The Easter When Everything Changed

I personally think that I will remember this Easter for many years to come. It was the Easter we spent isolated in our houses while the world changed. True story! But it needed to change. So much of life is waiting. The biblical tradition has a long history of waiting in it. Abraham and Sarah waiting for a baby; Noah waiting for the rain to start; Elijah waiting on a mountain; Daniel waiting for the exile to be over; Anna waiting for the Messiah to be born; John waiting on Patmos for Jesus; the list is much longer.

 I’ve been waiting for a long time for what I sense I’m seeing. There are destined times and epochs in the “kairos” time of God. “When the fullness of time had come…” Just when time is about to burst with waiting, it explodes into the purpose of God. The preparation for a servant of God takes a long time, again, I can give you a longlist: Moses, David, Daniel, Jesus, Himself, Paul, Timothy, John the Beloved. God can do what He wants without us, but He has chosen to work with and through us, so He has to polish, temper, and strengthen us so that we don’t snap out of pressure or lose our faith in the process.

Let’s face it, it's been cloudy for a good, long while. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of a “cloudy and dark day” when the sheep are scattered and the Shepherd has to go out and gather them. I have seen that look of fierceness on the Face of the Great Shepherd in these last days, I have seen His determination to gather those that are lost. The clouds of false belief; man-made religion; lethargy induced apathy; confusion, dismay, and inability to endure have clouded the Face of the Living God from those that need most desperately to see Him. So He is going to rise up and go looking for the lost sheep. He is going to blow the hindering clouds away. He is going to go into every last highway and byway looking for those stuck in the thorny bushes of hopelessness, despair, and shame. He asks us to go with Him. He asks us to gather with Him for He has told us, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and who does not gather with Me, scatters” (Matthew 12:30.

 I have seen people who know God and walk with God come back to life in the last week. I have seen hope born, courage arise, purpose return. I’ve seen the glaze disappear from the eyes of the believers who have looked for Him so long, more than they who wait in the cold, dark night for morning. A cloud the size of man’s hand appears overhead. The Lord is standing up to move. Don’t miss it. Prepare your heart, shake off your slumber, fill your lamp with oil, trim your wick. Stand up with Him.

My Christmas thoughts...A Testimony from Bethlehem's Shepherd

A Testimony from Bethlehem’s Shepherd

It feels as if it were yesterday, that wildly unexpected visitation in the fields, when the Angel of the Lord came to us. Now is the time of year, your earth years, not heaven's time, where my story is told again and again, as it should be. But allow me to share it myself as the exact facts are more glorious than you know. And please, I say it is "my story" because it is so precious to me, but it is our story, us shepherds in that field near Bethlehem, and it is your story and it is, most of all, our Jesus' story.

We were sitting around on that dark, brooding night, passing our time by whittling, or chatting, or daydreaming of better days. We did not realize that the most incredible wonder was about to happen. I was not sure if I was dreaming or awake when I first saw the Angel, but one's mind would not have the material to create a dream of such a glorious being. He was majestic, clothed in a great light that seemed to push us back and down to our knees. He was suddenly there, far taller than a man, shining like the sun, staring deeply into my eyes. I was terrified. My heart was beating so loud and fast that I thought to run but could not move my legs. His gaze held us there. His words astounded.

"Don't be afraid," he said, "I am sent from God to bring you some very happy news: In the City of David your Saviour is now born, and not just your Saviour, but the Saviour of all people. The sign you will look for will be in an unlikely but fitting place --for you will find the the Baby from heaven wrapped in lambskin swaddling clothes and placed in a feed trough."

I know that your nativity scenes feature a little wooden stable, or perhaps, your tradition suggests a cave, or perhaps your imagination suggests the backside of a very full country inn, where the donkeys who accompanied the travelers were housed. It was not like that really. You see, I was a special kind of shepherd, still quite looked down on, but less so than the ordinary shepherd who sat keeping sheep safe In the middle of nowhere. You see, that night I was tending the flocks in the shepherd's fields outside Bethlehem watching over the lambs that were born for temple sacrifice. I worked at Migdal Eder, which nurtured and cared especially for the Passover lambs, the ones that must be perfect and without blemish.

Migdal Eder was where Rachel gave birth to little Benjamin "Son of My Right Hand", the youngest son of Jacob (Gen 35:21), you will see the hint that God put in that! Migdal Eder means "the tower of the flock" because there was a tower there and that is where we cared for the newborn lambs. The chosen baby lambs were wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger so they would not hurt themselves--they had to be perfect for the sacrifice! The prophet Micah was the one that linked Bethlehem with Jesus -- “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah,Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” (Micah 5:2) but you missed the hint of the exact spot--Migdal Eder!

The prophet Micah, it seems to me, refers to Migdal Eder when he writes: “And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, even the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:8). From this verse grew up the understanding amongst our people that the Messiah would first be declared here. And so He was!

Oh my! I bow my knee to God when I think that He came to us shepherds, came to us nobodies, to tell us our King had come! Who was I and Who would write such a story? Only God! Blessed be He!

I find it amusing, now, in looking back, that we who earned our living as shepherd's, were not considered trustworthy enough to bear witness in court and yet the High King of Heaven's courts trusted and blessed us with the announcement and the announcing of the Messiah! That is what our God is like though, yes? Always confounding the high and mighty and revealing Himself to the humble of heart.

Please believe me when I tell you that it was sometimes hard to be humble after the events of that night--so privileged did all we shepherds feel! But what mystery is this? the High King of heaven, born of a woman, a baby wrapped safely in lambskin like a sacrificial lamb? and put in the feed trough like those destined to be sacrificed?

Now and forever it is the first duty of the shepherd to keep the flock safe, the little lambs....I cry when I think that He is My Shepherd, just as I, for a few blessed moments, was His shepherd. I cry when I see how He shepherded us in His low estate, giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. Who could have thought this story up?

The Angel came and spoke, his voice like a thunderstorm, and then behind him the heaven themselves opened to reveal a great multitude of heavenly beings--more angels and God knows who, singing in the most incredible harmony of love and adoration: "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace and goodwill toward all people." Do you know what it is like to hear heaven sing?

We ran to the tower to find them--you know it was not December-- and there they were! The same glow that was with the angels was resting on the little One in the manger. My heart turned over within me when I laid eyes on Him--so small and serene yet so full of something so large, so very large.

His parents looked up, startled to see us, we were so bedraggled and bug-eyed, standing before their Baby in awe! We tried to explain, tried a hundred times before it made sense to us or to them--our words tripping out of our mouths...but they would get very used to odd stories and unlikely spokesmen. Mary looked at Joseph, then down at Jesus, for that was His Name, and started to cry. Joseph just looked at us like he had seen a ghost.

We could not contain ourselves, I'm not sure how far we ran that night, telling everyone what had happened, babbling the story out like mad men. Of course you can guess the ones who believed us and the ones who did not. It did not matter--we had seen the Truth! We had heard heaven sing! We knew! God, we knew! The Little Baby, wrapped like a sacrificial Lamb, the angels, the Light, the Glory! We could not really have known completely how it all fit together, but we knew our lives had forever changed!

I tell you all this to remind you that there is always more glory to the Story than you know. I tell you this to remind you that God comes to the lowly and the humble and the forgotten and not to the high of heart. He does this because that is what He is like. So as you celebrate His birth, please remember what I have told you and let your heart kneel before Him....perhaps the heavens will open and you will hear the host and inhabitants of heaven praising Him. Forever praising Him.

Won't you join us?

_______
my story here is fictionalized but based on some very interesting facts.... if you want to read more about Migdal Eder, check out Alfred Edersheim's, "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah's" commentary on Migdal Eder, and read various other commentators various takes on the subject. I'm going to love to hear what actually happened from the shepherds themselves one day.

"Thou Shepherd of Israel and Mine" by Charles Wesley

 Thou Shepherd of Israel, and mine,
The joy and desire of my heart,
For closer communion I pine,
I long to reside where thou art:
The pasture I languish to find
Where all, who their Shepherd obey,
Are fed, on thy bosom reclined,
And screened from the heat of the day.



 Ah! show me that happiest place,
The place of thy people's abode,
Where saints in an ecstasy gaze,
And hang on a crucified God;
Thy love for a sinner declare,
Thy passion and death on the tree:
My spirit to Calvary bear,
To suffer and triumph with thee.



'Tis there, with the lambs of thy flock,
There only, I covet to rest,
To lie at the foot of the rock,
Or rise to be hid in thy breast;
'Tis there I would always abide,
And never a moment depart,
Concealed in the cleft of thy side,
Eternally held in thy heart.


--hymn "Thou Shepherd of Israel"

by Charles Wesley

Characters in the Christmas Story: The Shepherds

An integral part of the Christmas story are the shepherds. But if you or I  were going to write
this story, you probably wouldn't think to add the shepherds in. God did. Have you ever
wondered why God chose to send the angelic envoy to simple shepherds in a field to tell them
about Jesus' birth?

It would seem like if someone like God were going to announce that His Son had been born He
would have invited the religious bigwigs to a press conference, or call a UN meeting,
or call everyone to Camp David or something.  Thank God there is no one like God!
You've got to love Him, you've got to fall down and absolutely love Him that He decided to
tell a bunch of humble shepherds that the King of the Universe had just been
born in a stable and was now laying in an animal's feed trough in the backside of
some hotel's barn. Maybe they, in their simply humility, would be the ones most
likely to believe Him! For it showed God's humility in how He sent Jesus, so
of course He would first tell the humble of heart and life.

The Shepherds, and there is nothing told to us about them--not their names or their
political or religious views or anything--were simply out doing their job in the fields
outside Bethlehem when an angel appears to them with the Glory of God flashing
all around. The text says, with a penchant for understatement, that "they were
terribly afraid." I'll say! The angel tells them the Messiah has just been born and
that they will know it is Him when they find him wrapped in "swaddling" clothes
laying amongst the horse and cow feed.  Now if this had been a modern story,  the
shepherds would have had to worry that someone had laced their shepherd-ale with
mind-bending drugs. Especially when from behind the one angel, a whole army of
angels appears, praising God and glorifying Him. But this is first century
Bethlehem and God is at work.

So when the angels take off back to heaven the shepherds are now WIDE
awake, and I mean WIDE awake, and, despite their duty to their flock, they
have to go look for the baby.  They must have looked at each other
and said, "What in the world just happened?" But God had chosen them
wisely, as God always does, and off they go and sure enough,
find Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a manger. Oh, my Lord!

Joseph probably tried to shew them away to give Mary some semblance
of privacy and dignity, but Mary must have said, "No, Joseph, let them
in, its OK" because of course, God had made a wise choice in Mary . Its
not like ANY of them are going to get any sleep and she wants to hear
their story.  And little baby Jesus, with his eyes still dripping with the
beauty of Heaven, looks sweetly up at them.

And what are those swaddling clothes anyway? Did they know? I looked into
it and they used to, and sometimes still do, wrap babies up tight with swaddling
clothes to keep them secure and from moving too much. You have to imagine
what Mary was thinking. "It's my duty to keep Him safe and clean and
I'm not going to let any part of Him touch that dirty manger that some
donkey may have licked." I know that if it were me I'd be so scared that I'd
drop the Baby or that He would roll out of the manger or something on the
first night and the whole plan of God would get disrupted.

On the other hand, she might also be afraid that maybe He might suddenly
go from being a baby to morphing into full blown God. It's not like she
had all the details. She had to have a lot of questions and fears.
On the one hand the swaddling clothes fulfilled what God had said, and
also, in those times, show that the baby is loved and wanted and
has a Father (cp Ezekiel 16:1-5)  but the behind-the-scenes punch line that
God probably shares with Mary is Him teasing her for thinking :
"Better to wrap Him up tight, Don't take any chances."
So He put it in Scripture and shares a  laugh with her each year when
the Christmas story is told, the kind of laugh that two people share when
they have gone through something great together.

As much as Mary wanted to keep all of this on the QT, God was a really
good PR man, thinking WAY outside the box, but in such a perfect way.
And now here are the shepherds with their story and Mary just kept
shaking her head as if trying to wake up from a dream
and saying, "Tell me again what happened in the field?"  Soon,
the shepherds had told just about everyone whether they cared
to hear or not.

Yet the shepherds had good hearts, and glorified and praised God for
all they had seen and heard. They were simple men who must have
just walked along quietly with God, doing their job. (Shepherds have
a lot of time to pray you know). . Its these kind of people that
Jesus came to and comes to now. "Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God." And see God they did.

I love that God thought way of the box in every way, and in those
deep and dreamless streets, the Everlasting Light, came into
our world, and changed all our lives.