As a preacher, it never ceases to amaze me how different folks can hear diametrically opposing messages from the same sermon. Next week we will be having "Questions from the Pew." Some of the questions I get to answer "off the cuff" are softballs lobbed with care. Others are pure hardball. One question I got last year was about a hot button issue dividing many denominations and local congregations. This is an issue where, no matter what you say, you are going to offend somebody. Or so I thought.

First I gave a disclaimer saying, "I’m really not an expert on this issue, and I have not done much reading on it." Then I went on to offer one perspective, being careful to add that there are usually more than one on any complex issue. Well let me tell you, after that service everyone was pumping my hand in the receiving line telling me what a great answer I gave to that delicate question. Socially conservative types heard what they wanted to hear, and the social progressives were just as thrilled to hear what they wanted to hear. In short, I was the consummate waffler.

What people hear and what they see often depends upon who they are and what they bring to the situation. Nancy found a cartoon in yesterday’s paper that she thought was appropriate for our situation. In it there is a fellow buying a Christmas gift for his wife from a clerk at a store. The clerk says, "We’re pretty picked over, sir." The shopper asks, "So what do you think she’d like best… the log splitter or the gas can?" The clerk replies, "I think she’d like it best if you hadn’t waited so long."

Which reminds me of what I got Nancy for Christmas this year. And for that discussion I would like to ask her to don a stereo headset playing some rockin’ music while I tell you about it, so as not to spoil the surprise. What I bought her is a new faucet for the kitchen sink. I bought it from our own former Moderator, Gary Darbey, who now works for Home Depot. Gary waited patiently as I struggled with the various brands and models within each brand. Finally he said, "I hope you are thinking of getting her something besides this." I turn to him and say, "Gary, I’m talking about the top of the line here." What I saw as "top of the line," Gary saw as woefully inadequate. Someone can now tell Nancy that it is okay to remove her headphones.

Again, what people hear and how they see often depends upon who they are and what they bring to the situation. The title of our message this Christmas Eve is, "Who Gets the Good News?" In our text the angel of the Lord brings to some shepherds some good news of great joy. But it is not good news for everybody. It is not good news for King Herod, who does not want to hear about any rival "King of the Jews," being born. That is bad news of the worst kind for King Herod, so he searches the baby out so as to kill him.

However, Herod never finds Jesus because God confounds his search. On the other hand, the shepherds do find Jesus because the angel of the Lord tells them where and how to look for him. So the first Christmas is heard and seen differently, just as Christmas 2006 is being heard and seen differently. Some, like the shepherds, will hear the voices of angels, which is the Bible’s way of saying "messages from God," while others nearby will hear nothing like that at all. Some will see Jesus in the very same events that others will see nothing of note at all. "Who gets the good news" at Christmas? Let’s look to our text to find out.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night (Verse 8). Who were these shepherds? Shepherds occupied a lowly place in the social hierarchy of Jesus’ day. Their jobs were low tech and low pay. You may have seen a show on TV called, "Dirty Jobs." Shepherding was such a dirty job that it rendered shepherds ritually unclean as far as the state religion of Judea was concerned.

However shepherds were absolutely indispensable for providing such staple products as meat, wool and, in the case of goats, milk. Given the close proximity of Bethlehem to Jerusalem, the shepherds in our text were probably employed by the very religious leaders who otherwise despised them because they provided sacrificial lambs for services at the Temple, as well as such things as shofar/trumpets, which were also used in worship.

Interesting, is it not, that the angel of the Lord is sent not to the high priests at the Temple in Jerusalem, but to the lowly shepherds in the fields surrounding nearby Bethlehem? You would think it would be the other way around. The Temple is supposed to be the sanctuary of God’s presence. The religious leaders are supposed to be the religious ones—the ones nearest and dearest to God. But no, the angel of the Lord does not go to them, but to the ones they have pushed to the margins of polite society—the shepherds.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified (Verse 9). Why in the world would they be terrified? God is highly favoring them by this angelic visitation. And yet this is the customary human response to the angle of the Lord. Note how Mary responded when the angle of the Lord visited her just before she became pregnant. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God (1:29-30).

Likewise, when the angel of the Lord visited Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, we find a similar response to his appearing. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and griped with fear. But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid… (1:12). And are we also not like them when we receive a message from God calling us to change our self-defeating ways, to venture forth into God’s great unknown, to take up our crosses and be willing to make personal sacrifices?

And God’s message in response to us is always the same, "Do not be afraid, I will direct and guide, protect and provide, and always raise you up to something new and better." A message from God is always good news for those who believe in his promises. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger" (Verses 10-12).

That is a pretty unmistakable sign. How many babies to we find lying in feeding troughs for livestock out in barns? God not only sends his angelic messengers to lowly shepherds, he also sends his son to be born in a lowly manger. Do we see a pattern here? "Who Gets the Good News?" The poor and lowly in spirit, not the high and haughty. Where will we find Jesus this Christmas? Probably not fighting the mob at the mall spending a bunch of money for a bunch of stuff to exchange for a lot of other stuff to stuff in our overstuffed houses.

Do we dare take the time and effort to go to the mangy mangers of our world? Do we dare to help the helpless and make room for the outcast? Do we dare spend a little of our money on their needs rather than all that other stuff nobody really needs? If we come through the holidays all stressed out and tapped out and with an empty feeling for not having found Jesus despite all the gifts and parties and cards and such, does that mean he is no longer to be found. Or are the heavens proclaiming his presence with great fanfare and we are just not hearing it or seeing it?

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" (Verse 14). If it is a thrill to hear the Chancel Choir sing out the Hallelujah Chorus at the midnight hour on Christmas Eve, can you imagine the thrill it was for those poor shepherds out in the field when heavenly host appeared praising God? Nobody else in Bethlehem or Jerusalem was seeing the sight they were seeing, or hearing the good news they were hearing.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger (Verses 15-16). These were shepherds. They knew where the mangers were to be found in Bethlehem. They knew the distinctive sign the angel had given them, and they found the Savior of the world just like the angle had told them.

When you get an amazing glimpse of God with your own eyes, and when you hear an incredible word from God with your own ears, you cannot keep that kind of thing to yourself. You’ve got to tell somebody. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them (Verses 17-18). The long-awaited Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior had been born at last. And guess what? He came to us. He was one of us. He was born in a manger.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which was just as they had been told (Verse 20). They went from being terrified to glorifying and praising God because of the things they had heard and seen. What we hear and see depends upon who we are. If in the blindness of pride and prejudice and arrogance we ignore the lowly and needy and socially marginalized, then we will not see the Lord who chooses to come to us in them, nor hear the good news of his gospel.

There is an old episode of "All in the Family" where Edith and Archie attend one of Edith’s high school class reunions. While there they run into an old classmate named Buck who, unlike in his younger years, had grown to become quite obese. Edith and Buck have a delightful conversation with one another about old times and the memories they share, but Edith does not seem to notice how heavy Buck has become. Later, as Edith and Archie are talking, Edith says, "Archie, ain’t Buck a beautiful person?" Archie looks at her with a disgusted expression and says: "Edith, you’re a dingbat. You know that? You and I look at the same guy. You see a beautiful person and I see a blimp." Edith gets a puzzled expression on her face and says something unknowingly profound, "Yeah, ain’t it too bad?"