From the Depths to the Heights

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 30, 2012

From the Depths to the Heights

Luke 2:8-20

Is there any passage in the Bible

that captures our hearts and minds at Christmas

the way our lesson does?

Luke paints a word picture for us

that captures the very essence of Christmas:

shepherds abiding in fields watching over their flocks,

Joseph and Mary in the stable,

the baby Jesus asleep in the hay,

all watched over by the heavenly host.

It is a picture of light and life

from love born in a stable,

God’s gift to all the world!

As many times as we might have heard this lesson,

we are always eager to hear it again

for the way it touches us, warms us,

fills us with heavenly peace.

And for as many times as we have heard this lesson

read from pulpits,

for all the different voices we have heard read the text,

I am guessing that for many of us,

there is one voice that breaks through,

one voice more than any other we hear

telling us this story:

the voice of Linus - Linus Van Pelt,

the younger brother of Lucy,

from the animated Charlie Brown Christmas special!

I was all of 11 years old when the program first aired,

and I have watched it almost every year since.

For 47 years I’ve heard Charlie Brown’s frustration

at not being able to understand the true meaning of Christmas.

For 47 years I’ve heard Linus,

the blanket-carrying philosopher,

that young boy wise beyond his years,

say to Charlie Brown,

“I’ll tell you the true meaning of Christmas,”

and then does so by reciting our lesson from Luke’s gospel

in all its brief glory.

We hear the words, and we ourselves are transported,

transported as though we were there

that first Silent Night, Holy Night.

But our lesson reminds us

that while things might have been calm

and quiet at the stable,

the night, as holy as it was, was hardly silent.

There was a wonderful symphony

playing across the heavens,

God’s heavenly choir singing out

“Glory to God; Glory to God in highest heaven,”

the shepherds providing their counterpoint 

to the heavenly host

as they returned to their fields anything but silent,

loud, excited,

joyfully singing out for all the world to hear,

as they glorified and praised God.

We can almost hear them singing,

laughing,

shouting to one another in their giddiness,

their exhuberance,

their voices carrying through the alleys of Bethlehem,

and out across the fields,

even as the men disappeared back into the darkness

as they returned to their folds.

Praise God!

Glory to God!

Glory to God in highest heaven!

They must have talked and sung the night away

with their praises,

no doubt singing out words written

by another shepherd so long before,

words of praise we now call psalms,

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
   praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
   praise him, all his host!

We echoed the shepherd’s joy

when we said those words together

at the beginning of the service.

They are from Psalm 148,

and there is no better psalm of praise,

no better words for us to begin a service

that leads us from one year to the next.

Let me ask you a question:

How did you say the words?

Did you say them with energy, with enthusiasm?

Did you say them as though you yourself

had heard the angels sing their glorious song,

had seen the miracle born in the stable?

Did you say them with the same joy

the shepherds might have shouted them out

on that first Christmas night?

We Presbyterians are so hesitant with our praise,

our enthusiasm;

hesitant to sing out our glory to God.

But yet, there it is,

right there in Book of Confessions,

in the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Confession:

“Mankind’s chief and highest end is to glorify God,

and enjoy him forever.”

(7.111)

That’s what it says:

our chief and highest end is to glorify God!

It isn’t to win a Pulitzer or the Super Bowl;

It isn’t to own a mansion or a create the next Microsoft.

We who bear the image of God,

were made to glorify God.

But there’s even more to it than that,

as we learn from the rest of Psalm 148:

we were made to glorify God

by leading all creation in singing out Glory to God:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
   praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
   praise him, all his host!

Praise him, sun and moon;
   praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
   and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
   for he commanded and they were created.
…Praise the Lord from the earth,
   you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
   stormy wind fulfilling his command!

Mountains and all hills,
   fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
   creeping things and flying birds!

Let everything on this earth sing their praises

to the Lord our God!

Let all creatures praise the Lord!

Let all creation praise the Lord!

Let all creation glorify our Creator:

planets, stars,

mountains, seas, trees

fish, birds: everything!

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted;

his glory is above earth and heaven.

We are to live our lives with our own voices raised in praise.

But just as important,

we are to live our lives in such a way

that we help every other person,

every living creature,

the land, the sky,

the water, the mountains,

all sing out their praises to God.

Ah, but you understand what that means, don’t you:

that means we have to care for all creation,

look after all creation so that all creation is able to praise God.

Can the rain forest we clear-cut praise God?

Can the mountaintop we turn to rubble

for the minerals underneath praise God?

Can the sky filled with carbon and toxins praise God?

Can the rivers, lakes and oceans we use for sewers praise God?

Can the glaciers that groan as they melt praise God?

Remember: in giving us dominion over the earth,

we’ve been given responsibility:

that’s what the Hebrew word

that we translate as “dominion” means.

It doesn’t mean we have power;

it means we have responsibility for all creation

to care for all creation, all God’ creatures

so that they can all glorify God.

Ours is not the only voice God wants to hear;

God wants to hear all creation!

We glorify God as work to grow in faith,

work to grow in grace,

work to grow in wisdom and goodness.

We glorify God by living as the apostle Paul calls us to live:

clothing ourselves with compassion,

living kindly,

with humility and patience,

bearing with one another,

forgiving one another,

and clothing “ourselves with love,

which binds everything together

in perfect harmony.”

(Colossians 3:12ff)

We glorify God as we respond to the Psalmist’s song,

that deep calls to deeper:

that we are called to grow deeper in discipleship,

remembering that we are not just to follow Christ,

but strive each day to become more like him,

to live as Christ lived,

to become Christs to one another.

Last week we talked about the 19^th century preacher Phillips Brooks,

the man who wrote the words to the hymn,

“O Little Town of Bethlehem”.

In one of his many wonderful sermons

he reminded his listeners that as children of God

and disciples of Jesus Christ

we are not to live in this world as though

we were crows and the world was our cornfield,

a place for us just to take what we want.

We glorify God when we care for the field,

when we see beyond our own needs

and make sure everyone else gets enough to eat;

we glorify God when we see to it that

there will be plenty of corn in the field

for future generations.

In his paraphrasing of the last verse of our text,

Eugene Peterson writes that the

“The [shepherds] returned and let loose,

 in their glorifying and praising…”

That’s the life we are called to:

to let loose with our praising, our glorifying;

But that doesn’t mean we’re just to clap and shout

and sing out our alleluias for an hour on Sunday morning.

We are to let loose and glorify God in every part of our lives.

We are to let loose by letting go of all those things

that keep us from deepening our faith,

that get in the way of our becoming

more Christ-like each day.

So let us glorify and praise God today and every day!

Praise God for the beauty of the earth,

for the magnificence of all creation,

for family, for friends,

for food,

for warm homes on cold days,

for vocations,

for hearts that can feel so deeply when we unbind them,

for hope,

for second, third, and fourth chances,

for those who help us and for those we help,

for eyes to see and ears to hear where love and hope are needed,

and where love and hope are offered.

Let us praise God for light;

Let us praise God for love;

Let us praise God for the life we’ve been given

in,

and with,

and through our Lord,

that baby born for us,

the one the shepherds found asleep in the manger,

the only one who was silent

that first Christmas Day.

AMEN