Words of thankfulness (Luke 2: 1-20)

It’s Christmas Day and I would imagine some of us here have already opened up a few of our gifts, correct? Did we get some of the things we hoped we would? Excellent! And what did we say to the people who got them for us? Did we say a simple, “Thank you”, or did we say something more elaborate? I remember when I was a child, Mom and Dad would sometimes make my siblings and I write thank-you notes to the people who got us gifts, but who were too far away for us to thank them in person.

With that in mind, I read today’s scriptural passage and asked myself, the shepherds were the first ones to receive the gift of God in the person of the baby Jesus; how would they go about thanking God? I mean, this wasn’t some old ordinary present; this was none other than the birth of the Messiah, humanity’s Saviour! It was announced to them by this great big multitude of angels, who then burst into song! After all that, what possible words of thankfulness could the shepherds have used to properly express their joy?

As I’ve said numerous times before, God is satisfied with a simple “thank you” from us for anything God graciously gives us, for it shows our gratitude and our humility. But this…? Surely something as monumental as the birth of Christ deserves more than a mere two-word response! So ask yourselves: if I was there, what might I have said, hmmm?

Obviously, I can’t answer for all of us, but I have this funny feeling that we’d wind up doing exactly the same thing as those shepherds: telling everyone we’d meet about this wonderful thing that had come to pass, and then praising God for it all the way back home. The shepherds may have been uneducated, but in this story, they did just the right thing that the more educated and/or sophisticated people might not have. The shepherds didn’t overanalyze things, or make up these big, convoluted plans for following a prescribed manner of worship; no, they simply did it. They spontaneously followed the joy alive within their hearts and God saw that it was good.

Sometimes, it’s too easy for us to get all caught up in a load of pomp and pageantry, especially at this time of year. Maybe this is the time when it might be better to scale things back somewhat and focus not on what we can do, but rather, on the object of our attentions and affections: Jesus Christ. Maybe now is the time to simply sing our worship and praises in a free and freeing manner, and they will indeed be our thanks to God! Amen.