Midnight Mass
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.”
Have you ever gotten away from the city, out where there’s no pollution, and looked at the sky? You look up there and see millions of stars. Some are bright. Some are so dim you can’t even see them. But you know that each one of them is as bright as, or even brighter than our own sun.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that most of those stars have planets circling them, just like our own sun. And a lot of those planets are probably bigger than our own planet earth, since earth is just a medium sized planet, even in our own solar system.
But each of those stars, each of those solar systems looks like a tiny point of light to us because it’s so far away. And there are thousands more that are even farther away that we can’t see at all. That how big the universe is. It’s so big that we can’t even begin to understand its size. Now try to imagine the One who created this universe.
Whether you believe in some kind of a “big bang” or if you think that He made every single star and planet one at a time the whole thing is just too big to comprehend.
But that Creator, that being who’s beyond our tiny minds’ ability to understand, cares about you. And He cares about me. He cares about us so much that one night more than 2,000 years ago this Creator, this all-powerful, all-knowing, magnificent being chose to become a tiny, human baby; one of the most helpless creatures in His entire universe.
You know, human babies really are helpless. Baby horses can stand up almost as soon as they’re born. A lot of animals lay their eggs and then leave the babies to fend for themselves. Baby sea turtles come out of their eggs laid on the beach and have to find their way to the ocean before something eats them. A baby rattlesnake comes out of the egg with enough venom to kill you.
Even baby animals that are born helpless grow very quickly and are ready to go out on their own in a matter of weeks. But a human baby is absolutely dependent on its parents for months, even years. But the all-powerful God, the Creator of the universe, lowered Himself to become one of these helpless creatures. Why? To save you and me after we’d basically turned our backs on Him. If you can think of a greater love than that, please see me after mass. I’d love to hear about it.
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“Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.”
So this all-powerful God chose to become a helpless human baby and He gave the news to shepherds. Shepherds? Shepherds were so far down the social ladder in Jesus’ time that there’s really nothing today to compare them to. If somebody had to be at the bottom, they were it. Their only friends were sheep. . Their only role in life was to keep the sheep safe. If a lion showed up, the shepherd had to fight him off. If one of the sheep wandered off, the shepherd had to go get it. That was their job and the sheep were their only companions.
Mothers of little kids can relate to that. When you spend your whole day with no one to talk to but a two-year old, you begin to get a little crazy. Imagine having no one but sheep to talk to for months on end. It was a tough life.
A sheep is an eating machine and the middle east is more sand than grass so shepherds had to be constantly moving their flocks around to find something to eat. Shepherds didn’t even hang out with other shepherds because they were basically in competition with one another for scarce food. They often went deep into the wilderness looking for new pastures.
A shepherd’s job was twenty-four hours a day, seven day a week, with no vacations or holidays.
So imagine yourself as a shepherd. You’re sitting on a hill, watching your flock, talking to my friend here about your day. Suddenly an angel appears and says “Do not be afraid.” (Right!) “I PROCLAIM TO YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY THAT WILL BE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE. FOR TODAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID A SAVIOR HAS BEEN BORN FOR YOU WHO IS CHRIST AND LORD.”
Notice the angel said “A savior has been born for you.” Not for mankind. Not for the world. Not for the rich. The angel tells the shepherds that the Savior has been born for them. Sheepherders. Outcasts. Loners. They’ve never been invited to a party in their entire lives. They don’t own a suit. Their only friends are sheep. But a Savior has been born for them.
The angel tells them where to find the Child then “suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
“On whom His favor rests.” A multitude of the heavenly host is telling these lowly men that God’s favor rests on them. Can you even imagine what that must have felt like?
You don’t have to imagine it because His favor rests on you, just a surely as it rested on those shepherds. There were a lot of people in Bethlehem that night. They were there for the census. The angel could have appeared at the inn. Remember it was so full that there was no room for Mary and Joseph. The angel could have appeared to the rich and famous. But he didn’t. He appeared to shepherds. Why?
Two reasons, I think. First, the angels didn’t have iPods. They didn’t have televisions. They didn’t spend their days trying to build up their social status by schmoozing with one another. They were just sitting there, talking to their sheep who never answered back. The angel could have the shepherds undivided attention.
Second, there was no one more lowly than a shepherd. Nobody on earth, either in year number one or in 2007 could say “Well, Christ may have come for the shepherds, but He didn’t come for someone like me.” You can’t say that because He came exactly for someone like you, or like me. He came for the poor. He came for the lonely. He came for men and women in prison. “He came to call sinners, Christ have mercy.”
That’s what this night is about. It’s not about presents. It’s not about who has the most stuff. It’s about the Creator of a universe so big that we can’t even begin to imagine it deciding to become a tiny baby to save us from ourselves. It’s about the angel announcing His birth to the most lowly members of society, men whose only family and friends were sheep, so you and I wouldn’t feel left out. It’s about the single most important event in the entire history of the world, the night that even non-Christians use to set their calendars. A night like no other that ever was or ever will be. Tonight we recall that night.
When you leave church tonight, look up. Imagine the immenseness of the universe. Think of how the One who created it became a tiny child on that holy night so many centuries ago. Then think about the shepherds looking up at that same sky when the angel appeared with the greatest news that ever was, the news that a savior had been born for them and for us.
Merry Christmas!
Have you ever gotten away from the city, out where there’s no pollution, and looked at the sky? You look up there and see millions of stars. Some are bright. Some are so dim you can’t even see them. But you know that each one of them is as bright as, or even brighter than our own sun.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that most of those stars have planets circling them, just like our own sun. And a lot of those planets are probably bigger than our own planet earth, since earth is just a medium sized planet, even in our own solar system.
But each of those stars, each of those solar systems looks like a tiny point of light to us because it’s so far away. And there are thousands more that are even farther away that we can’t see at all. That how big the universe is. It’s so big that we can’t even begin to understand its size. Now try to imagine the One who created this universe.
Whether you believe in some kind of a “big bang” or if you think that He made every single star and planet one at a time the whole thing is just too big to comprehend.
But that Creator, that being who’s beyond our tiny minds’ ability to understand, cares about you. And He cares about me. He cares about us so much that one night more than 2,000 years ago this Creator, this all-powerful, all-knowing, magnificent being chose to become a tiny, human baby; one of the most helpless creatures in His entire universe.
You know, human babies really are helpless. Baby horses can stand up almost as soon as they’re born. A lot of animals lay their eggs and then leave the babies to fend for themselves. Baby sea turtles come out of their eggs laid on the beach and have to find their way to the ocean before something eats them. A baby rattlesnake comes out of the egg with enough venom to kill you.
Even baby animals that are born helpless grow very quickly and are ready to go out on their own in a matter of weeks. But a human baby is absolutely dependent on its parents for months, even years. But the all-powerful God, the Creator of the universe, lowered Himself to become one of these helpless creatures. Why? To save you and me after we’d basically turned our backs on Him. If you can think of a greater love than that, please see me after mass. I’d love to hear about it.
________________________________________________________________
“Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.”
So this all-powerful God chose to become a helpless human baby and He gave the news to shepherds. Shepherds? Shepherds were so far down the social ladder in Jesus’ time that there’s really nothing today to compare them to. If somebody had to be at the bottom, they were it. Their only friends were sheep. . Their only role in life was to keep the sheep safe. If a lion showed up, the shepherd had to fight him off. If one of the sheep wandered off, the shepherd had to go get it. That was their job and the sheep were their only companions.
Mothers of little kids can relate to that. When you spend your whole day with no one to talk to but a two-year old, you begin to get a little crazy. Imagine having no one but sheep to talk to for months on end. It was a tough life.
A sheep is an eating machine and the middle east is more sand than grass so shepherds had to be constantly moving their flocks around to find something to eat. Shepherds didn’t even hang out with other shepherds because they were basically in competition with one another for scarce food. They often went deep into the wilderness looking for new pastures.
A shepherd’s job was twenty-four hours a day, seven day a week, with no vacations or holidays.
So imagine yourself as a shepherd. You’re sitting on a hill, watching your flock, talking to my friend here about your day. Suddenly an angel appears and says “Do not be afraid.” (Right!) “I PROCLAIM TO YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY THAT WILL BE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE. FOR TODAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID A SAVIOR HAS BEEN BORN FOR YOU WHO IS CHRIST AND LORD.”
Notice the angel said “A savior has been born for you.” Not for mankind. Not for the world. Not for the rich. The angel tells the shepherds that the Savior has been born for them. Sheepherders. Outcasts. Loners. They’ve never been invited to a party in their entire lives. They don’t own a suit. Their only friends are sheep. But a Savior has been born for them.
The angel tells them where to find the Child then “suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
“On whom His favor rests.” A multitude of the heavenly host is telling these lowly men that God’s favor rests on them. Can you even imagine what that must have felt like?
You don’t have to imagine it because His favor rests on you, just a surely as it rested on those shepherds. There were a lot of people in Bethlehem that night. They were there for the census. The angel could have appeared at the inn. Remember it was so full that there was no room for Mary and Joseph. The angel could have appeared to the rich and famous. But he didn’t. He appeared to shepherds. Why?
Two reasons, I think. First, the angels didn’t have iPods. They didn’t have televisions. They didn’t spend their days trying to build up their social status by schmoozing with one another. They were just sitting there, talking to their sheep who never answered back. The angel could have the shepherds undivided attention.
Second, there was no one more lowly than a shepherd. Nobody on earth, either in year number one or in 2007 could say “Well, Christ may have come for the shepherds, but He didn’t come for someone like me.” You can’t say that because He came exactly for someone like you, or like me. He came for the poor. He came for the lonely. He came for men and women in prison. “He came to call sinners, Christ have mercy.”
That’s what this night is about. It’s not about presents. It’s not about who has the most stuff. It’s about the Creator of a universe so big that we can’t even begin to imagine it deciding to become a tiny baby to save us from ourselves. It’s about the angel announcing His birth to the most lowly members of society, men whose only family and friends were sheep, so you and I wouldn’t feel left out. It’s about the single most important event in the entire history of the world, the night that even non-Christians use to set their calendars. A night like no other that ever was or ever will be. Tonight we recall that night.
When you leave church tonight, look up. Imagine the immenseness of the universe. Think of how the One who created it became a tiny child on that holy night so many centuries ago. Then think about the shepherds looking up at that same sky when the angel appeared with the greatest news that ever was, the news that a savior had been born for them and for us.
Merry Christmas!
posted by Mike at 11:22 PM
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