Just before we read the scriptures, I have to tell you about another article handed to me last week. This one was in the New Yorker magazine, and it was an article chronicling the huge Wbusiness that has developed out of printing Bibles.

Did you know that the Bible is not only the best-selling book of all time, but is by far the best-selling book of the year, every single year? For instance, in 2005 there were 25 million Bibles purchased by Americans…double the amount of the latest and ferociously popular Harry Potter book.

Now, that’s all interesting. But what the article really highlighted were the amazing number of different editions being produced. If you’ve looked for a Bible lately, you may know how overwhelming this is: should I get the Family Foundations Study Bible, or the Grace for the Moment Daily Bible? Should I get a King James, a New King James, a Revised Standard, a New Revised Standard, a New International…or study versions tailored for teens. For women. For boys. For tweens. For the vibrant urban crowd. For health conscious people. For surfers.

Very confusing. But they have now gone over the top. Now you can order a “Personal Promise Bible” that is custom-printed with your name own name or home town, inserted right in the text! 5,000 times in the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs! For instance:

• “The Lord is Brian’s shepherd.”
• “Woe to you, O Enumclaw.
• Woe to you, Ballard!”

Could there be any stronger evidence that we think the universe revolves around US?!

This morning, Brian and I are going to read from a plain, ordinary translation of the Bible that is in your pews. I think it says “Holy Bible” on the front of it. I assure you, though, it is intended for every single person.

Reading: Luke 2:8-20

When will we learn? I mean, honestly. Is it just me, or does it seem that so often we labor under the illusion that God will work through the most powerful, the most articulate, the wealthiest, the strongest, the most educated, the most innovative people? Maybe you don’t say it, but honestly...don’t you think it? So by association, if the church could just get the right marketing people, the right personalities for its leaders, the right initials after staff names…or if we could get enough Christians into positions of leadership and power, then we could really have an impact for the kingdom of God.

Now, I don’t mean to be skeptical of people in top leadership positions, or who have great gifts in various areas. I just don’t want us to lose sight of the fact that so many times…that’s just not how God works. Especially as recorded in the scriptures.

In fact, if you think about it, most often it seems that the way God works is through the most unlikely. The surprising. The miraculous. The impossible. In fact, “impossible” seems to be the way God works so much of the time…I think we should start looking for it. Even expecting it. The high probability…of God doing the impossible.

Look at a few of the pieces surrounding the Christmas story, as an example:

First, that the Messiah of the whole world would come from this little nation of Israel is pretty amazing. I mean, they really don’t deserve it. Despite the fact the Bible is centered around the events and history of Israel, in the greater scope of things in the world at the time, Israel is a nothing. A little tiny nation, constantly being threatened, stepped on and controlled. The Messiah could come, maybe from Rome, or from Egypt, but not Israel, for heaven’s sake.

Impossible.

Or, Bethlehem. The angel tells the shepherds that God is really up to something in Bethlehem. Now, Bethlehem is not a great town. More like a small suburb of Jerusalem. It’s Edmonds! The Messiah ought to come from Jerusalem. From a world class city, right? Little dinky? Bethlehem?

Impossible.

Furthermore, even the prophet Micah acknowledges that Bethlehem is in a small and pretty insignificant region, Ephrathah, sort of a backwater county. It’s Snohomish County. God’s Messiah? Who would have thought? C’mon.

Impossible.

Now, Bethlehem is also called “the city of David.” Well, now we’re getting somewhere, right?! David was at least a king, a great king. But Bethlehem can only be called the City of David because his dad, Jesse, was from there.

If you remember the story from I Samuel, Jesse had eight sons, and somehow when it came time to find a king, God bypassed all of the first seven, though they were older, stronger, mightier. And his eye landed on David. The youngest. The one who wasn’t even there for the potential audition for kingship because he was out…yep, watching the sheep in the fields.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on sheep. But I watched carefully when I was in Kenya in August, and I watched the teenage boys in charge of keeping their family’s goats out off the highways, crouched down or throwing rocks, and I noted that they looked absolutely bored to tears. And here is King David, out watching the sheep outside of Bethlehem.

So God’s Messiah will come out of a very small nation, an insignificant region, a little suburban town, and out of the local line of David, whose qualification was that out of eight strapping boys, he was the youngest, the smallest…and he was stuck out in the fields watching the sheep. C’mon. Who would’ve thought?

Impossible!

So here we are in the story, near the time of Jesus’ birth. Who will receive the news of what God has been cooking up first? Who will be the very first recipients of the good news that God has acted decisively in human history? The most veteran politicians? The Head Priest in Jerusalem? The Emperor of Rome? No. Some shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem, in the middle of the night. Oh, c’mon.

That’s impossible.

Now, there’s lots of characters in the Christmas story that have been so romanticized that they bear little relation to reality. But most everyone is in agreement that whatever else these shepherds were…they were probably not noble or necessarily gentle folk.

Many accounts of shepherds in those days list them with the dishonest and even as thieves and robbers. At the very least they would have been poor, and near the bottom rung of society, unwelcome in better company.

Lowly night shift manual laborers.
Migrant farm workers?
Day laborers lining up at the Millionaires Club?

These poor paupers are the ones who receive the greatest message of all time, and are drawn to Bethlehem to bear witness to the birth of Christ? Oh, c’mon.

That’s impossible.

Why would God choose them? Here are some possibilities:

One possibility: It is in the nature of God to watch out for, and incorporate the poor and needy in his work.

The “preferential option for the poor” is what liberation theologians sometimes term it. God is particularly concerned with those who are oppressed, sick, poor and marginalized. With the attention Jesus and the New Testament give to those who are on the margins, perhaps it should be no surprise at all to us that God would speak first to these poorest of poor with the good news of one born into their midst.

In the gospels, the ones who probably should understand…never do. And at whatever point we isolate ourselves from the folks who struggle in our world…it is we who are in danger. In danger of missing what God is doing, and in danger of not being where God is at work.

Second possibility: God spoke to those who could believe, in a way they could understand.

Jacques Ellul speculated that God was speaking to poor shepherds who would have believed in the supernatural, in miracles…in signs. He said

“The poor are called first. In the kingdom of heaven, the first in this world are the last to arrive. The shepherds arrive first. So close to God’s heart because of their poverty, they were right there, near the sheep pen, which is their own place. Jesus entered human misery, and those who live in misery find him only a few steps away.”

God spoke in a way they could hear. GK Chesterton once wrote that the Bethlehem story is so plain that not only the shepherds but almost the sheep could understand it!

Jesus came to where they were, was laid in a trough for animals that they knew, was as outcast as they would ever be. God spoke to them:

"I am bring YOU good news…to you is born this day…this will be a sign for you: you will find a child.”

It was simple. It was language they could hear. Sometimes in our sophistication we just miss the message: God came here. Right here. God became a child.

Third possibility: God spoke to people…who would respond.

Simple. When the angel was done speaking, when the angels were done singing and it was once again quiet over the fields outside of Bethlehem, the shepherds didn’t seem to hesitate. No conference called among the shepherds union to explore options, no waiting until a more convenient day, no hesitating to wonder if they were hallucinating or not. They just heard, and moved out. I want to be like that...don’t you?

In Isaiah 61:1, which Jesus later used to describe his own mission, it says “the poor have good news preached to them.” These poor shepherds sure did. The best news that had ever been preached. And when they responded to it, what they found was that the sermon…was a person, Jesus. The sermon walked in their door. C’mon.

Impossible.

How many times can we say “impossible” before we start to realize that…it keeps on happening? And what God started by directing poor shepherds to his Son in a manger…He continues to this day. The impossible keeps happening.

Bethany’s own Mark Cutshall helped write a book called “A Life Well-Lived.” One of the stories in the book is about Dr. Paul Brand and his wife Margaret.

Paul Brand is a man I’ve talked about before, an almost legendary physician who ministered in amazing ways to people with leprosy, much of it in India. In the 1940’s he met a young Indian man named Ardi, who was well-educated and very articulate but outcast because he had contacted leprosy. Brand worked with Ardi’s body, and affirmed him with respect and compassion.

They made great progress, and Ardi eventually became a teacher at the Christian Medical College. Along the way, they had many conversations about faith, and though Ardi respected the Brands’ love for Jesus, he never accepted that Christ’s love might apply to him.

Over the years the Brands eventually lost touch with Ardi. Then in August of 2000 they returned to India, and were staying on the campus of the Christian Medical College. In the middle of a monsoon rainstorm, they were just going into the door of their lodgings and a young man stepped forward, along with a number of other people and introduced himself.

“I am Ardi’s son. And this is my mother, my wife and children. We heard you were coming. We’ve traveled six hours on the bus to meet you. We just want to come and thank you for all you did for my father.”

They all went indoors to dry off, and the Brands learned that Ardi himself had died eight years previous. Then Ardi’s son handed the Brands a gift, a neatly wrapped little brass bowl. It was covered by an Indian newspaper, but in the middle was a copy of the famous Holman Hunt picture of Jesus knocking on a closed door.

The Brands asked Ardi’s son about the picture. He explained carefully that “Jesus wants to come into our lives…but he waits for us to open the door.”

“Have you done that?” they asked.

His eyes lit up. “Oh, yes. And not just me…the reason we are Christians today is because of our father. Forty years ago, you accepted him just as he was. When everyone else cursed and ridiculed him, you treated him with respect. You lifted my father out of the gutter. And because of him, my whole family and I have become Christians and know and serve the Lord.”

What? C’mon. Over all those years, in a country where it can be difficult to be a Christian, losing touch for a long period of time, a conversation started because of an old newspaper wrapped around a bowl…only to find out that God somehow fanned a flame of faith? And spread it across an entire family? C’mon.

Impossible.

Our family went downtown this week, and ran into someone we hadn’t seen for years and years, someone we knew in high school. As we visited for a few moments, he pulled me aside and said “Dan, did you know I became a Christian three years ago? Can you believe it?!” Yes.

And so some poor, simple shepherds, just as they are… receive the good news. They show up at a rough stable, and find a baby. A Savior. The Messiah. The Lord. They start talking about it. They change the world.

Impossible.

And so we receive the good news. Right where we are, right in the midst of our world, right in whatever brokenness is a part of us, whatever our insecurities. Christ comes, to us and for us…and wants us to work in his Kingdom.

Impossible?

How many times do we have to say “That’s impossible” before we finally see that ever since a baby was born in Bethlehem, God’s love incarnate…the impossible seems to have become the highly probable?

It happened 2000 years ago.
It happened in India in 1940.
It happened downtown last week.
It keeps happening.

For nothing is impossible with God.