Glory to God in the highest for paper

I will assume the reader is familiar with Luke’s account of the angels and the shepherds. The shepherds were already “filled with great fear” at the appearance of just one angel. So what an awe-inspiring sight it must have been when that whole heavenly host of angels appeared to them and sang their heavenly chorus: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased”—or “on whom his favour rests”. Luke tells us that already before the angelic host appeared—when just the first angel spoke to them “and they were filled with great fear”—“the glory of the Lord shone around them”. And now the whole host of angels bursts into their heavenly chorus, announcing that glory: “Glory to God in the highest!”

“The glory of the Lord” shone around those shepherds so the glorious presence of the Invisible, Immortal, All-Powerful, Holy Creator and Sustainer of all things now surrounded them, where they were, working their night shift herding sheep on some quiet hillside. Imagine their surprise when they saw and heard those angels declare, “Glory to God in the highest”! When heaven and earth began to overlap in the very place where they were!

The story quickly moves on from there to another scene. The shepherds would hurriedly leave their fields because of what the angel had said to them: “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in narrow strips of cloth and lying in a manger”. Yes, despite what most people look for in a religious “sign,” the sign of God’s presence and favour and peace is a lot more ordinary looking, a lot more down to earth: “a baby wrapped in narrow strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”

So there’s the great unexpected twist! After seeing and hearing heaven’s ranks of angels, the shepherds find the glorious presence of the Lord when they come crib-side to the little infant lying there. There was the “glory of the Lord” in that helpless-looking baby wrapped in crude cloths and lying on prickly straw in a feed trough. There, as the angel announced, is the “Savior,” the “Christ,” the Lord himself. There was God in human flesh, through whom peace would be made with sinful people—making them whole again from the destructive power of their sins and bringing them his favour.

Everything is upside down here, isn’t it? The Glory of God, who is the highest, is heard by the lowest on the social ladder—mere shepherds. The Glory of God, who is in the highest, is born as a lowly child in the lowliest place. The glorious presence of God hidden in the weakness of a newborn baby, dependent on his mother just to stay alive.

The Child born in Mary’s lowliness is precisely where the glorious presence of God is hidden, and where he reveals his peace and favour to all who receive him in faith! To you, and to me. Everything is upside down here because that is God’s way. God comes to us in ways that seem weak, lowly, and unworthy of our religious attentions. But come he does! In the flesh of a newborn baby to lowly shepherds back then; and today in waters of Baptism; in the written, read, and proclaimed Word of God; in the glorified and risen flesh of Christ in the Lord’s Supper—your Lord comes to you!

And Jesus, born in human flesh, comes to you in the flesh, here, speaking his forgiveness, blessing, and promise of life, and giving himself—his body and blood once sacrificed on the altar of the cross—to eat and drink for your forgiveness, salvation, and life.

So with humble and repentant hearts, let us glorify and praise God too, as the shepherds did!  Let us praise him in his Son, God made flesh for us. For The “Glory of the Lord” has descended to you and to me in Christ, Who Has Made Peace with God for Us, and in Whom We Have God’s Favour! Glory to God in the highest!

Blessings