Suddenly. . .

The one word in the Shepherd's tale in Luke 2:8-22 that sums up the whole story is the word “suddenly.” “Suddenly” means something unexpected, without forewarning.  “Suddenly” can never have predicted or thought until it happens. “Suddenly” is something that is always a total surprise.

The visitation of angels to the shepherds was a “suddenly.”  These shepherds were probably not even Jewish. The Jews lived mainly in the towns and villages.  Bedouin Arabs grazed their sheep in open country, and lived in tents on the hillside, wandering from place to place wherever the grass grew.  They did not even have the prophecies of the Old Testament to guide them, and may not ever have heard the term “Messiah.”  They were just going about their business when “suddenly” it happened.

These shepherds were just ordinary people doing a routine, boring job.  Sheep sleep in the evening, so they were unlikely to wander off. Their job was to watch that they did not get stolen by rustlers or raided by animals.  They had to count them all night.  Imagine--they did for a living what we do to fall asleep—count sheep!  They just night watchmen for a sheep flock, having to stay awake and alert, but not challenged in any other way in their lives.  Like most of us, they liked it that way. But then, came a “suddenly” and their beliefs and their lives were shaken to the core.

 “Suddenly” happens to all of us. We may go for days, years, even decades doing pretty much the same old thing every day, when out of the blue comes a “suddenly” that changes everything. One day our boss tells us we’ve been laid off, a stranger’s car runs a red light and smashes into the driver’s side of our vehicle. a doctor tells us that we have cancer,  or a phone call alerts us that someone close to us has died. Most “suddenlys” seem bad when they come only a few “suddenly’s seem good when they happen.  Whether good or bad, they bring stress and confusion. It is human nature to prefer a comfortable, quiet, and predictable life style, like counting sheep on a hillside, to a world of stress and danger.  Social scientists call this preference

Homeostasis, the preference for doing the same old thing in the same old way.  We all hate it when something upsets our routine.  We’d rather be in a rut than hit by a “suddenly.”

These shepherds were peacefully settled on the hillside, when suddenly an angel appeared to them.  Today, we would call it a UFO sighting, since they probably did not know what an angel way.  Then the glory of the Lord shone around them.  What that “glory” looked like we do not know, but we usually imagine it as a great spotlight.  They shepherds would not have called it that since spotlights did not exist in their day.  It was a bright, blinding light. When they saw it, they were terrified—“sore afraid” the King James Version puts it.  They fell down like dead men on the ground in utter and complete terror.  Wouldn’t you?  They’d never seen an angel before, or a bright light of any kind.

The people of Jesus’ day were much more superstitious than we are today. They kept lucky charms on them to hold off “suddenlys”—amulets,  idols,  bags of magic mixtures.  I can imagine them holding them up to the angel, but they couldn’t make him go away.  He was suddenly there, and he was not leaving.

We go to great lengths, too, to keep the “suddenlys” from happening.  We get regular checkups, take vitamins, buckle our seat belts, get insurance against the unexpected. But the unexpected happens anyway. “Suddenly” comes when God wants it to come—and when they do, we, like the shepherds, are terrified. 

We Christians are a scared bunch of people, as a whole. We shouldn’t be but we are. Get a roomful of Christians together, and they will quickly start talking about how bad the world is getting—how bad Hollywood is, Washington is, or how godless their neighbors have become.  This is usually accompanied by worried looks, shaking heads, and the exclamation, “I don’t know what the world is coming to!” When the conversation turns to technology, it’s much the same story. We can’t believe how “suddenly” the world has changed, so it frightens us.

But Christians should not be scared of “suddenly.”  We have God’s assurance that He is in control.

There are two ways of facing the “suddenly” of like.  One is to avoid them by taking precautions.  We think that if we build a wall of precautions around our lives, keeping ourselves covered by careful living and cautious behavior, then nothing bad will happen to us.  We avoid things that make us afraid,  and try to reduce risk.  

There are two things wrong with this.  First, it doesn’t work. Nothing could have prevented those angels from appearing, just as nothing on earth can prevent accidents from happening, loved ones from dying, or cancer from growing. We fool ourselves if we think we are safe from “suddenlys”. 

The second, and greatest problem with the cautious life is that it basically godless. Instead of trusting God we trust ourselves.  We  assume that we have the power to be our own saviors if we are just smart enough or cautious enough to get by without incident.  But we are not God, and we cannot protect ourselves from “suddenlys”.

The other way of dealing with “suddenlys” is to endure by trusting Providence. Providence is an old word that means “God is in control.”  Providence is the belief that everything comes into our lives for a reason, and that even when unsettling things happen, it is not because Satan is attacking us, but because God is leading us.  This was the case when the angel said to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”   In other words, Don’t worry, This is a good thing,  which you will see.

It’s hard for us to imagine how the “suddenly” in our lives could possibly lead to good things, but they do.  Great blessings only come through great danger.  We cannot get a better world until our present world is shaken.  God is about to shake their world.

The angel continued: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  God has just sent His Son into the world, and this will be a blessing to all people. 

Then comes the word “suddenly.” In verse 13:  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Look at the exact phrasing of the passage here.  Luke does not say that the angel was suddenly joined by a multitude of the heavenly host—he said the heavenly host appeared.  They were just there. 

This is the only place in the Bible where a multitude of the heavenly host appeared.  Prophets such as Isaiah and John in Revelation had visions of heaven where they saw a heavenly host.  Jacob had a dream of the heavenly host going up and down from heaven, but these were only dreams or visions. This is the only place in the Bible where a heavenly host appears to announce anything.  But they did not arrive,  they appeared. In truth, they were there all along, the shepherds could not see them. 

Every day, we are surrounds by a multitude of the heavenly host. They are beside us, above us, around us, in uncounted numbers. We just can’t see them.  Only in the shining glory of the coming of the Lord does actual reality appear.  We go through our lives worried that God has abandoned us, when His angels are in every part of the universe we see.  When “suddenlys” happen, the veil of flesh is withdrawn, and the real reality of God’s providential care is revealed.  All of creation is alive with angels, and they are all rejoicing. 

All these angels are here to point us to something.  “This be a sign unto you You will find the Baby.”  Can it be any more clear that the angels want them to go meet Jesus?  This huge light show and angelic concert, which scared the wits out of the shepherds, is for one purpose—to get them to go meet the Savior. 

When “suddenlys” happen in our lives we should not automatically assume that the result of them is going to be something good. It can really be disastrous. The outcome of the “suddenly” depends on whether or not we go where it is pointing.  If the shepherds had stayed no the hillside that night, then nothing would have changed for them. They would assume it was some kind of collective hallucination and dismissed it. But some of them at least decided to go seek Jesus.  When they found Him, then everything else was changed.

When “suddenlys” happen to us, we have a choice—we can either ignore it, run from it, or listen to it.  The shepherd heard the message and turned to Jesus. 

Look at the emotional arc of this story.  They shepherds begin the night bored. Then they are terrified. Then they are curious.  Then they were joyfully amazed as is recorded in verses 17-18

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed.”

Just think—if they had yielded to their fears, they would never have been amazed. But when they trusted God, they met Jesus, and then they were filled with joyful amazement.  If they had not they would have been no different by the next night, and neither would the people who were blessed by them.  But because they found the courage to change their lifestyle for one night, they found Jesus, and were changed forever.

Have you ever seen a father playing with a small baby? The father takes the baby and pretends to throw him in the air. For a second, the baby is frightened. But then the father holds on to the Baby and grins, and the baby giggled. Then the father does it again, and the baby giggles again, until the baby knows that every time he pretends to throw he is really safe.  His father never lets God.

The father of the baby is not aware of it, but he is teaching the baby important life lessons.  Whenever our world is upset, the Father is not letting go.  Our Heavenly Father has never stopped surrounding us by a multitude of angels. He does not put us in apparent danger unless He is determined to get us out.  The “suddenlys” of life are just ways of pointing us to a greater joy beyond—the joy of becoming amazed by Jesus.

Christmas, I fear has ceased to us to be a “suddenly.” We’ve gotten used to the story and we are no longer amazed. So to get our attention, God has to scare us into listening.  Don’t let the “suddenlys” frighten you. They are God’s way of bringing us amazement, when we find our way to Jesus.