God chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.

It is Epiphany, 6th January. The ending of Christmas to all intents and purposes. Though for most people Christmas ended a couple of weeks ago. And for most people Christmas had no connection with the birth of Jesus.

We all know the passage from Luke’s Gospel telling of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. But because of its familiarity we lose sight of how shocking and revolutionary what happened on that first Christmas was.

When God planned the events of that first Christmas he knew what he was doing. He was turning the world upside down and showing the world that his kingdom has values that are very different to those of the world.

Mary and Joseph were peasants. Nazareth was a nowhere town anyway and they were nowhere town peasants. The depictions of Mary wearing pretty blue garments are wrong. Blue was for wealthy people. And she wasn’t wealthy and neither was her “husband” Joseph.

Yet God chose to use these peasants to be the earthly parents of his son. In God’s Kingdom the last come first and the first come last.

And let’s not get away from the fact of Mary’s pregnancy. To claim that the pregnancy was as result of God was hugely outrageous then. It’s beyond our comprehension now. And yet that is the story Mary stuck to. She would have been looked at with scorn and scepticism. Had she claimed for example that Joseph couldn’t wait until they were married or even that she had been raped by a Roman soldier, these things would have been accepted. But God, as the father of the child? Really? Crazy!

The fact that Mary and Joseph were peasants and the fact that Mary claimed God was the father of her child; these things would have immediately put the family on the edge of society.

But then we have to add in the flight to Egypt where they may well have lived in conditions far more squalid than in today’s refugee camps. Again outcasts.

Outcasts and yet God chose them to be the parents of his son.

Then let’s think of two other set of characters associated with the Christmas story – the “Magi” and the shepherds.
The Magi – Gentile astrologers from a foreign land – would have been despised by pious Jews. Yet they figure in Jesus’ nativity story.

And as for the shepherds. One of the debates learned rabbis at the time of Jesus had to consider was “When is a loaf not a loaf?” The reason being they needed to consider whether bread could be accepted as a tithe if the bread was inedible. At what point was bread so stale and mouldy that it didn’t have to be tithed? In the end these learned rabbis decided that in a tithe a baker would still have to tithe bread that even it was so stale and mouldy that only a shepherd would still eat it.

Shepherds then were pretty much on a par with animals in Jewish society. Shepherds were the lowest of the low.

These visitors to the Holy Family – the Magi and the Shepherds - are the equivalent of mega rich drug barons and homeless drug addicts turning up on our doorstep today. They too were outcasts from Jewish society.

In Luke’s account of the first Christmas the Shepherds are the main characters. And for the reasons I’ve just explained they are unlikely messengers – until we note Luke’s reminders that Joseph is a descent of the house of David, who was himself a shepherd. So with this in mind maybe the shepherds aren’t such outcasts after all? Who better to proclaim the birth of Jesus, a descent of David, than shepherds? Who better to proclaim the birth of the Good Shepherd than fellow shepherds?

These outcasts, these lowlife are the first to hear, the first to see and the first to tell of Jesus’ birth.

And this is God’s way. God’s way is very different to that of the world, as Paul reminds us:

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

26 My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn’t think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. 27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.
28 What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important.

God uses the shepherds, God uses a peasant woman and her peasant husband, God uses despised foreign astrologers, God uses these and more to tell of his Kingdom and help bring the Kingdom in. And to reflect the light of the world out into the darkness.
From the outset God has chosen the things and the people that are considered worthless by this world to show us what his kingdom is like. From the outset God has chosen the things and the people that are considered worthless by this world to proclaim the Gospel and help bring his kingdom in.

The Christmas story is therefore so different from the values of our world which places great stock on the ways of the powerful, the wealthy, the young, the good looking and the influential. God shows his kingdom is not based on those values. Little wonder that the Church is growing where people are not powerful, wealthy or influential.

The American Christian writer Philip Yancey says:

“Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.”

People don’t want anything to do with the Good News we’ve been given to proclaim because the Good News is uncomfortable. It challenges the values of our society. And yet we know it is also a message that gives hope.

It could be said that we are now outcasts from the society we live in. We are seen as irrelevant.

27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.
28 What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important.

This is an abridged version of a sermon preached on Christmas Eve 2014 at Central Methodist Church Chippenham