The Christiams Story according to St. Luke has to be one of the most familiar of all of the stories in the Bible. Our earliest memories of it may be visualized in the pageant, children in bath robes with towels on their heads\u2026 animals\u2026 sometimes made of cardboard\u2026 sometimes real children in costumes and makeup\u2026 sometimes real animals. And angels, lots and lots of angels. For pastors, one of the great reliefs of this story is that there is always a place for one more child in the angels\u2019 choir. There is only one Mary, one Joseph, three wise men and there seems to be an effective limit of 5 or 6 on shepherds. But there are no limits on angels. So, the child who is new, or slow, or rowdy, has a place in the pagant of this story. The story is very ordinary until the angels arrive. But when the angels enter, everything changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shepherds are terrified. All of that light, all of that glory and the presense of an angel. The first thing out of the Angel\u2019s mouth was, \u201cnow don\u2019t be afraid.\u201d It was not an announcement of the plan of Salvation History. The Ten Commandments were not read. There were no complicated statements of doctrine. There was no learned exposition of the Trinity. There was no brilliant recitation of Apostolic Succession. There was no budget presented. In fact it did not resemble a church gathering much at all. The message was, \u201cnow don\u2019t be afraid.\u201d I have some very good news for you \u201cyou can be filled with joy, everyone can.\u201d \u201cThere is a new born baby.\u201d \u201cThe baby is the Savior.\u201d \u201cThe baby is the Annointed one of God.\u201d \u201cThe baby is the Lord.\u201d \u201cAnd, you can find that baby.\u201d \u201cYou can touch, see and hold that baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the Angel Choir couldn\u2019t hold back any more and they started to sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the angels were through singing the Shepherds went and checked it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was exactly the way the angel said it was. Then the Shepherds were singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beloved of God, that story still means now exactly what it meant when it happened. The message and meaning is still the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t be afraid. Whatever it is in your life that is a cause of fear, you don\u2019t have to be afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can still see, touch, and hold the Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can sing praise to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same way that there is always room in the Angel Choir for one more child, even if that child acts up in the rehearsal, there is always room for one more soul in God\u2019s love, even if that soul messes up in the rehearsal for heaven called life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a great story. It is very good news. Let the hope that is in you overcome your fears. You really do have a Savior. That Savior is Jesus, born at Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by J. Hugh Magers<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Christiams Story according to St. Luke has to be one of the most familiar of all of the stories in the Bible. Our earliest memories of it may be visualized in the pageant, children in bath robes with towels on their heads\u2026 animals\u2026 sometimes made of cardboard\u2026 sometimes real children in costumes and makeup\u2026…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,43,52,1953],"tags":[466],"class_list":["post-511664","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-christmas-eve"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":16,"label":"Christmas"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":466,"label":"Christmas Eve"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477092,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511664\/revisions\/3477092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}