The little angel said, "Glory to God in the highest" more than once.

[This is adapted from a story in my book, Once for a Shining Hour, available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon.com.]

In a children’s Christmas program at church, Addie, a very active three and a half years old, was the youngest of the angels.  She had one line from Scripture:  “Glory to God in the highest.” So when her time came, she went to the microphone to have her say.  

The mic was a tad tall for a girl who was three and a half.  So she tugged at it in the effort to get it to her level.  After doing the best she could, Addie said, “Glory to God in the highest.”  That should have been the end of Addie’s solo performance, but she wasn’t satisfied with the way it had gone.  So she said, as before, “Glory to God in the highest.”  

That still didn’t come out to her satisfaction, so once again, she planned to say those words from the angels: “Glory to God in the highest.”  But by now, some of the other kids were getting tired of Addie’s hogging the microphone.  Finally, an older girl stepped over to try to get Addie away from the mic so the rest of the cast could have their turns.  After a bit of a tussle, this Littlest Angel was led away, and the show went on.

That little performance got widespread exposure.  I saw it on YouTube along with hundreds of other amused viewers.

Obviously, Addie didn’t understand the entire plan for Christmas program.  She knew her one part of the angel’s greeting.  Other parts went by, unnoticed. 

I tell you this story for two reasons:  For one thing, Addie is my granddaughter.

Also, the message from that Littlest Angel is the climax of the message from a sky full of angels  with the promise of joy for all people from Luke 2.  The larger passage is directed to shepherds who are keeping their vigil on a cold, dark night.  That message begins with reassurance and a promise:

Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.
The men have good reason to be afraid because, Luke tells us, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.

In the old faithful King James Bible, when the shepherds saw the angel, they were sore afraid.  The comedian Brother Dave Gardner from the 1960s said, if you’re “sore afraid,” that means you’re scared to death.  But with the shepherds, it’s probably more than that.  George Bliss suggests this is “the awe which smites the mind” when we are struck with a sense of the “nearness of God.”¹

But the angel tries to calm the shepherds, assuring them that he has come with a message they need to hear:   I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.   So this is a message for everyone, not just for those smelly sheep herders working the night shift in the rough countryside on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

Our daughter-in-law,  Nurse Vicky,  Addie’s mother, works on the night shift,  more or less permanently at an obstetric hospital,  and seems to manage pretty well. But nighttime can be pretty scary if you’re out in the dark.  You’re looking and listening, half expecting something to happen or someone to come around to bother you.  

Sure ‘nuff, as these rugged men sit out there in the night, trying to outdo one another with their tall tales of spooks and apparitions, someone does come around to unsettle them.  And it’s not an ordinary someone.  It’s an angel of the Lord.  Luke says the glory of the Lord shone around them.

The angels’ appearance to the shepherds was in itself a fulfillment of the promise that this good news was to be for all people.

The promise that this good news is for all people means salvation is for the Down and Out and 
the Up and Out alike.   Whatever our financial or educational standing, we are all on level ground before God.  And that is part of the message of great joy to all people.

That great joy also extends to all races and national backgrounds, all colors, all languages, all religions and no religions, all political persuasions.  All of that is at the core of great joy for all people.  If language means anything, ALL people means ALL people. Not some people.  Not just folks we consider OUR kind of people, but ALL people, starting with those dirty shepherds who got the first word that a Savior is born in the little town of Bethlehem.  The Christmas story also includes those men of wealth who traveled a long distance, carrying gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  [G]ood news .  .  . to all the people.  .  .

For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

The city of David is Bethlehem.

To say this baby is the Savior for all people means He will be the universal Deliverer from sin.

The word Christ is simply the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. the Promised One, the Long-Hoped-For One.  

        Then, to call Jesus Lord is to declare Him to be at one with God.

So that is a threefold description of this Newborn Babe: Savior, Christ, and Lord.

That triple description may seem off-putting for these simple men of the land.  But when the angel tells the shepherds how they can track down and identify this Wonder Child, they can certainly identify with Him:

And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." 

Not in the most comfortable room in the best inn Bethlehem can provide.  But around on the backside of nowhere, lying in a trough the animals feed from.  That’s the realm these shepherds are familiar with.

So the shepherds will rush off in a moment to look for this Savior who is Christ the Lord.  But not before we get back to Little Addie’s exclamation: Glory to God in the highest.  Addie’s words did not come from one lone three-and-a-half year old, or from one lone angel, for that matter:  

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!”

As we seek that joy which the angels proclaimed to those ancient shepherds -- joy that will be to all people -- we need to distinguish joy from happiness.  Julie Yarborough, a minister in New Jersey, drew a distinction between joy and happiness:

We’re happy when things go our way, but joy comes from knowing “the presence of God-with-us at all times.”  We can celebrate joy, “even in the midst of grief and sadness.”  She also said joy “can erupt in a depressed economy, in the middle of a war, in an intensive care waiting room.” ²

United Methodist pastor Dean Snyder in the Georgetown section of our nation’s capital, continued the contrast between happiness and joy:

Joy is not something we can buy or sell or steal.  It’s not discounted at your favorite department store.  It can’t be downloaded or legislated or won in a lawsuit.  It can’t be earned or inherited or turned on with a remote control. ³  

Noted preacher and writer Frederick Buechner gives further contrast between joy and happiness:

Happiness comes from things we do, things we have: a satisfying job, a loving relationship, money, a vacation, or good health. But joy is unpredictable.  We can try to achieve happiness, but joy is something we can only receive. ³

We can contrast happiness and joy as we think further about the shepherds of Bethlehem.   These men are happy as they run to the manger.  Luke records that trip, beginning in verse 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." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.  And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 

The shepherds realize something deep and significant is unfolding before them as they run into town.  No doubt, this makes them happy to be on the scene of something that defies explanation.

Then, after a while, when the excitement dies down and they are back in the routine of tending sheep, something of a deeper level of awareness sets in.  Then they begin to reflect on all they have heard from the angels and have seen for themselves with Mary and Joseph and the Holy Child.  At that point, I believe we can say the shepherds move from happiness to joy.

When they begin to realize the difference this will make in their lives, that’s when joy sets in.  The initial happiness will die out when the excitement cools down after that night with the angels and the Babe in the Manger.  But as they consider the difference this good news can make, their long nights on the hillside will have new significance.  

Luke’s last word about the shepherds in verse 20 gives us a clue to their new-found joy:

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 

The shepherds echo the words of the angels, and perhaps we can hear echoes of a three-and-a-half year old as she, too, glorifies God as best she knows how, with her “Glory to God in the highest!”

My little granddaughter didn’t see the larger picture.  If you had quizzed her about her speech, she likely would’ve had difficulty explaining why the angels were singing, “Glory to God in the highest!”  But she took the part and said her one line -- more than once -- at her own level of understanding.  And that’s what we all do: think on our own level about Jesus coming into the world.

SOURCES

¹ George R. Bliss, “Luke,” An American Commentary on the New Testament, Volume II.  Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1884, p. 46.

² Julie Yarborough, “True Joy,” December 13, 1998, Summit, New Jersey.  christchurchsummit.org

³ Dean Snyder, “Making Way for Joy,” Foundry United Methodist Church, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., December 8, 2002.  http://www.foundryumc.org/sermons/12 8 2002. pdf.