If
you were to put together a guest list for the birth of the Messiah 2000 years
ago one might expect political leaders like Caesar Augustus, religious leaders
such as the Chief Priests and the Pharisees to be included. Yet for Luke, the
shepherds are some of the first to welcome Jesus into this world and are the
first ‘preachers’ of the Good News. Many would find it completely shocking that
Shepherds would be included. It was a disreputable trade and shepherds were
considered ‘unclean’ because of their profession. At first they were terrified,
but the angels reassured them: ‘do not be
afraid’. The response of the shepherds was immediate: ‘let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing which has taken place’.The poor, the marginalised, the outcast will be the first to experience the abundance of God’s hospitality through Jesus and the shepherds come in their name. We are told that people were amazed by the shepherds and their words. Their journey didn’t end in Bethlehem, for them it was perhaps only the beginning as they returned ‘glorifying and praising God’. We are invited to Bethlehem today, to open up our hearts to the One who has come to bring hope and joy. And we return, like the shepherds ‘glorifying and praising God for all they have seen and heard’. We must allow that Love to penetrate our hearts and celebrate with our family and friends the Joy that lives amongst us. And when we have finished celebrating we remember that the real work of Christmas begins once again:
“When the song of the angels is stilled. When the star in the sky is gone. When the kings and princes are home. When the shepherds are back with their flocks. The work of Christmas begins; to find the lost; to heal the broken; to feed the hungry; to release the prisoner; to rebuild the nations; to bring peace among people; to make music in the heart.” Howard Thurman
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