When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about” (Luke 2:15).

There you are, keeping watch over your flocks by night.  If you’re stuck with “night duty,” you probably aren’t getting rich from tending sheep.  Suddenly: Hark!  Do you hear that?  Look!  Do you see that?  Angels …?

This week, as our series The Weary World Rejoices continues to unfold, we’re listening to the familiar, familiar story of Jesus’ birth, as Luke presents it (Luke 2:8-15).  And we’re listening to “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!” with its rich lyrics and that wonderful musical run, “Glo-o-o-o-o-o-ria in excelsis Deo!”

Why bring a word like repent into the midst of all this Christmas magic?  We’re already plenty weary as it is; why bring a downer-word like repent into what are already tough-enough times?

Maybe repent isn’t a downer-word, but an invitation.  Maybe repent isn’t about what we must do to get God to pay attention but rather how we respond to grace already given.  Maybe repent is a gift we could receive?

If we listen to what the angels sang, and how the shepherds responded, we see that repent fits right into the Christmas story.  Having heard the angels, what did the shepherds do? They repented: they changed attention and direction.  

Repent means to receive God’s gracious gift by reorienting, recalibrating, our lives. We change our minds about what to focus on, pay attention to.  We change the direction we’re heading, our feet moving in new rhythms, along new pathways.  

The shepherds, just like us, were paying attention to what they’re paying attention to: doing their jobs, trying to hold life together, talking about all the usual “stuff,” assuming that God can’t be interested in, couldn’t have something to say, to people like them.  

Then the angels start to sing.  

What do the shepherds do?  They repent: they listen to God, not to everything else.  And they get going, they move, they change direction: “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see…”  And they keep moving in that new direction: “When they had seen him, they spread the word … ,” their lives becoming more aligned with the Good News they heard and saw.

Every year, Christmas wings its way toward us, looking for us, inviting and welcoming us.  And asking: what are you paying attention to?  Where are you, where is your heart, this time around?  Where are you really heading, who are you really following?  Could repentance help a weary world, a weary heart, to rejoice?

Listen—angel-song!  Look—a Savior, where we never thought to go looking!  Let’s go!

Ever find your mind, your heart, your attention falling into familiar and deep ruts?  What if repenting, changing what you focus on and where you’re heading, isn’t primarily something you have to do but a gift God delights to give?  If repentance is a gift God delights to give, what form of this gift would you like to ask God for?  Let’s go!