Life Interupted

This message is intended to be done with a puppet.

Puppet: I’m sorry to interrupt everyone’s worship service today, but I’ve got some great news to share with everyone, I’ve got a new neighbor moving in to the house next door. Say hello: (other puppet comes out briefly). I’m just so excited and had to share this news with everyone because, I’M SO EXCITED TO HAVE A NEW FRIEND!

Me: You know Kermit that is some really great news, it is awesome to have new...

Puppet: (interrupting) ya because now I’ll be able to play games, eat Christmas cookies, and laugh all the time with. Have a friend close is the best!

Me: Yes, that is right...

Puppet: And of course we’ll talk all the time because we will live so close to each other.

Me: Yes, that sure...

Puppet: And we can talk about all the important things in life...

Me: What are the important...

Puppet: I just can’t wait to tell everyone.

Me: KERMIT!

Puppet: Yes, what’s the matter?

Me: You are interrupting me each time I try to say something. I would like to tell you what Christmas is all about.

Puppet: Oh, so sorry about that. I’m just so excited.

Me: I know that you are, but...

Puppet: I’ve got to tell everyone, be back later.

Me: Kermit, Kermit, Kermit...

Well, that is some great news for Kermit, but boy it can be frustrating when someone is always interrupting you. I would imagine that you have experienced what it feels like to be interrupted. It is not very much fun, and makes you feel kind of bad, like the other person or in this case, puppet, doesn’t want to listen to what you have to say.

Kermit Interrupts from video: Um, yes that is true Dan, but sometimes you need in interrupt because either a person might get hurt, or because the news is just so incredible. Isn’t that what happened with the shepherds in the field outside of Bethlehem? (fade video)

Yes, Kermit I suppose that it is very true sometimes we NEED to get interrupted because of something bad that might happen, or because the news is just to great to hold in. That is the kind of news that we hear about here in our Gospel reading for this Christmas Eve. I would like to invite you to turn to that text in your Bibles now. We are going to look at Luke 2:8-14.

Luke 2:8 ESV

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Who are these shepherds? Shepherds are the men who watched over the sheep and other animals. They had to stay alert because wild animals might come and try to eat them, or the sheep might wander off and be lost.

Life was interrupted for the shepherds! They were doing what they had always done, caring for their sheep. The shepherds’ occupation and way of life made it unmanageable for them to meet all the religious ritual requirements leading to ceremonial purity, and so they were not qualified to worship at the temple. However, the fact that they were chosen by God to be the first to receive the good news helps shape from the start this long-awaited message of hope. This Savior, embodying good news, was meant to include the socially despised, economically depressed, and religiously shunned in the world. This good news would extend to all people—nobody gets left out of this joyous news of salvation. This theme of shepherds playing a vital role in an event that would shape the lives of the multitudes is seen not only here in the New Testament, but it also is recorded in the Old Testament.

In 1 Samuel 16:11-13 the prophet Samuel anoints a boy named David (from Bethlehem) to be the king of Israel. 2 Samuel 7:8-9, 16 records the later event where the Lord’s instructions to the prophet Nathan led to him giving the covenant responsibilities to David, who would become the Messiah’s ancestor on that first Christmas night. Notice again how the Lord specifically reminds the prophet where his servant and now king, David, had come from before ascending to the throne.

Let’s look now at this amazing message:

Luke 2:9–12 ESV

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

After the angel of the Lord finished making the announcement of good news to the Shepherds about the Savior, we see the singular angelic messenger being joined by a multitude of the heavenly host proclaiming their praises to God.

What an incredible message that the simple shepherds receive. But then it get better.

Luke 2:13–14 ESV

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

This part of the story completes the mesmerizing and emotion-filled announcement from God to the shepherds via the angel of the Lord and heavenly host. But then I wonder, what happens next for these shepherds?

Show video: ‘The Shepherds_Skit Guys-HD” (4min)

Do you have time when God Interrupts your day?

So many times God brings us great news, or invites us to follow him, and yet we say. “Well, I got this other thing that I need to do first.” Luke 9:59 Maybe you right now are thinking about the food in your oven, the cleaning you need to do, or etc… You are more concerned about the sheep rather than the coming Messiah. Is your heart and life so full of other things that you don’t have room for Jesus in it. Casting Crowns produced a song in 2005 with the following lyrics:

America, what will we miss while we are sleeping? Will Jesus come again And leave us slumbering where we lay? America, will we go down in history As a nation with no room for its King? Will we be sleepin'?

What the shepherds experienced that first Christmas night was the good news of an arrival, the first advent, the annunciation that revealed a long-awaited Messiah had been born just over the hills in Bethlehem. What had seemed out of reach was now just a short walk away that would lead to fresh hope today and into the future. Everything could be different now because of this good news. Everything would be different now. Not just different for Jewish people—different for all people. What we wait for today is a second advent—a second arrival of the Messiah when Jesus returns to earth just as the Scriptures have said. But the shepherds were focused on the first arrival on that first Christmas night —and rightly so. This was good news worth being interrupted about:

Luke 2:15–16 ESV

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

The shepherds life was interrupted! How did they respond? Luke tells us that they went with haste, and quickly found Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.

Puppet: I’m back, sorry, I had to go and tell everyone the exciting news that I have a new neighbor. What did I miss?

Me: Well Kermit, you missed the message, should I go back and redo everyone to tell him? No, well you’re right I don’t think that we have time for that.

Puppet: Ah man, the how will I know what Christmas is all about? I just...

Me: Excuse me Kermit, but I have to interrupt you to share with you the reason we celebrate Christmas. Jesus is what Christmas is all about! The angels interrupted the normal lives of the shepherds to share with them this amazing “εὐαγγέλιον” euaggelion - the good news, and Christmas interrupts our normal lives every year so that we don’t forget that he has come into the world to save us.

Kermit: Huh?

Me: Here just watch this clip and I think you will get it.

(Show clip from Charlie Brown Christmas)

Kermit: I see, Christmas is about Jesus coming to the world to save us from our sin.

Me: Right, and even though it interrupts our lives from the normal, it’s the best kind of interruption we could ever ask for.