Christmas Eve December 24, 2024
“The Most Important Thing” Luke 2:8-20
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
It is when you are around teenagers that you discover that the most important thing in their life is their phone. Not everyone is like that, but this week a study came out that said that nearly 50% of American teenagers say they are online constantly. If you have a group of teenagers all together, at a table, they aren’t looking at each other, but their eyes are on their phone. They are playing a game, watching a snippet from TicTok or YouTube, even playing a game against one another.
Recently I watched as a prank was played on one of our youth. Someone took her phone and hid it. Her usual laugh and chuckle ended quickly. “Who took my phone?” “Where is my phone?” “I’m not kidding – I want it now.” I bet that some of you, no longer teenagers, are married to your phones, as well.
At various stages in our life we answer that question about what is most important differently. I wonder how you would answer that this evening. What is most important to you?
The account of that first Christmas, a little more than 2,000 years ago, is a number of scenarios which ask and answer that question. Most important to the shepherds? Their work. The sheep. “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” (Luke 2:8) No 8 to 5 here. No, someone had to protect the sheep from something who looked at them as their next meal. The shepherds offered protection and care to the sheep. They would lead them to places where they could feed and drink. They knew the sheep by name.
And in a moment God interrupted their life with something more important. “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.” (Luke 2:9)
This wasn’t an ordinary event. This wasn’t them just taking care of sheep. Everything changed that night for those shepherds. And I don’t think, initially, they liked the interruption. And then the interruption grew. The one angel became a “multitude” of angels. They filled the sky and began singing quite loud.
Most of us like predictable, normal, routine. We don’t like surprises, especially those that make us anxious. Those shepherds were anxious and they were told by the angel, “Fear not”. Why not? I think all of us would be quite unsettled by all of this. You know his answer. You’re heard it many times. “Fear Not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
God interrupted their lives to bring to them the most important thing in their life. He came to bring them news about Jesus. A Savior. The Messiah – the Christ. This Savior, this Messiah, this Christ, is the Lord Himself. Remember what the Bible says of him, “And they shall call his name, Immanuel – which means God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) God interrupted their routine, their normal life to bring them the news of Jesus’ birth.
God still does it. God still interrupts lives to tell them about the most important thing – Jesus. I bet He has done that for you. Maybe, initially the interruption wasn’t welcomed but His purpose for the interruption was perfect.
Sometimes we live life and we take the wrong path, we go the wrong direction. Life get’s messed up. Our priorities get out-of-wack. Someone, something, needs to shake us up, get our attention. We don’t know how we got to be the person that we’ve become. We don’t like what we see in ourselves. Somehow, we left God out. God doesn’t figure into our life. His will for us is not where we find ourselves. Maybe, when we take a look into our soul we find that we have weak faith, little faith or no faith in what God says and what Christ has done. What should I do with this Christmas story? What should I do with Jesus?
At that moment God interrupts us. Good for God. His interruption that night, and this night, is a good thing. What did the shepherds do when they heard the news of the birth of Jesus? They went to Bethlehem, to meet God’s interruption. “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:15-16)
You may have seen Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol during these days. The account of Ebenezer Scrooge is an account of God’s interruption in his life. His scowl, his miserable ways, his “Bah! Humbug!” made him who he was. His heart was made of coal. But when the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future came to visit him the best interruption that could ever occur happened in his life. He couldn’t stay the same. His life couldn’t revolve around himself. He could no longer take joy simply in how many coins he had made that day. When he woke from his dream he was given a second chance in life. It was God-given interruption. It was a time for change, repentance and a new beginning.
You’re heard the account of Christmas to the shepherds before. It begins with fear but it doesn’t end with fear. What a great ending is given when we read, “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” (Luke 2:20) The interruption was good. It worked.
God’s interruption to us is good. Where would we be if we did not have “Immanuel-God with us”? What condition would our souls and our minds and our whole life be without the truth of Christmas – “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” There is a personal aspect to this truth. Did you know that God knows you and treasures you? He has plans now and forever for you to embrace His presence in your life. Christmas becomes personal. “Unto you”. One by one. A Savior who pays for sin. He really came to earth to grant forgiveness for all the wrong we have committed. He came to be born and live and love and die and rise again. This is a truth that we get to own. It becomes part of where we stand.
And “unto you” is part of the “unto them”. Meaning everyone. God desires to interrupt the life of every single person in the world. John 3:16 can be read as a Christmas passage, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” “Giving His Son” means birth in Bethlehem and death on Calvary and rising from death.
Christmas is the most important thing for us because it is God’s interruption, a blessed interruption in our life. Jesus brings us hope and peace and love. But get this, Christmas is the most important thing for God. At the right time, at the right moment, He decided to send Jesus here. He had a plan and He carried it out. This is most important to God because we are most important to Him. Every person is most important to Him.
We usually don’t like interruptions. The accident on I-25 during rush hour, when we needed to be on the other side of town in a short amount of time, wasn’t something we counted on. We didn’t appreciate the interruption.
But interruptions, from God, can be the best thing. It certainly was for the shepherds. Their life was never the same. And on this Christmas may this child born on earth for you, to reveal God’s great love for you and for everyone, be the most blessed interruption that God brings to you.
What do you do with the Christmas story? Believe it. What do you do with Jesus – the person it is all about? Trust Him. After all, He is the most important thing. Amen!!
