a Moses sort of way. Shoot, why didn’t He send the angels to the Mayor of Bethlehem? Surely he knew about the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem and he had a file in some drawer on what to do when the Messiah is born in town and large plastic key ready to give to the baby once it is born right? Why go to the shepherds who were further out in the fields? Shepherds who had no societal standing at all? Who were the “nobodys of nobodys?”
I think we get some insight into why when we see Jesus address the purpose of his coming and who it was for in His own words: “And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mar 2:17). Jesus came for the sick, the lowly, the sinner. That is what Jesus was called and known as, “a friend of sinners”. From the beginning of His life here on this earth, Jesus drew, as he describes them, “those who have ears” to come hear him.
For whatever reason, the shepherds had ears. Now it would be easy to have ears to hear if you had an angelic host singing too you and telling you all of this, but God’s grace is often times just as shocking and jolting. I see it time and time again when people are affected by the free grace to us, but the expensive grace to Jesus. I remember when I actually got grace. I fought it. It scared me. I didn’t want it. I wanted to earn it. I wanted to do something to have some right to call the righteousness it brings my own. Grace frightened me. Like the communication from the angels, grace is big and scary and hard to ignore.
Look at what the angels say when they appear before the shepherds: “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. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” The second part of this message was a commonly known phrase and expected future occurrence. It was a cultural phrase that was passed down from the oral traditions. Kind of like “Four score and seven years ago...” or “Give us your tired, your poor…” It, in a very small way, is like knowing that in a couple of months someone will walk on a stage and say “This years Academy Award for Best Actor goes to…” or “The winner of Miss America 2009 is…”. It is common phrasing. Jewish people were looking for the Messiah. They knew that prophecy was out there that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. That was common knowledge. What was uncommon was that this was being proclaimed by an angel, to a shepherd and for all people.
So let’s break this down. Angels are messengers from God. Their job is to do what God tells them to do. They glorify God and worship Him. Period. They are God’s. When you see angels in scripture, they are there representing God and doing his work. We get a very small picture of this when we see the Secret Service work. They do the work of the President. They protect, clear, deliver messages, etc.
So an angel, messenger of God, is sent to … a shepherd. Kind of like a member of the Secret Service sent to the hog farms in Arkansas to give a message, not to the owner of the farm, but the teenage kid who is feeding the pigs so he can earn a little bit of money to buy a Wii or the illegal alien who is working there late at night to send money back to his family in Mexico. That is the stark contrast that we see here.
I believe the angels were sent to the shepherds because they had ears to hear. They knew their brokenness and place in society and they needed, looked for and cried out for help. God used these circumstances to give them ears to hear. Christ can give everyone ears to hear. Christ’s work and redemption is for all people. However, not everyone hears.
I once had the privilege of talking with a man named Dave Busby. Dave was the second oldest living person who had Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis is a hereditary disease that affects the lungs mainly and causes mucus to fill up the lungs and the person affected to eventually drown in their own mucus. I got to sit down with Dave who was an amazing man who loved God. We were in a church in Atlanta and he had his oxygen tank on one side, his mask on and he slumped a bit because of the polio that had formed in him as well. I sat next to him and asked him what his condition insight about God gave him that I and others who don’t have this disease are missing. He simply said, “I understand my need for Him daily, probably, better than you do.”
Dave understood that his condition gave him better ears to hear. He understood that the fight to breathe gave him more of a capacity to appreciate and worship God the few moments in those few moments that he could breathe easily. Dave was given ears to hear and respond to God in the midst of some really difficult and painful times.
These past two weeks Christie and I have walked through some rough stuff as well. Two weeks ago tomorrow, we learned that Christie was pregnant. Christie was shocked and I couldn’t get the smile off my face. I love being a Dad. I love being a child of the King first. Then because I am a child of the King, He has called me to love being a husband and to love my wife as He loved me and I absolutely adore my wife and being married to her. She is the person that I get to demonstrate the love of Christ to most and in turn glorify God in the most. Then, because of this love, God has blessed us with 3 amazing daughters who are fun and bright and so amazing. My thought is and has always been “If one child is this much fun, how much more fun and full of praise will two be. And if 2 is that much more fun and full of opportunities to praise, how much more fun will 3 be” and so on. So we found out that she was pregnant, but the doctor told us that because of some of the things happening with Christie, we need to check some other things out. So we did a series of blood test throughout these past two weeks and we found out that Christie was miscarrying. There was no more pregnancy. The time between us finding out we were pregnant and we weren’t was less than 48 hours, however, we fell in love with the idea of being pregnant and the coming baby in that short time. Our hearts began to be shaped for that baby. When we found out that the baby wasn’t coming, it hurt. Our hearts hurt. We still mourn this baby we never knew and only had knowledge of for less than two days. So it is natural when you go through trauma like this to ask “Why?” However, I have found through this and other things like this in life that the question of “Why” is not nearly as important as first asking “Who?” and then asking that Who “What?” What are you saying Lord. These things are happening and the Grace that you brought through this child that laid in that manger now allows me to hear from You. To have ears to hear. What do want to say? What do I need to see? How do I need to respond?
How do I know the shepherds had ears to hear and responded to this message? How do we know? They said so. “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." They recognized that what had happened was from God and they responded with action. They were afraid but the message was clear and they followed. They didn’t just talk about what they saw and how cool it would be to go and worship in theory. They responded and worshiped. They went and found Jesus and glorified him in the only way they knew how. I would love to have been there to see these bunch of rednecks worship. “That sure is a purty Savior baby aint it?”
Whatever they did was effective. Scripture here shows us: “And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” We see that the shepherds story was a topic of conversation and people that heard it wrestled with it. We see that is was a blessing to Mary and we see that it changed them. They returned praising God for what they had experienced. They lived out the Glory of God and in turn, worshiped I believe in Spirit and in Truth.
So the message to us is the same today. A child has been born. A Savior has been sent. He is the Good News and the Joy. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Do you have ears to hear this morning? How do you know you have ears to hear? You are serving, sharing, living and loving.
Is God speaking to you to respond in worship of Him, to maybe give some of the glory that you are giving to yourself to Him? Is He allowing you to see more and more of Who He is and who you are not?
If so, that may scare you. It is not easy to know that we are not what we think we are and we cannot do what we think we can do. It is a startling thought to recognize that we cannot save ourselves or that our degrees, our grades, our family history or good works (however many they may be) cannot save us.
Maybe you don’t get it. Maybe this is so foreign and out there that it all seems like I have been speaking German. Then I dare you to ask God to give you ears to hear. Ask Him to show Himself and who He really is. Go home today and read the book of John and you will see Him, I promise.