You’re In! || Born to Save!

Luke 1:30-35

For our sermonettes tonight, we’ll look at the four verses of the hymn where shepherds lately knelt and see the surprises that are talked about in each of those four verses. And the first one is, what an unlikely place. Jesus is the most important birth that ever was. When you were born, I’m guessing you were not laid in a manger. A manger is a feed trough where animals eat from. I would guess when you had your own children, you did not lay them in feed troughs. Best of conditions, most cleanly of conditions. Jesus is the most important birth ever. Why such an unlikely place? Because that’s God’s way. You see the passage in front of you from the book of 1 Kings. Elijah is hiding in a cave. He’s scared. He’s despondent. He’s in despair. Everything is lost, he thinks. And God comes to reveal himself to Elijah. And there’s a great and powerful wind that tears the rocks apart, but the Lord wasn’t in the wind. And then there was an earthquake, but the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. And then there was a fire, but the Lord wasn’t in the fire. And then there came a gentle whisper. The Hebrew literally says, “A voice, a still, a weak one.” Wait, God reveals himself as a weak voice? Yeah. Because that’s God’s way. God’s way isn’t to come and impress us with his power and might, but to shower upon us his love and his grace. And that’s why Jesus, I think, is born in that most unlikely of places and laid in that most unlikely of places, because he’s going to ultimately go to the most unlikely of places, the cross. And can you imagine? The Father is going to turn his back on his own son, and Jesus is going to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Who should it have been who is being forsaken?” Should have been me. Should have been you. But it’s not. Because Jesus went to that most unlikely place of all, the cross. And humanly, the story starts when he’s laid in that most unlikely of places, a manger, so that God can give the gift of salvation to you and to me. Amen?