The Side-Eye

Our lesson this evening comes from Luke’s Gospel, the first chapter starting in the 26th verse. In the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a Virgin, engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. He came to her and said, Greetings favored one.

The Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high.

The Lord God will give to Him the throne of His ancestor David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Now his kingdom, there will be no wind. Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I’m a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.

Therefore, the child to be born will be holy. He will be called the Son of God. And now your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month for her, who was said to be barren for nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, Here am I the servant of the Lord.

Let it be with me, according to your word. Then the angel departed from her friends. The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

I’m a little bit fascinated by Nativity as they come in all shapes, sizes and forms, some of which I’m very comfortable walking up to and looking at and touching, and some of which since I’m baby Hughie, I need to stay away from. There was a nativity out in the front yard in Tarrytown, Louisiana, and it was well done.

There was no creche, there was a shed and there was hay and we had the baby in the manger and we had Mary kneeling like she is, and we had the shepherd and the sheep and we had the magi and it was just the figures were all lit with a very bright white light and beautiful colors and about where Josephine is in this particular nativity was Santa Claus.

Don’t get that. We were at a church recently for a Christmas party and their native ity was hidden in the back of the room behind everybody and it was up against the wall. It appears as though a children’s Sunday school lesson had broken out recently, and there were figures about like this and they were cut out and they were it was appropriate.

But behind the Nativity, the thing that bothered me were the three foot sheep that were were glued to the wall. It was like mutant sheep had come to this nativity and they were there not to worship, but to eat. Nativity is are different and we want to have them perfect. We have no activities for Mexico. We have nativity at our house that are for the children.

We were once given a porcelain nativity set from a church member. It’s one of those numbered things and it is stayed in a box wrapped tightly with bubble wrap. And it will never in my lifetime ever come out because we have dogs that don’t know the theology of the Nativity. But there seems to be something missing in all the Nativity.

I’ve only seen it a couple of times in nativity sets, and it’s an angel. And the way the angels usually portrayed is lifted up above the knee tivity. It’s kind of hovering or floating in air. But when you read the story, there are angels everywhere. And what I want to say about Angels in the Stories of Christmas is the response to the angel needs to be the side.

I you know what the side eye looks like, don’t you? We have pictures of the side. I’m that’s a side I You like that one that’s child’s been told something she doesn’t care for and a side eye is is when somebody is suspicious it’s when they’re annoyed, it’s when there is veiled curiosity and there is an ultimate side eye of Kyle kept it in the Kyle did you keep it in there.

That is the ultimate side. I don’t want to say when the angel said something to everybody in the story, the appropriate response was the side eye. They start with poor old Zachariah in the temple. He’s an old man. He’s married to an old woman. They’ve gone all these years, no children. And the Angel Gabriel comes down and says, Hey, Zachariah, God has heard your prayers.

Your wife is going to bear, son. And Zachariah should have given the angel beside. I because he’s way too old for this to be considered. Mary has a visit from an angel. You found favor with God. And because you found favor with God, you’re going to bear his son. And Mary says, How can this be? Joseph, according to Matthew’s gospel, doesn’t have a specific visit with an angel.

The angels come to Joseph in a dream, so he can’t give the side eye. The shepherds have visitors, angelic visitors as they’re watching their sheep by night, the angel says to you, Do you guys the Savior has been born. And the angels in the birth narratives all have the same words. Fear not. And I want to say, if an angel ever comes to you and says, Don’t be afraid, you need to be very afraid.

Because that’s what the angel is about to do, is completely disrupt your life. What you knew as reality is going to be redefined. What you had planned is going to be changed when angels show up. Well, when angels show up, it’s all different. They’re there in the birth narrative. They were told they come and ministered to Jesus after the temptation.

They’re there again in the resurrection narratives. And when you hear the message of an angel, chaos will ensue and chaos will show up. We don’t like chaos at Christmas. We all do the countdown. We’ve all been watching Amazon to find out when the last shopping day really is. And some people will be on there tonight trying to get some gift delivered by Christmas morning.

We have our list. We’re told that somebody has a list and checking it twice and going to find out who’s naughty or nice. But when the angels come and when the message is delivered, chaos ensues. We don’t like that, particularly at Christmas time. I am convinced that with you moms particularly, there is a perfection gene around Christmas that you want to create the perfect Christmas atmosphere, that you want all of your decoration signs to match all of the rest of the house that you listen to the spouse and the children and to the in-laws and outlaws to try to figure out what is the perfect gift for them, because you want them to experience the

joy and the love and the peace. And the hope is Christmas. And I know how hard some of you moms are working to have a perfect Christmas. We decorated the house right after Thanksgiving, and our two dogs are mutts like they’re mostly pit bull mutts, but they’re mutts. And Rolo decided that the round things on the tree were very good to snatch off and to throw to the other dog.

Chester and Chester decided to round things on the bottom of the trees, were there for him to run to the backyard, to throw around in the backyard. If they had stuffing to rip the stuffing out of those round ornaments or if they were glass to go ahead and crush them in his pit bull. T Yes, he did. So the bottom third of the tree has been d ornamented look that up your dictionary.

Anything round that the dogs would would want to get. They got that and I’ve forgotten what dog it was we had. But that started one year with one dog and the only way we could scare the dog away from the Christmas tree is we parked a vacuum cleaner and upright vacuum cleaner right in front of the Christmas tree.

Dog would not go near it. So the dog has taken the bottom third of the ornaments off the tree. And one day I received a text message. It was just a picture. The dogs had decided that it was time to unwrap the Christmas presents under the tree. They got them all. Now, the funny thing about that is I am not a gift shaker.

I’m not curious about what the gift is. I want to open the gift and find out. But there are people in my household who are gift shakers, and the dogs opened all of her gifts and she was most pleased because now she knows what she’s getting for Christmas from people and she got to go wrap them all again.

Perfection at Christmas, the angels interrupted it. The angels drag out, drag out all the list, the calendars, the plans, the expectations of the people, and said, We have something new for you. We have something different for you to consider. So there she was excited, very alive, almost giddy. She was engaged to Joseph. She was dreaming about her future and it was going to be a perfect future.

She had plans and dreams and hopes and expectations. And then Gabriel showed up and her whole world was thrown into chaos, pregnant before marriage. Name him Jesus, the son of the most high God. How do I explain it? She wondered. She couldn’t. That story repeats itself throughout the history of God dealing with this people not quite so profound and not quite as significant as the story of Joseph and Mary.

But for a person that God has called out, it’s just as life changing. The shepherds, the wise men, the Apostle Paul Titus. James Augustine, Saint Francis. John Wesley, Dwight Moody, Billy Graham. C.H. SPURGEON. A.W. Tozer. C.S. Lewis. Thomas Merton. Beth Moore. Tony Evans. Priscilla Schirer. All these people and thousands of others who may not ever have the notoriety of the list.

I just read. But they all know that they were known by God and that God had called them by name, and that’s what mattered to them. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is still calling. He’s calling each of us to salvation. And if we’re already his, he’s calling us to take the next step in our faith path. This Christmas, after it’s all opened, after the boxes are folded and put away and the tissue paper is wrapped up, bagged up and carried out after Christmas, open your heart to what Jesus is calling you to.

Yes, you search for the gifts that God has given you, and he’s given everyone in this room something with which we can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as and ask Him, What do you want me to do? Lord? How can I serve you? And if you sit quietly enough, God will answer you, and you’re going to be surprised.

And when you tell the people around you that you’ve heard a calling from God that you’ve been called to serve him, they’re going to give you the side. I and you might not be able to explain the mysterious call of God on your life. Just tell everybody an angel did it. Yes. It’s about the baby in the manger, but it’s more about the light.

The light of God’s love, the light of God’s presence, the light that cannot be hidden and cannot be dimmed. Now, each year we pass the light as we see the power of the light, we’re reminded of this light of God that you and I carry in our hearts, the light that others see in you and through you. So as we stand and as we sing Silent Night, we’re going to pass the light of Christ and be reminded again that through him we are the light of the world.