Luke 2:8-12
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, (Christ) the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Several years ago we took a family trip into Chicago at Christmastime. We wanted to walk down Michigan Avenue, see the decorated windows at Marshall Fields and have dinner in the famed Walnut Room. But as we walked along the street we came across a street performer who I still remember to this day.
We could hear him before we could see him; the sound of a poorly amplified electric guitar blaring out the notes of “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls.” When we got close enough to see the perpetrator of this musical madness, we saw a skinny 30-something year-old man in a poorly fitted Santa outfit and a little many-looking dog wearing clip-on antlers. A sign on the sidewalk indicated that he called himself “Rock-n-Roll Santa” and that he was blind. To say the whole scene was weird would be an understatement. But I also have to admit there was something crazily joyful about a man in a Santa suit playing electric guitar next to a dog with antlers. I couldn’t take my eyes off him – or my ears for that matter!
We stood for a while listening to him jam on his guitar – which he played with gloves on – rendering most of the tunes only somewhat recognizable! Then we tossed a few coins in his guitar case and went on our way.
I’ve wondered about that guy from time to time since that night long ago. How did he lose his sight? Was he homeless? Was performing on the street with his dog his only source of income? What became of him?
I find myself wondering if he understood that the story we read in Luke’s gospel is for him?
While we tend to think of the shepherds as being kind, gentle souls wearing terry-cloth bathrobes and carrying crooked sticks, in actuality they were considered rather unsavory characters at the time. Their profession rendered them ceremonially unclean before God so they would have been seen as undesirables by polite society. They were also considered generally untrustworthy. No one wanted their son to grow up to be a shepherd. And yet we read that when God wanted to deliver the good news of a Savior, he delivered it to shepherds, of all people.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
Wow. Do you see it? Do you see those two little words that changed everything for shepherds whose sandals were matted with sheep dung?
“To you,” the angel says. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you…”
They had to be thinking, “To us?”
“To shepherds? We aren’t even allowed into the Temple unless we take a bath! To us? Seriously!?”
Yes! To you, seriously. And to you who are reading these words; and to me who wrote them; and to a blind guitar playing “Rock ‘n Roll Santa” who’s best friend is an antlered dog – to him too!
Here’s where the story gets personal. Sometimes we treat the story of Christ’s birth like a museum piece. We get it out once a year and say, “How nice!” But this story is not intended to be just another historical curiosity. This story is personal. It’s about a miraculous, divine, unfathomable birth, yes, but it’s also about you and it’s about me.
You have a Savior. I have a Savior. He’s come to us; he’s come for us.
Brian Coffey
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment