Scripture: Luke 2:8, 15-20
Shepherds
Sheep and pastures and kindly, simple shepherds standing vigil over the flock makes a wonderful image in our mind. As television and advertising repeatedly demonstrate, however, image is not everything.
The reality of shepherds is that they were not a kindly, clean and gentle lot. They were looked down upon and had few more privileges than slaves. They were gruff, rugged men (and boys) who had to be able to defend their livelihood and very lives from the dangers of the wild. Those dangers were not nearly so present during the daytime as during the night when they were left alone in the chill, blustery dark to bundle against the cold with extra cloaks and a wine skin (or two). People, respectable people, did not like shepherds and did not want them around. God, for some reason, carries on throughout scripture a love affair with shepherds.
The king after God’s own heart, David, was a shepherd before finding respectable work. God’s grace, or youthful naiveté, or his time as a shepherd, or a combination of all three gave David the courage to face Goliath. Moses was forced to work as a shepherd after fleeing Egypt. It was on one of those long days watching over the flock that he was distracted by a bush that didn’t seem to be consumed. The beloved 23rd Psalm is a shepherd’s song… Over and over God is referenced as the shepherd and the people as God’s sheep. I am not sure if that tells us more about God or more about who we are, but the references are multiple. The fact that God sent an angel to tell some shepherds of Jesus’ birth doesn’t surprise us, but it would have surely surprised the “respectable” people of that day.
Now these shepherds on that hill by Bethlehem had, among other issues, an image problem. The problem they had is that no matter what God thinks of you, it’s too easy to believe what others keep telling you about yourself and who you are, or what we are worth. If we receive praise and honor from others we easily think too highly of ourselves. If we receive ridicule and shame from others looking down their noses at us, well, we tend to believe that as well.
When an angel appeared to them they surely thought the wrath of God was coming to confirm what others had told them all along. The Bible says they feared with great fear (“phobon megan” – megaphobia). I love the KJV from 1611, “and they were sore afraid”. So much fear it hurts. Through their blind terror they heard the angel tell them it was bringing not wrath, but news, and not just any news; “good news” (“euangelion”). This word is elsewhere translated in the Bible as the word gospel. The angel and the choir that followed was bringing good news “which shall be for all people” but for that night it was good news just for them, a very special announcement indeed.
God would, in time, announce his coming to all the world, but the first humans God chose to receive the news of the Savior’s birth were not the powerful, the best, the brightest, nor the cleanest; God came to the lowest of the low. To people of the first century hearing this story, that point would be as obvious as a choir of angels. Whatever others may have told the shepherds about who they were or what the world thought of them, no matter what they thought of themselves or their value to society, they were first in line in the heart of God.
They found the babe and they told their tale and scripture says Mary pondered all these things in her heart. I wonder if part of what she pondered that night was the curious and amazing grace of God demonstrated in who God elects and selects? These shepherds worshipped and then I imagine they went back to their barren hill and confused sheep. The nights were still cold, bleak and dangerous, and they still appeared to the world as a motley, disheveled bunch. But from that moment on, despite the bite in the evening air, it could not penetrate the warmth in their heart knowing who they really were and are to God.
Prayer: Holy Shepherd, we know you love the worst and the best not because of who we are but because of who You are. Help us to see ourselves as we truly are in your sight and live accordingly. In Christ’s name. AMEN
Activity: What has the world told you about yourself? How have you believed it? How can you receive or accept what and who God says you are?
Wilmot First Presbyterian Church 
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