An Unexpected Christmas

A Series on Advent
The hymns of Luke’s birth narrative: Gloria in Excelsis Deo by Angelic chorus
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Luke 2:1-21 

[In Luke’s Gospel, there are four songs attributed to different individuals that were involved in the story of Christ’s birth. In this series, we will look at the meaning of those songs, how the person(s) or angels were involved in the birth story and what it means for us today.]

  

Christmas traditions are wonderful! Decorating is a popular tradition. My wife goes all out. She decorates the whole house using every available space.

 

When you enter our home, the first thing you see is a snowman scene. In the living room, a nativity scene adorns the mantel. Across from it, on top of our piano, are myriad angels with lights gracefully wrapped around them. Finally, in front of the French doors, is our Christmas tree with an angel on the top glowing brightly.

 

Normally, Bethlehem was a sleepy little town a few miles outside of Jerusalem. However, because of the census that Caesar Augustus had decreed, it was bustling. This was the town where David was born. Therefore, anyone who was in David’s lineage had to come to Bethlehem for the census, including Joseph and Mary.

 

Despite Mary being nine months pregnant, this teenage couple had traveled 70 miles from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea. Most likely, they had planned to stay with relatives of Joseph. But because it was so crowded and because Mary was about to have her baby, they stayed in a stable.

 

That same night, in the outlying rugged Judean hills where David had watched his father Jesse’s sheep, were shepherds watching their flocks. Like Mary’s baby, these sheep were unblemished so that they could be used as sacrificial lambs at the temple in Jerusalem for the sins of the people.

 

Suddenly an angel appeared among the shepherds “with the blazing glory of God”. At first the shepherds were terrified, but the angel told them, “Do not be afraid”. Then he gave them this good news.

 

¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.                         NIV

 

The angel told them to look for a sign: “a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger”. But then something even more remarkable happened!

 

¹³ Suddenly a great army of heaven's angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God:

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased!”    GNT

 

This angelic choir filled the heavens and earth with the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, or “Glory to God in the Highest”. Following this, the shepherds decided to go into Bethlehem to see if they could find the child. They did!

 

Christmas traditions are great! They can help to give it meaning. But they can also make it routine so that we don’t expect the unexpected. And everything about Jesus’ birth was unexpected.

 

From the supernatural appearance of angels to the miraculous virgin birth. From the king of the Jews being born in a stable, to the praise of the angelic choir. From angels announcing the birth of the king to lowly shepherds, to a common couple parenting the Son of God. It was an unexpected Christmas.

But this is how God works. His values, his priorities and his kingdom turn our world upside down. For this, we give “Glory to God in the Highest” and he gives us a savior who brings “peace on earth”.

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

A Christmas Tradition is Born

(This is the 2^nd of a 4 part series on “Memories of Christmas”.)

Luke 2:1-7

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A1-7&version=NIV;NLT

 

Christmas traditions are generally carried over from generation to generation; but some just happen.

 

About ten years ago we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. Afterwards, we thought it would be fun to drive around and look at some lights. Eventually we started getting hungry.

 

Have you ever tried to find a restaurant open on Christmas Eve, e.g. The Christmas Story? The only one we found was Lee Garden – a Chinese restaurant. The food was great. However, Chinese karaoke on Christmas Eve was a little strange. But that night a new Christmas tradition was born for our family.

 

There are a multitude of Christmas traditions that families observe. Some are fantasy, like Santa Claus. While others are based in fact, like the Nativity scene. Even then, the Nativity scene of today is a stark contrast to the reality.

 

It must have been a crazy time in the young lives of Mary and Joseph. An angel had visited Mary and told her that she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit. If that wasn’t hard enough to believe, he also informed her that her son would reign over Jacob’s descendants (Israel) forever; that his kingdom would never end.

 

How could she explain this to Joseph since she was a virgin; to her parents who had raised her to be a righteous Jew; to people in the village who might even choose to stone her for her apparent sin? But her relative Elizabeth understood.

When Mary went to visit her, Elizabeth’s baby leapt in her womb.

 

And now, when she was almost due, she and Joseph had to make a three day trip to Bethlehem for a census. Of course, when they arrived the city was bursting at the seams. As a result, there was no room in the inn, so Mary gave birth to the baby in a stable where he was laid in a feeding trough.

 

My family will never forget about that first visit to the Lee Garden Restaurant and how our Christmas tradition was born. In the same way, we will never forget that our celebration of Christmas was born in Bethlehem with the gift of God’s only son as an expression of His pure, unconditional love for us.

 

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.           1 John 4:9-10 NLT

 

 

if you click on this link, you can listen to a beautiful song about God's love seen through the gift of his only son. It is called “How Many Kings”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYe9sWYKdo

  

(If God has spoken to you through this blog, please feel free to share the link with others on social media.)

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