Hope Fulfilled | 12/24/25
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Joseph is noted for his character because he "stayed with the promise" even when the situation became difficult and unexpected. Is there a commitment or a "promise" in your life right now that you are finding hard to hang onto?
The shepherds were some of the most underpaid and least appreciated workers of their time, yet they were the first to receive the message. Who are the people in your life or community who might feel "least appreciated" right now, and how might they be carrying a message from God?
The angel told the shepherds that this good news was specifically "for you". Do you find it easy or difficult to believe that God’s love and grace are intended for you personally, rather than just for "everyone else"?
Do you ever feel the weight of not measuring up to a standard you’ve set for yourself or that others have set for you? How does the "unimpressive" nature of this story's characters help relieve that burden?
When Jesus grew up, he gathered a "surprising band" of fishermen, cynics, and tax collectors. If you were to see yourself as part of that "unimpressive" group today, what parts of your real, messy life would you bring to the journey?
Transcript:
Every year on Christmas Eve, we come back to the same story. It is a story that never gets old—a story that, if we're willing to be open to it, always has something new to say to us. So tonight, as we prepare to hear the story again, I invite you to take just a moment and pray with me.
Would you pray? Come, Holy Spirit, and breathe life into the words that I speak, that they might carry a word from you into our hearts and lives on this night. Amen.
In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration, and it was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David, called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged, and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in bands of cloth, and she laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that same region, there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around him. And they were terrified. But the angel said, "Do not be afraid. For see, I am bringing good news of great joy to all the people. Today for you is born in the city of David, a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors.
My friends, tonight, on this night, this is the Word of God for the people of God, and God's people say, "Thanks be to God."
You know, it really is an unimpressive band of characters that we encounter in the story we remember on this night. Oh, sure. There are a couple of notable names at the beginning of the story—placeholders that Luke sticks in—but those two, Caesar Augustus and Quirinius, they're just backdrop information to set the story in a particular time and place of history. But those characters never even really make it onto the stage.
The main characters tonight, Mary and Joseph, are two people who would never have imagined themselves ever being in leading roles of any kind of event, much less the event that would be the most important in the history of the world. Mary and Joseph from Nazareth. Really? Nazareth? Do you all know about Nazareth? Maybe you remember that at another place in the Gospels, a cynical would-be disciple, before he actually meets Jesus, says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" It was an insignificant little village, a little bit north of the border with Samaria, an equal distance between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee. Population 270—about to be 271.
All of about seven acres: you could zip through Nazareth in no time at all. In fact, you could put all of Nazareth in the parking lot by the O'Connell Center—a little, out-of-the-way, insignificant town. Mary had spent her whole life up to this point in Nazareth, doing what other girls growing up in Nazareth did: learning the trades of the household. How to fetch water, how to bake bread, how to weave garments together. She was just a small-town girl, living in a... [“lonely world”]. You were with me!
Although she really wasn't that lonely because Nazareth was a close-knit community. People knew each other. They cared about each other. And Mary was growing up, preparing to do what the other girls in her town would do: leave her home, where she was raised, and become a wife and mother, a part of a family she would create. Joseph must have seen something in Mary, because out of the meager means that he had, he pulled together enough to be able to make an offering to Mary's family. Because, you see, when a girl left the family, there was a gap left behind. And so Joseph makes the offering so that he might become Mary's husband, so that they might be betrothed.
Joseph was a hard worker, like his father and his father before him, and his father before him. He was a tradesman who worked long hours with his hands day after day, making plows and yokes for oxen. And every now and then, he got an opportunity to go a little bit north of Nazareth, into the more booming city of Sepphoris, where the Roman Empire was building some things, and he could get his hands involved in that. But it wasn't much. But it was enough to get by day to day. And Joseph, he must have been good to the core, because when he found out that Mary, to whom he was engaged, was pregnant, he hung in there. He made the journey and stayed with the promise: Mary and Joseph, the central characters in the greatest story of the world.
And then there are the shepherds. What a grand opportunity for those shepherds who spent their time out in the fields again, working hard. They had some of the hardest work of anybody, and they were some of the most underpaid, least appreciated of all. Not just working days, but working nights, always going to sleep with one eye open because they needed to make sure that they protected their flock from predators—the lions, the wolves, the thieves. Who could have imagined that they would be the first ones to hear the news? But that's exactly what happened.
The angels show up to tell the shepherds first. Now, there is an impressive group—zooming across the sky, appearing suddenly out of nowhere, in perfect eight-part harmony to sing the good news and to glorify God. And when they come to the shepherds, the angel, the first one, says, "Good news of great joy for all the people." And then, just to make sure that the shepherds know that when the angel says "all," the angel means "all," the angel says, "For you.” "This is good news for you.” “To you is born this day in the city of David... and you will find the child lying in a manger". Isn't that great? The way the angel talks directly to the shepherds, and even gives them some directions on how to find the child, and assures them that they are welcome to go and visit. You.
I wonder tonight: Have you ever felt like your life was not impressive enough? Like you didn't measure up to some standard that either you set for yourself or somebody else had set for you, and you have felt the weight of that burden? Have you ever felt like you didn't achieve what you set out to do? You didn't reach some of the goals that you had in mind for yourself. You didn't live up to expectations. You didn't attain a certain level or position in your work life or a certain set of relationships that you anticipated having. Have you ever felt like your life wasn't impressive enough? Or maybe, have you ever met all the expectations you had for yourself, but you still, even when you got there, felt like it didn't feel as impressive as you thought it would before you got there?
Tonight, the story that we tell year after year on this night is the story to remind ourselves of the goodness of God. And the message that the angels bring is that it is good news of great joy for all the people. Say that with me: "Good news of great joy for all the people." And that means it's good news for you. And for you. And it's good news for you. Because Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, comes for all the people, including you.
You know, when he grows up, he starts to gather around him a band of companions. And it's another unimpressive lot. I mean, there's some fishermen in there, there's a cynic, there's a tax collector. And Jesus shares the journey with them and then entrusts to them the responsibility of carrying the hope and continuing to share the love of God and the good news of God after he is gone. And across 2,000 years, Jesus keeps inviting others to be a part of that unimpressive and surprising band. So he invites each of you.
So I wonder: When you leave here tonight, will you share the light of Christ out in the darkness? Will you carry hope out to the people who need it? Because the good news of great joy is for all the people. For you, and for all those out there.
So “don't stop believin’”. Don't ever stop believing. Amen.
