Shepherds and a laundry pile

It might seem strange to use dry-cleaning as an analogy to our posture this Advent, but I actually think it’s an accurate example of how we sometimes approach our faith.

Do you clean your clothing before you drop it off at the dry cleaners? Of course not..but if you do…we need to talk.

If you’re like my husband and I, we collect a large pile of things to be dry-cleaned and then drop it off. There are things that have small stains we thought we might be able to get out ourselves, but put in the pile along with those stained items that we doubt the dry cleaners will be able to fix. You know the stains, the ones that as soon as they happen we think “That’s it..this stain is never coming out!”

If you’re also like my husband and I, that “pile” of clothing might sit around for a while. We live close to the dry cleaners. We literally pass it on the way out of our community, but we constantly “put off” the stop.

Let me help you connect the analogy going on here.

Advent is a time of preparation. It’s a time to celebrate, but also a time of surrender; to bring ourselves to Christ. This past Sunday we talked about how the Shepherds are a great example of how we need to do that during this time and always.

An angel visits the shepherds one evening and announces “Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!  And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

After that announcement it says “Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven,    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

Well understandably the shepherds were shocked by this visit as they listened to all that the angel had to tell them. I’m sure it all seemed odd to them. First, you may not know this, but shepherds were not at all respected in ancient society. They knew they were lowly shepherds not considered important in their society. They were actually considered ceremonially unclean, untrustworthy and uneducated, yet here was an angel from God speaking to THEM! Why on earth would an angel be telling THEM about the birth of the Savior…the Messiah…the Lord?  In addition to that, they are told that this Messiah is in a manger of all places! Everything about this message would have seemed out of place, but their reaction is priceless. They don’t skip a beat. They don’t question.

It says” When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.” 

Did you catch that first part? “They hurried”. Remember what we know about these people. They are low on the social scale, considered untrustworthy and ceremonially unclean; but they don’t disqualify themselves from the angel’s message. They don’t pause and say…”They couldn’t have meant us” or ”first we’ll stop home shower and change.” Nope…. They hurry to Jesus.

The analogy here is that we don’t need to clean ourselves up before hurrying to Jesus. We can’t just see this part of the Christmas story as quant and move on. There is an important message here that can’t be missed. God is not just in the extraordinary…He’s in the ordinary.

Jesus wants us to drop what we’re doing and come to Him just as we are! No showering, changing or stain removing. To come to Him dirty, broken, rejected, unworthy….and fall at His feet.

And this is where the dry-cleaning comes in. Some stains we think we can get out ourselves and some stains we think are so bad they will never come out. Do we think that about ourselves too? Do we fail to hurry to Christ at times because we either feel “We’ve got this” or “There’s no hope”?

Maybe we just put it off (like the pile my husband and I avoid taking to the cleaners for a while). We know we should just bring it there, it just seems out of the way or we forget all together. That can be us at times too. We either put off our time with Christ because we can’t seem to find the time, or we’re afraid we’re too stained, too dirty or too far gone.

When we realize that there is nothing we can’t come to our Savior with, we are not only filled with the love of Christ, but we overflow with the love of Christ to others around us. It says “After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.” When we truly realize Jesus came for ALL, we too become messengers of God pouring this beautiful invitation out to the world. And that’s the best gift we can give this season.