Christmas

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Christmas
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John’s Parish
DATE: December 24 & 25, 1997

TEXT: When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about his child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

ISSUE: It is important to emphasize that what the story means is far more important than whether or not the birth of Jesus actually happened in this way. Significant to the story for Luke is the adoration of the shepherds who find the ‘Lamb of God’ who becomes the ‘Good Shepherd’ of all shepherds at the manger. Having found the Christ their ministry of a shepherding people begins. They go and proclaim that goodnews of what they have seen and heard: “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
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We gather again as the faithful to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We gather again to contemplate and meditate upon this beautiful story that Luke so artfully tells about the birth of Christ. It is a story that was never intended as a literal presentation of Jesus’ birth, but rather a story that is something of a prelude, or overture, that reveals in a poetic way what the child, Jesus, the Christ child shall become.
The story is essentially the story of the birth of a peasant child born to a carpenter father, Joseph, and unwed mother. The political powers of the time are badly manipulating the lives of the poor. These leaders were supposed to be the shepherds and leaders of God’s people, but for a long long time they had failed miserable at being shepherds of the people. Joseph must travels to Bethlehem to transact some kind of business, related perhaps to some kind of taxation or census. His betrothed, Mary, will give birth to the child, but the houses with guest rooms in this quite small town of Bethlehem are full, so the child is born in at a manger like so many other peasant children. Peasant homes only had one room and a manger was a part of the room where animals were brought in at night, and peasant women gave birth to their children.
Yet Luke weaves together such a poetic story as to reveal that his baby Jesus was truly the Savior and hope of the world. Born in Bethlehem as the child of Joseph who was of the lineage or ancestry of Israel’s greatest King David. David, who was a shepherd boy in Bethlehem, and least among the sons of Jesse, became a great King and a charismatic leader. Luke is telling his readers that once again our of this tiny town a new king is born of humble birth, who will also become a most unusual King of Kings and Lord of Lords and indeed a leader with great charisma.
Luke enhances the story with the angels. At the birth of a boy child in these times the town’s musicians would come and sing for joy. But the very simple humbleness, the peasantry of Jesus’ birth in the manger is without music. Luke, then says, angels come and sing the Glory of God in the highest. The implication is that the birth is of God. God the Father has provided the musicians for the birth of his Son.
As in Matthew’s gospel account, a star leads the wisemen, Luke has the angels direct the shepherds to the manger site. Shepherds out in the fields are terrified by the vision of Luke’s angels. But they are consoled by the angels who tell them they have nothing to fear, but that in the little town of Bethlehem the Savior of the world is born. The shepherds become themselves curios and go to Bethlehem to see this wonderful thing that has come to pass.
In Luke’s narrative, the shepherds are indeed very important characters in the drama. Although the life of shepherds was sometimes romanticized in this period, they were not considered honorable men. They spent so much time away from their wives and families that they were considered to participate in a dishonorable occupation. Their work prevented them from adherence to the laws and rituals of Judaism. They were often thought of as thieves, for they trespassed frequently on other people’s properties. They were avoided and condemned. Their lives were difficult, living in dangerous wildernesses and among wild beasts that attacked the sheepfold, and fending them off. They were a humble lot of peasants but also a tough breed.
The shepherds around Bethlehem raised sheep that would be used in the Jerusalem Temple, not far away, that would be sacrificed in the Temple. The angels, then, telling the shepherds of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is quite significant. The shepherds are sent, you see, to see the real lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. They are sent to see who the real sacrificial lamb is who takes away the sins of the world, the one whose life will be sacrificed on a cross.
What’s more, the shepherds who are keeping watch over their flocks by night come to see the one, the Lamb, who himself will grow up to become The Good Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd who will lead his flock to greener pastures and living waters. He is the Good Shepherd who will care for and love God’s people. He too will be tough, and not always able to keep the rituals, and will leave his family. He too will not always be honorable, nor perceived as honorable. He is also the shepherd who will be rejected and condemned. Yet, He will walk through the valleys in the shadows of death. He will live and die for them. He will show the way and lead them back home to the love and forgiveness of God. He is the shepherd who will give meaning to people’s lives, revealing to them the way one lives as a person of God.
The shepherds returned home according to Luke telling what had been revealed to them, and amazing other people around them. Already they begin to feed the sheep who are the people of God with the message of hope and salvation, and meaning in their lives. Just as Jesus had told his fishermen disciples that he would make them fishers of men, and called Peter to feed the sheep; the shepherds begin their ministry revealing the glory of God in the saving Christ.
Christmas is indeed special for all of us. It is a time when we make a concerted effort to be focused on the birth of Christ and this season of peace and joy. That it is. Yet, so much more. Christmas is more than just a commemoration of a sweet little baby Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem so many years ago. It is a call to renewed faith commitment, to embrace the Christ as our Lamb, The Lamb of God, who dies on a cross and who has taken away our sins and separation from God. He so vividly express his love on that cross. It is a time to be renewed in the understanding that Christ is our tough Good Shepherd who sees us through the difficulties of our lives, and calls all of us to partnership in his shepherding of the lost, the least, the last, the lonely, the broken and fallen. In Christ God has come among us as sacrifical Lamb and Good Shepherd, that we too may be a sacrificially loving devoted people, and particpate in the feeding of his flock whoever and wherever they may be.