Darkness and Joy - Christmas 2015
The text for this sermon is Luke 2 - the Christmas story - read it here. What a joyful story this Christmas story is! Angels announcing the birth of the Christ child to a group of shepherds – shepherds, who in 1 st century Palestine were treated as untouchables, who were despised and excluded, who were dirty and smelly, but who still are the ones to whom God announces the birth of the child. And it is these shepherds who then run off to... where? Let’s see the text says about that: Well all it says is that Jesus is to be found laying in a manger – that is a feeding trough. And feeding trough are to be found where there are animals; and animals, actually goats to be exact, were usually secured in the many caves that can be found throughout the hills outside of Bethlehem. Why goats? There was no need to put sheep in there because sheep have nice wool coats that enable them to withstand the bitter cold nights, but goats have no coats so would freeze to death if lef...