Sermon manuscript:
Tonight I’d like to focus on the angels’ song: “Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.”
Before I get into the actual words themselves, I’d like to
first speak a little bit about the setting. The shepherds were keeping watch
over their flocks by night when suddenly one angel of the Lord appeared to
them. Real angels are quite different from how they are pictured in popular
imagination. They are warriors, for one thing, the Lord’s army. They are holy,
that is, perfect, without sin. They reflect the glory of God like a mirror. So
just as people fall on their faces whenever God shows a little glimpse of his
glory in the Bible, so it happened here too. The shepherds were terrified.
The lone angel then says some of the loveliest words in the
whole Bible: “Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you glad tidings of
great joy which shall be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” I’m tempted to speak
with you some more about these wonderful words, but maybe you can reflect
later, by yourself, what these words mean. I want to get to the angel song.
Right when that lone angel was done speaking, suddenly there
was a multitude of angels. There was a heavenly army. They were praising God
and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward mankind.”
The context helps us properly appreciate the words. In a way
this scene is terrifying for the shepherds. Something of heaven dropped down
upon the hills and valleys around Bethlehem. The shepherds weren’t prepared for
that holiness. You and I wouldn’t be prepared for that holiness either. So it
was terrifying, but at the same time it was the most beautiful thing they had
ever seen or heard.
It’s probably a good thing that the lone angel came first to
help them with their faith. The shepherds were given something to hang on to
when the wildness of heaven descended upon them. “Do not be afraid,” the
angel had said. God was not coming to crush them. Surely they needed to drop
whatever wicked thoughts or plans they might have been harboring before the
angels came. Evil won’t work here. They knew that. But God was not coming to
destroy them. They were going to be whisked up into something glorious.
Now let’s turn to the words themselves. The first thing that
this countless army of angels was singing was “Glory to God in the highest.”
Why are they singing that? Because Jesus Christ is born. The eternal plan is
finally playing out. Jesus the baby was precious and so highly anticipated by
the angels. Now he has come. Hurray!
Anytime anything remotely like what is going on with these
angels happens among us, we love it. Unfortunately such joy and thanksgiving is
a rather seldom visitor. Children, it seems, are the most easily visited. The
possibility for this experience is one of the reasons why Christmas is so
beloved. The anticipation and then the joy and thanksgiving of children opening
presents is absolutely delightful.
So maybe thinking of children might help you understand this
first part of the angels’ song, Glory to God in the highest. Have you
ever seen children kind of form a circle and march / dance while chanting
something that they’re happy about over and over? Their faces are beaming. They
want the adults to see them and smile. Often their chant or song can be a
little ridiculous, a little over the top. They can’t help it. That’s just what
has to come out because of the joy within. So it seems, also, to me with these
angels. Glory to God in the highest! Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus
Christ is born!
The second part of this song goes like this: “And on
earth peace, good will toward mankind.” Here you see that the angels are
not envious. They are not receiving presents, and yet they are joyful. The Son
of God did not become an angel. He was made man, and born of the virgin Mary.
The angels rejoice that this goodness is coming to us human beings.
Therefore I have to revise, a little bit, what I’ve already
said. Kids know anticipation and joy and thanksgiving, but what if the goodness
that was coming was not for them? There were no presents for them. We even wax
proverbially about this. The lump of coal would certainly dampen the holiday
spirit.
There was no dampening of the angels’ spirit. They are not
evil, selfish, and envious like us. They are not benefited by God becoming man,
and yet they dance like children. They are happy that God’s goodness is being
poured out for all those who would make use of it and be benefited by it. Jesus
mentions something similar about the angels on a separate occasion. He says
that the angels rejoice when just one sinner repents. These truly are good and
salutary creatures who reflect the nature of the one who created them.
But let’s move on from the nature of the angels who sang the
words to the meaning of the words themselves. “On earth peace, good will
toward mankind.” These words are simple and plain. Jesus himself is your
peace, O earth. God is not angry with mankind, but intends to save it.
I’d like to link these words from the angels to some words
from Jesus with which you are familiar. “Peace on earth, good will toward
mankind,” is very similar to what Jesus says in John 3:16 and 17. “Peace
on earth,” is very similar to these words: “God loved the world in this
way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life.” What can be more peace-giving than this
promise which Jesus speaks: “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life.”
And “Good will toward mankind” is very similar to
what Jesus says in the following verse, John 3:17: “For God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.” He sent his Son to die for you. God’s good will is toward
mankind so that, as it says in another place, all may be saved and come to a
knowledge of the truth.
These words about how God regards us sound gracious and
loving. Indeed, they are gracious and loving, but we must not draw false
conclusions from them. Peace is promised to us, but God’s peace is different
from what people might think peace means. There is a kind of peace where
everything is going your way. You’re getting richer, smarter and healthier with
every passing day. This is how the world understands peace. Peace is the
absence of everything annoying, distressing, or perplexing, and the presence of
everything that is pleasing.
That’s not Christian peace. Christian peace comes through
faith that God is for me and loves me even if not everything is going the way
I’d like at the moment. Christian peace is peace with God even if the winds are
howling and the waves are swamping the boat. Christian peace is patient and
loving in the midst of scarcity, pain, and sadness.
Consider the holy family in this regard. It is astounding
that Jesus was born where cattle might have their babies. I got this shiner
trying to shut my cows up in the barn so that they couldn’t have their calves
in the cold and the wind, and yet the birth of the Son of God wasn’t hardly
more comfortable than the birth a cow might have. Husbands, do you suppose that
Joseph wanted Mary to give birth in such a place? Mothers, how would you be
feeling if you were in such a place giving birth?
But the holy family was given peace in the midst of much
coldness, sadness, loneliness, and even danger. God was for them, who could be
against them? And it wasn’t like when they grasped the peace of God, which
surpasses understanding, that their negative circumstances were taken away. And
yet we must say that through faith there was peace in the midst of perplexity,
happiness in the midst of scarcity, joy in the midst of sorrow, life in the
midst of death.
The angels flatly proclaim: “There is peace on earth;
there is good will toward mankind.” Just because the angels say there is
peace on earth, doesn’t mean that everybody is going to perceive such peace.
The angels are making a statement: There is peace on earth. There is good will
toward mankind. That is how things are. But I don’t think it would be hard to
find somebody who would say, “What peace? I don’t see no peace. Where are my
presents?”
If you are looking for a peace that the world understands,
you aren’t going to find that peace in Jesus. The world doesn’t want the peace
that Jesus gives. The world does not want to live under God as his creatures,
accepting his will, being thankful. The world wants to be God, dictating how
everything must go according to one’s own thoughts and pleasures, never being
joyful unless good things are happening to one’s own self. Their desire is not for
the truth. It is not enough to have peace with God through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They want a room at the Hilton, not a stall in the barn.
Some of you might be looking around, and your life might
seem more like the barn than the Hilton. And let’s not romanticize the barn.
You know what a barn smells like, don’t you? And so, in your life, there might
be some things that stink. Things aren’t how you would do things if you were
God. But don’t allow those circumstances to rob you of the angels’ song: “Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.” The
angels’ song was true in the stable of Bethlehem. The song is true for you in whatever
circumstances you might find yourself in.
And, know this: for those who believe in Jesus the barn
cannot go on. You won’t be in the stable forever. Already in this life maybe
God will give you some earthly relief, and if he does, thank and praise him
from whom all blessing flow. He does that much oftener than people realize, you
know. But even if God doesn’t remove difficult circumstances from you, that
doesn’t change what’s true. That doesn’t change what God has done in Christ.
Your circumstances, no matter how bad they possibly can be, don’t change the
love of God, manifested at Christmas, sung about by the angels.
And eventually your circumstances must change. You won’t
stay in the stable. Jesus says in another place: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If
it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be
with me, so that you may also be where I am.”
Mary and Joseph aren’t in that stable anymore. They are in
those mansions, together with Jesus. They are hearing the angels’ songs, that
we just get a tiny, thrilling glimpse of on Christmas night. You remain
faithful and believing, and that will be true for you too. What the angels said
is true: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
mankind.”
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