HOW DID THE SHEPHERDS’ GLORIFYING

AND PRAISE OF GOD CHANGE?

St. Luke 2:15-20 (v. 20). And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, who was born for you, dear fellow redeemed:

On Christmas Eve the story ends abruptly, with the song of the angels echoing o’er the plain. If you didn’t know the story so well, it might be a cliff-hanger moment of suspense: “What will the shepherds do now? Will they think it was a dream? Or will they believe the angels? Will they actually go to Bethlehem?”

So when today’s gospel begins – or rather, continues the story – by saying that “as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, ‘Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing,’ ” we see the answer to our questions. They don’t just go back to their sheep right away as if nothing happened. No, they don’t think it’s a dream. They do believe the angels. They actually go to Bethlehem.

When we ask why they did this, the shepherds are the ones who tell us. They say that “this thing which is come to pass” – so they tell each other clearly that they don’t think it was a dream, but it was real, it did come to pass – is that “which the Lord hath made known unto us.” The reason they believe it’s true is that they see the angels as God’s messengers, which they were, and they believe that what the angels say is God’s Word, it is God telling it to them through the angels, and His word is authoritative for them.

And when they go on to tell others about it – Luke says twice that they did so – it’s in these terms: “the saying which was told them concerning this Child,” and “all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” Incredibly they don’t emphasize what they saw – the heavenly host and the Glory of the Lord – as much as they emphasize what they heard: “the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”

There’s a great emphasis here on the Word. So there’s a great emphasis on the Holy Spirit. The shepherds believe the Word preached to them by the angels. The Holy Spirit is the Person of the Trinity who gives faith.

What happened here? Faith happened. But interestingly, Luke doesn’t tell us they believed. He does like a good storyteller and shows us they believed.

We can’t see faith; only God sees into the heart. But what do we see? Glorifying and praising, pondering, going and telling that Jesus Christ is born. Luke shows the outward results of the faith that’s inside. It doesn’t always look the same. But in each case faith is there, given by the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit’s an important part of the Christmas story! Not just the Luke 2 Christmas story, but He’s an important part of your Christmas story.

The Holy Spirit is doing this for you, probably in some unnoticed ways. See, it’s not just that the Holy Spirit creates faith. He also creates what goes with faith, what comes from faith: such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control and self-discipline. Or look at it from the negative side, if such things are lacking – if you have a spirit of heaviness, a gloom or a pessimism, if you just feel burned out, tired out or unenthusiastic, if you can’t feel good about others or about yourself, if you lack joy and you can’t take joy in, or get enjoyment from things you used to, if you are overwhelmed by worry, anxiety and insecurity, then what do you do, where will you go?

It doesn’t do just to say that you need faith. You might answer that you have faith in God, you believe that Jesus came, but it’s not doing anything for you in these feelings and deficits, it’s not lifting you out of this depression, it’s not filling you with joy, you still have all this anxiety, you still struggle to be content or to have peace. But giving faith isn’t all that the Spirit does.

It encourages me to see what God shows us in these shepherds: “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” Where does this glorifying and praising come from? From the Holy Spirit. He puts this in their mouths. It comes from His Word, what “was told unto them.” But notice when they did this – as they “returned,” as they went back to their sheep.

Don’t you think they suffered a let-down going back to their sheep? It’s often hard to glorify and praise God when we go about the often thankless tasks of our vocations, where people aren’t impressed with us, forget to thank us and just want more. Don’t think the shepherds were any different. So as they’re “glorifying and praising God” it’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is there.

The Holy Spirit brings this out of them, so when it comes out of you it isn’t a sign that you’re just a happy person by nature. It’s a fight and a struggle. We expect it to be easy. But taking joy in your work, in your daily duties, in the work of unnoticed love, isn’t something you can do by your strength. It’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is there. Only through what has been “told unto you” will this come out of you. Sometimes you have to force out the praise – and as you sing/say the words it takes hold of you by the Holy Spirit’s doing.

As the shepherds show us, it is the Word – the promises that God makes to us in His Word – that changes how we are, from the inside.

We see it in Mary too, as the story comes back to her for a moment. “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Notice that her faith looks different. She’s not chattery about it. It doesn’t mean her faith is littler than the shepherds. Sometimes faith is just quieter.

Mary is not being idle. She is storing up the Gospel that she has seen and heard. She’s paying attention so she’ll remember. During Jesus’ crucifixion she would suffer in ways nobody else did. Storing this up will bear fruit later in ways that can’t be known yet. Even she needed to grow in her faith.

At this point Mary is overwhelmed. This little one – who happens to be the Savior of the world – is relying on her for everything. Strangers are coming to see her Baby. She herself has no answers. But in Mary we see that when it is hardest for us, that’s the time to “ponder all these things” – to meditate on God’s Word, apply it to our need, hear His promises not when everything is easy but especially when it’s hard and we need these promises. The promise is that the Holy Spirit is there to water our faith and make it grow.

So how did the shepherds’ glorifying and praise of God change, how was it different now? If I were there I might be tempted to say that the birth of the Christ-child did not change how hard it was to tend those sheep, or to handle being despised by city-dwellers. The temptation to bitterness comes back.

But Jesus does change things. He doesn’t change what the work is like. But what were the words they remembered, what was “the saying which was told them concerning this Child?” It was that “unto you” is born this Savior. For you! As the angel told Mary, He has a kingdom that never ends, and it includes you. A kingdom where there’s “peace on earth” – having peace with God despite your sins – and God says He has “good will to [all] men.” Period.

So their glorifying and praising God has changed to be not just that God is great, or good in general, but that He has goodness and kindness to you. They went to the manger to see this Grace of God in human flesh.

This is what you do when you come to the Lord’s Supper. You come to partake of this Grace of God in human flesh – this same Jesus, in His body and His blood – which saves you, gives you the forgiveness of all your sins. The Savior which is Christ the Lord, He unites you to Himself, His body is one with your body and His blood purifies you from all sin.

But these are also benefits of the Lord’s Supper: that He gives you peace, He gives you patience, He takes away the bitterness, He takes away the worry and anxiety and pressure of life at His table, He gives you eternity, He gives you great joy, the beginnings of an eternal joy that doesn’t fade and only grows. He gives this to everyone else who communes with you. So He gives you peace with God and peace with one another.

The Holy Spirit is certainly in the Christmas story! We need Him in ours too. Whether we are going and finding Christ in His Word, adoring Him, going and telling, pondering, or glorifying and praising, all of this is from the Holy Spirit, who is pushing us to the manger to see Christ our Lord and receive all these gifts from Him. Amen!