In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. The Shepherds and the Angels 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 2:1–20.
We find ourselves in a season that pulls us in two directions. Out in the world, the pace quickens to a frantic rush. The lights are bright, the music is giddy, and the lists are long. It is a season of doing, of buying, of wrapping, of planning. Yet, at the heart faith is a story that begins not with a rush, but with a profound and holy stillness. It begins on an ordinary night, in the quiet fields outside Bethlehem, where a few shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks. Nothing was happening. The world was asleep. And it was into that silence that the heavens broke open with the song of angels. The central purpose of Advent is to seek the quietness in our own hearts, and to pause, as the shepherds did, and truly listen to the angel song that pierces the noise of our lives, which is the “good news of great joy” that is for all people. In Jesus, God did not just send a baby; He sent us a series of transformative gifts, wrapped not in paper and bows, but in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. These gifts understood as Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love guide us to an understanding of why God sent the Savior in the form of a vulnerable baby, and to receive them is to understand our purpose. And to share them is to fulfill our highest and most sacred calling.
The season of Advent is, above all, a season of hopeful waiting. But the hope that Scripture speaks of is not the flimsy optimism our world so often peddles. It is not a feeling that things might get better. Biblical hope is a steadfast, rugged trust in the unchanging character of God and in His ancient promises—promises that find their ultimate and breathtaking fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. This is a hope that confronts worldly disappointment head-on. We have all known the ache of a broken heart, the sting of failure, the long shadow of grief. However, the hope found in Christ is different, because God offers it even to the “worst of sinners,” with a promise that when we turn to Him, He will pardon us, reconcile us, and never forsake us. In the Old Testament, the words for hope carry the meaning not of simple wishes, but of waiting with eager but patient expectation. Trusting that God will fulfill His promises precisely because of His faithful character. The angel’s announcement grounds it in historical fact. This Savior was “born this day in the city of David.” This happened on a real day, when Caesar Augustus was emperor and Quirinius was governor of Syria. It happened in a real city, a place you can visit today. Our hope is anchored in the fact that God broke into human history on a specific day, in a specific place, for a specific purpose. It is this certain and historical hope that provides the unshakable foundation for the next gift He brings.
When the heavenly host appeared, their song was strategically precise: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…” This was not a call for a mere ceasefire or the absence of conflict. The peace they proclaimed was the deep, biblical concept of shalom which is a cosmic state of wholeness that blossoms organically from a just and righteous order. The world offers a fragile peace, dependent on treaties or fleeting goodwill, but Christ brings a peace that fundamentally reorders our reality. Because Christ tears down the barrier of sin, establishing our peace with God, a new reality dawns within us: the unshakeable peace of God that defies our circumstances. This tranquility that “surpasses all understanding,” guards our hearts and minds even when the storms of life rage around us. This reconciled peace is not passive, but it fuels the reconciliation between people. For when we are at peace with our Creator, we are empowered to become agents of His peace in a divided world. The Apostle Paul teaches that Christ Himself gives us our peace by breaking down the dividing walls of hostility between Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, right and left and continues to reconcile all people to one another in His one body. Once our relationship with God is restored through hope and peace, it naturally overflows into a profound and unshakable joy.
The angel’s message to the terrified shepherds was one of “good news of great joy.” And just like hope and peace, joy is radically different from worldly happiness. For it is not an emotion based on a personal achievement or a desire fulfilled. Rather, it is rooted within a deep sense of safety and freedom sourced from God’s loving and unchanging presence, thus this joy can even be experienced in the midst of sorrow. The angel announced this joy to the shepherds, but Mary poured out her joy to all of us through her song, the Magnificat, which reveals the anatomy of joy. She begins with, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Thus Mary teaches us that joy flows from God-magnification. It begins with a posture of humility, which is an honest recognition of our own spiritual poverty, and dependence on God. The source of joy is not in what we have, but in Who has us. It is the joy of knowing God, and of being loved by Him, because we realize that through Jesus our sins have been forgiven. This is why the Apostle Paul could speak of being “sorrowful yet always rejoicing,” because this joy runs deeper than pain. It is a current of gladness that flows from the very heart of God, a heart that is, in its essence, selfless and perfect love.
Thus the greatest of the Advent gifts is God’s demonstrated love through The Incarnation, where God becomes flesh and dwells among us, becoming the supreme manifestation of God’s love. This gift is not just one of God’s attributes but exists as His very essence. The Apostle John states that God is love. Which ultimately is revealed in Christ, is a promised love because the Gospel was not a divine afterthought, because it was promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, and rooted in the ancient covenant God made with David. The baby in the manger is the fulfillment of a love story centuries in the making. Additionally, it is a powerful love, because it has the power to fundamentally change our identity. In the heart of the Roman empire, which defined people by status and power, believers were given a new name, saints. In a world that defines us by our performance and our failures, this love bestows upon us a new identity rooted not in what we do, but in whose we are. It is a love that silences the accuser and grounds our worth in the unshakeable affection of our Creator. Finally, it is a pervasive love. The Gospel was designed to break down every barrier. Paul’s mission was “to call all the Gentiles,” a living testament that God’s love knows no boundaries of ethnicity, culture, or geography. This gift is for “all people.” Our ability to love, therefore, is not something we conjure up on our own. It is always a response. As 1 John 4:19 reminds us, “We love because he first loved us.” Having received and become witnesses to these incredible gifts, God calls upon us to respond to the grace with obedience rooted in faith.
We are now commissioned to be His witnesses. This is not an optional extra for the spiritually elite; it is the natural, necessary, and joyful response to a genuine encounter with the living God. To receive these gifts is to be charged with sharing them. For this sacred task, God gives us a perfect model within the Christmas story in Luke 2. The shepherds model an active and urgent witness. After hearing the angelic announcement, they did not debate or delay. They said, “Let us go,” and they “came in a hurry.” And after they had seen the child, they “made known the message” to everyone they could. Let us not forget who these people were as they were social outcasts, despised by respectable society, whose testimony was not even admissible in a court of law. And yet, God entrusted His most important news bulletin to them first, proving forever that He gives His message to the humble. They received the message of God from the quiet fields of Bethlehem and carried to the world a firsthand witness to the very heart of God. We have received the gifts of Hope, an anchor in the darkness; Peace, the wholeness of God’s presence; Joy, the song of a humble heart; and Love, the very essence of our Creator. With these gifts come our sacred task, which is to be witnesses to what we have received, seen, and heard, just as the first witnesses responded. The angels filled the sky with a song: “Glory to God in the highest.” And the shepherds, after seeing the child, returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen.” The first Christmas was not a silent night, but rather it was a night filled with praise, so we cannot go out keeping to ourselves about what we encounter in silence, but we can join the heavenly chorus. Our hearts, once cluttered by the noise of the season, are now tuned to the song of heaven. We enter into a waiting and weary world, carrying the light of Christ and singing His praises. Let us become living echoes of that good news of great joy. In the words of the song of old, Go, Tell It on the Mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!
Elpis and Shalom 