Christmas and the Shepherds

[cappie]

St Luke in the Gospel tells us that  “ In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took it in turns to watch their flocks during the night...” The shepherds did not return to their hometowns to be registered. They were on the very bottom rung of society. They couldn’t pay taxes and had fallen so far between the cracks of the Roman Empire that they weren’t even expected to. They were nobodies. When it came time for the registration, to show up and present their names and papers to the government, no one looked for them. They quite literally didn’t count.

  Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them… suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘ ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour.’!”

Why are we always surprised that it is the last and the lost and the least to whom God brings the Good News first? The people who were rejected and scorned and abandoned, people on whom society relied for manual labour and to endure the danger of scaring off predators from the sheep, saw the heavenly host and the glory of the Lord. David was a shepherd who became a king, and so was Jesus. But where David stayed a king, Jesus’ identity as the Good Shepherd was always more important to him than any regal crown or royal rule.

  Shepherds know what counts, and that is counting every sheep, making sure every single one is safe and home and cared for, no matter how wayward and stubborn.

To the empire, the shepherds didn’t count. But to God, they did.

And to Jesus they did, to the point that he took on their name and their ministry, calling himself the Good Shepherd. Why did he do that? Perhaps in gratitude for their next actions in the story which is told in the second part of the Gospel which is read in the morning of Christmas: “ Now when the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.’ So, they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say.   And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.”

Imagine what it would feel like to be told by society and the government for your whole life that you don’t count. You don’t matter. You aren’t even worth the trouble to write down your name on a list so you can pay taxes.

And then, imagine being told by the very heavenly host that you do count, in a much bigger world—the Kingdom of God. The shepherds could have stayed in the fields with the sheep—they knew the territory there, they had a job to do there, and they knew they weren’t welcome in the city anyway. But they had both the raw courage and the profound generosity to share the message, to share the Good News, with people who had never valued them. That is grace. That is joy. That is a life transformed by the Gospel.

 You’re a shepherd. You’re abiding in the fields, and the heavenly host has something to say to you: “ ‘Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ .”

Hear the message of Christmas and write it on your heart: you count. You matter. You are important. God is so in love with you that God sent God’s only Son to live and dwell among you, to teach you and heal you, to die for you and rise for you. And the deeper you take that knowledge into you, the freer and braver you are to tell that to every single person you meet.

“ Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken...” Except for the shepherds. Because they had nothing that the empire could use.  They didn’t count.

Because of Christmas  you count. You matter. God proclaims that today to the whole universe in the birth of the Christ Child. Don’t ever forget it. The Kingdom of God needs you.