In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
To you us born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord! So begins the telling of the story of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. The first people to go and welcome him into the world are shepherds and their flock. Not kings and princes, not the wealthy and powerful, but simple shepherds. Why? Because God came to us for all of us, because the light of God is to be spread far and wide and the warmth of that light is to be felt by the lowest of the low first.
God comes to us to upset the balances of the world, to raise up the lowly and to cast down the high and mighty, as Mary’s song of thanksgiving to God, the Magnificat, shows us. But God also comes because God desires to be with His children and desires to bless them all. And So God comes to us as a mortal, born in a manger, born in the least honorable position possible, so that none would be beneath him, none would have to be afraid of being unworthy of God, because God made it so that all could come and be with him, no matter their social status and no matter their history. That is the blessing of God for us, that God desires to be with us and cares for us so much, that He is willing to lower himself in order to be made accessible.
So we give thanks this day, we give thanks to our loving God for coming down to us and for giving us His Word and for showing us the greatest compassion possible. We give Him thanks and we sing God’s glory alongside the angels and we pray for that peace to come to us. It is our natural reaction when we see and understand God’s mercy and compassion. The shepherds returned to their homes and fields, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Do you think that they also returned to their lives exactly as they had before seeing the Christ child, or do you think that they were changed in some way? I would think that one has to be changed when they look upon the face of God and hear the sounds of angels.
I imagine them going into town and telling all their friends about the wondrous things that they had seen and heard and experienced. They could not help but let people know that God’s Son had been born and that there would be big changes happening. Up until this point, God had a very set location for the Israelites – God lived in the Temple. He didn’t go out and about, but instead lived where only the chief priests could go and he showed his favor from there. But now they saw God not in the temple, hidden away, but as a small, innocent, vulnerable child laying in a manger with his parents. God had left his abode in Jerusalem and had come out to Bethlehem. From then on, God would not be bound to a building but would be present throughout the region and world.
This may seem weird to us, as we have lived in the understanding that God is present everywhere for our entire lives and for centuries, but to these shepherds it was news of great importance. They had been living lives on the outskirts of society, unable to properly got to the temple and give great offerings as their faith required, but now God had come to them to show them His love. Imagine if the President starting showing up at people’s doors just to tell them that he cared for them and would help them, or if Oscar the grouch one day left his can in order to go be with the people instead of making them come to Him. We would be completely confused by their actions, but God was doing much the same thing.
And now God is still not bound to one building or one location, or even to a series of buildings. God does not live inside these walls, but rather is present in all of our world, suffering alongside His children, all of us, each and every day. The Christ child is born not in the safety of a hospital or the comfort of a home, but is born among animals in a barn, because God willed to be accessible to all people, not just to those who could afford it. And for this, we glorify and praise God, because He is accessible to us and desires to be alongside us.
We rejoice, because we have a God who comes to town not just once a year, but who comes to us each and every day of our lives, loving us and forgiving us for all of the things that we have done. He doesn’t have a list that he checks twice, making sure who is naughty and who is nice, but rather rips up that list and looks upon his beloved Son and says “For your sake, all of them are saved and forgiven.” Each of us are eternally given another chance, the chance to turn from being Scrooge and start being Bob Cratchit, to turn form Mr. Potter into George Bailey. Because of the love shown to us by our Lord and Savior, we are eternally given these chances and eternally loved, no matter what.
And it is because of this love that we are fully able to cry as well. There is no “you better not cry, you better not pout” here, as if God judges us for being sad or for not understanding the world and God’s will at times. Instead, we have a God who has experienced our lives in the person of Jesus Christ, who was born in the stable surrounded by animals, crying aloud as all babies do. Crying out, because of the experience of childbirth, and who would weep at Lazarus’ tomb in years to come. We worship a God who suffers alongside us and who cares for us, just as Mary and Joseph do for their newborn child.
This Christmas we rejoice in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to us in the humblest of manners, in order that God may be present among us and join us, all out of love for us and for all the children of God. So let us sing out and rejoice alongside the angels, for Jesus Christ is coming to Town! 
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