There is a special joy in children at different stages of their lives. This is a gay time for Jerry and me with Kerry and Kevin. We were together for a happy time – Thanksgiving. We had a very special time with Kerry. It pleased us that she was so excited about school; that hasn’t always been the case. She’s primarily excited about her art. At one point in our conversation, Kerry grew quiet and subdued - which is very unusual for this most bubbly of all our children. She began to talk about the way she was seeing things. Almost embarrassed to share it, she told of an experience she had a day or two before. She was walking across campus and she saw this magnificent tree. It was breathtakingly beautiful in its new fall dress, and it was as though she was seeing it for the first time. This is what embarrassed her to share. She said her eyes followed the magnificent trunk down to tile ground, and there where the tree entered the earth the roots penetrating the surface, the coming together those were shapes and symmetry and harmony that no human artist could create. Even more subdued now, she said she simply sat down and bathed her eyes and her mind in this natural beauty. It was a time of great praise. It was an earthly moment shot through with a sense of transcendence. The ordinary became sort of ethereal. Mystery was in the common. God was there.

Kerry was reserved and reverent as she shared that experience, a bit embarrassed that such simple seeing would hit her with such force. I tried to identify with Kerry and affirm her in her new eyes for seeing. Most of us don’t have such wakeful and sensitive eyes. But later, as I reflected, I knew it was more than her artist view of things that was taking place in that experience. I thought about Moses and the burning bush. More than that, I thought about Bethlehem and the Manger – Mary and Joseph and the entire cast of the Christmas drama. Then I knew that Kerry’s experience was not strange. It is only strange that some of us may think it’s strange.

As Mel Wheatley reminds us: ‘For of all the messages God seems to have been trying to get through to us across the centuries, none has been repeated more often I would guess than this: the God of Moses and the God of Jesus can be counted on to be forever appearing in most unlikely places and at the most unseemly times. His daily word to us is - “Don’t wear out your shoes running off to some other place seeking that which is holy - put off your shoes for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Just when and where you might least expect to find my presence, my presence will surprise you with its reality.” (“Who Can Afford Christmas?” Four Celebrants of Serendipities”)

There’s an old gospel song, the words of which I can’t remember, but the title pretty much says it all: “Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul.” That’s what I want to talk about today-as we continue our focus on The Cast of The Christmas Drama That’s what happened to the shepherds. Heaven came down and glory filled their souls.

I. PERSPECTIVE

To get the full impact of the experience of the shepherds, we need to put it in perspective. “The angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.” The Greek word rendered “came upon them” is a favorite word of Luke. It suggests a sudden appearance. “The glory of the Lord” which shone round about them had very special meaning. The Jews called it the Sheckinah. It was a white shining cloud of almost intolerable brightness. You could probably write the history of the Jewish people by tracing their experience of Shceckinah visible token of the eternal. Sanctify your imagination and see it:

…The burning bush - a flame that did not consume the bush, but got Moses attention so the Lord could speak.

…The pillar of fire and cloud. Do you remember that event in Exodus? “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” (Ex. 13:21)

…Then there was the Sheckinah cloud in the tent of meeting (Deut. 31:14—15) where God,h called Moses and Joshua to share the news that Noses would soon die and Joshua would have to lead the people into the Promised Land. That was a Scheckinah moment and the glory of the Lord was radiant in the tent.

…In the New Testament there was the experience of the Transfiguration of Jesus. On the mountain with Peter and James, and John, Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared with a bright cloud overshadowing them.

...Then on the Damascus Road, Paul was stricken blind by the Sheckinah light of God’s glory.

So the occasional presence of the visible glory of God was woven into the fabric of Jewish history and such experiences were celebrated as exceedingly precious.

Now here it was, breaking in upon these humble shepherds: “The glory of the Lord shone round about them.” So what are the truths we are to see here? Last week we noted that when God wanted to communicate his greatest idea, He wrapped that idea in a person. That’s the meaning of the Incarnation and the way people respond to that big idea of God in Jesus Christ provides guidance for us. For the shepherds, “Heaven came down and glory filled their souls.”

II.

Note first that the shining glory of God is not restricted to particular people.

Who would have thought that the birth of the Saviour would be announced to shepherds? Was there a reason for this? Shepherding was a lowly task. Among the Jews of that period, shepherds were looked down upon. They were not allowed to be witnesses in the Courts. These lowly people were the first to visit the Stable where the Christ Child was. Remember, though, that soon thereafter Wise Men - probably of great wealth, certainly persons of influence - Wise Men came also to the Manger. And remember, too, that word of the prophet Isaiah: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

The shining glory of God is not restricted to a particular people. The light that shone in the darkness shines for everyone. There are some lessons though that the shepherds teach us. It is not simple passing interest, I think, that the first blood sacrifice was that of Abel, a keeper of sheep. Or that the favorite symbol of the world’s Saviour is that of a Good Shepherd - Jesus called himself that, a Shepherd that lays down his life for his sheep. So the Saviour’s work is that of leaving the ninety and nine who are saved and going out to seek the one that is lost. And we still see on the Cross, and celebrate in Holy Communion, the Pascal Lamb, who has been given by God as a sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

All that has meaning.

The shining glory of God is not restricted to particular people. It did come to the shepherds and it came when they were doing their duty, as they were being faithful in the responsibility life had given them.

Doesn’t that say something to us? Mechanic, doctor, housewife, teacher, nurse, lawyer, business man, laborer, students, even preachers - we are all candidates for the Sheckinah of God, for His appearing to us.

III.

Note a second truth in this particular cast of the Christmas drama. As God’s glory is not restricted to particular people, neither is it restricted to particular places. The shepherds were tending their flock in the pasture, a few miles from Bethlehem. And Bethlehem itself was referred to as “the least of the cities of Judah” so God comes to us in all sorts of places.

I’ve been reading Shelia Cassidy’s autobiography that has a thrilling title: Audacity to Believe. She left a comfortable position as a doctor on the staff of the National Health Institute in England to go to Chile to gain wider experience in General Surgery – not anticipating that God would speak to her in that situation in a special way. She tells about a retreat experience she had which focused the call of God for her. Let her tell her story:

“After five days of prayer and reflection, I was asked to read and meditate upon a passage from the third chapter of the book of Samuel. I read that the Lord called Samuel three times and that the boy did not understand who was calling until he was told by his Master to go and lie down and wait and, if the Lord called, he was to say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ So it was there on a winter morning in 1975 I lay face down on a pile of leaves at the bottom of the garden in a Chilean Retreat House and made those words of Samuel my own - (Speak Lord for Your Servant Hears) As in the days of my childhood twenty years before I heard no voices and I saw no visions, but gradually it became clear to me that God was calling. I knew beyond any reasonable doubt that I was being asked to follow Him for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness or in health, for the rest of my life.” (Audacity to Believe, pp. 122—123)

You see, God’s glory, his presence, his call, is not restricted to particular people or particular places. I know a young man, established in his vocation who is leaving the call of God to a more specific Christian ministry.

I know a housewife married to a non-Christian, upon whom the glory of God comes almost daily at her kitchen table as she waits obediently upon the Lord to provide her the strength and determination to stay Christian and to persevere in a difficult situation.

I know a young man who slips off regularly during the day from a profane office crowd to pray in the Men’s Room.

I know a fellow, who a few months ago, was sitting at his desk in his law office. He didn’t talk about it in these words but this is what happened – the Angel of the Lord came unto him and the glory of the Lord shone around about him.

He made a decision to tithe his income that day – but also to render his priorities in life.

I could go on and on. None of these experiences came in church. The glory of God…an experience of Him…his call is not restricted to particular people or places.

That leads then to this final truth. God glory is not given for the pleasure of the people receiving it: it is given for the purpose of furthering the call and the kingdom of God among others. That means that an experience of the glory of God, a word from Him, a call to duty, takes precedence over all else.

Look at the shepherds. When the shining glory of God was gone, when they had the time - I have an idea it was a brief time the angel had said, Luke records their response: “Let us now go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to us.”

What happened to the sheep? I don’t know. I only know that the shepherds knew that they had important business to attend to in Bethlehem. So they went. And when they got there, and found it as the angels said it would be: Mary, Joseph and the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. When they saw that, and had entered into the mysterious joy Of that cave stable, when they had celebrated with Mary and Joseph, Luke says, they went away, “and made known the saying which had been told them concerning the child.” They became witnesses. The vision and voice of the heavenly hosts was not for the pleasure of the shepherds, but for the purpose of God - that his coming might be announced.

So with us. Let me finish Shelia Cassidy’s witness that I shared a part of a moment ago. Listen to her as she continues:

“How can one convey the agony and the ecstasy of being called by God? At one moment one is over awed by the immensity of the honor, the incredible fact of having been chosen, and in the same breath one screams, “No! No! Please not me, I can’t take it!” That which seconds ago was a privilege becomes a unfair demand. Why should I be the one asked to give up marriage and career? Why me? Why may I not lie with a man I love and bear his children? I have only one life; how can you ask me to sign it away as if it meant nothing to me?

Then she concluded, “As I lay there (in the garden of that retreat house) in tears, my ears and my hair full of autumn leaves, I knew that this was the end of the chase. I had chosen to come to this place and I had invited God to speak and He had. Of course, I was quite free to say, ‘No, I don’t want to,’ but this would be a clear and deliberate refusal. I thought about it, and I knew that I did not want to say no and that, however much it hurt, I could only humbly accept, so as hundreds of men and women had done before me I said my ‘ (My, yes) (Sheila Cassidy, Audacity to Believe, London: Collins World, 1978, p. 123).

That is our only response - for when God’s call comes it takes precedence over all else.

What do the shepherds teach us when Heaven came down and glory filled their souls?

One, God’s glory is not restricted to a particular people - each of us is a candidate for that experience.

Two, God’s glory is not restricted to a particular place. It will come to us wherever we are and whatever we are doing - if we are open.

And, three, God is coming to us and the call He makes takes precedence over everything else.

So we have two big ideas wrapped in the persons Simeon and Anna. One, holy hopes and obedient worship will be honored; two, an experience of God should result in ideas in our person this Advent.

Note: The story from Sri Lanka comes from Joe Harding.