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“The Shepherd’s Voices”
A Sermon preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Christmas Eve
It came to
pass, when it was time for Jesus to be born in
The
shepherds could care less about the stupid census. What they knew was that people from out of
town, who did not want to be here, were gathering at a place that the people
who WERE here did not want them. These
people would come in, eat all of the food, drain
But here
they were, all in town for the convention.
The shepherds came up the hillside to guard their sheep. They knew that
there would be hungry travelers who would just love to take one of their
healthy juicy sheep to have a meal. The
shepherds went to guard their sheep, but they also went up for some respite,
some peace and quiet, some solitude. The shepherds were watching over
The shepherds seldom came to the
city. The fact is that the shepherds
were always up in their fields. They
were not wealthy. They were not the
educated ones. They were not the
leaders. They were the laborers, the workhorses,
the lower-class.
They were the ones who usually had the largest percentage of their
incomes taxed. They were not looking
forward to the tax-rally down in
They were not allowed in the temples because they did not have the right clothes. And they were never very clean—sheep not being the cleanest of animals and all.
So there they sat, talking over the census and its implications, wondering how much they would be taxed with this new plan. And as they sat around a fire watching their sheep and warming their feet they wondered what would happen next. They thought that they had seen everything and now the census.
Should they wait for God to save them, they thought? But then another would shoot back, “how can we talk to God, we’re not allowed in the temple. Besides God has more important people to talk to—more important that us, that’s for sure. He spat out that last line with self-deprecating cynicism.
And that’s when it happened. All of a sudden, as if to break them out of their familiar arguing and complaining, an angel of God appeared to them and the glory of God shone round about them and they were filled with fear, of course. I think I would be, too. Wouldn’t you? Could you imagine an angel of God coming in between our bickering about the state of our world?
“Why us?” they thought. “What did we do that an angel should come to us?”
They started to list their sins in their minds. People had been telling them that they were sinners because they were poor. So they were filled with fear. “Why are you coming us? What have we done wrong this time?”
Do we believe that God is only speaks to us when we have done something wrong? If that were the case, most of us would never be able to get a word in edgewise because God would always be there shaking an angelic finger at us. Yet, much of our religious experience surrounding God is based upon shame and fear. You see, that is how the shepherds had seen themselves and their relationship with God. They had ingrained in themselves the meaning of poverty that they actually believed that their poverty was God’s punishment.
That was another reason that then census was so offensive. Because it was the rich and the powerful counting people so that they could become even more rich and powerful. And the shepherds would again have to take the heat.
But that is where God sets the story on its ends.
Christmas is where God shows who is
really blessed and who is not. Jesus
would later say, “blessed are you poor for yours is the
God comes not to the census-takers, not to the
powerful or even worldly, but to the shepherds, the lowly shepherds. To those who are beaten down, the hurting,
the meek. Have you ever been hurt or is
there something eternal missing from your life?
Have you ever felt like those lowly shepherds, thinking that everyone
and everything is stacked up against you?
If so, the message of Christmas is for you. This child is born for you. Be of good cheer. And the angels said to the shepherds, “Be not
afraid, get up off the ground. Dust yourself off. For behold I bring you good news of great joy
which shall be to all people. For unto
you, unto YOU is born this day in the city of
The savior of people like you is someone like you.
Christmas has always been a favorite holiday for me because it gets to the root of the radical message of Emmanuel, God-with-us alive and available, Emmanuel who knows our joys and our struggles, Emmanuel who lives and experiences our life with all of its difficulties which the world thrusts upon us.
By the time we get around to Easter and writings of Paul, who never mentions Jesus’ birth and poor infancy by the way, we crown Christ King and we vault Jesus up to being far away, distant and the ultimate purveyor of guilt. The Christ of the resurrection can be far away and confuse us away from the Jesus of the manger.
You see this Christ child is the one who comes to the lowly shepherd in each of us. And this is the Christ, in incarnation of God who will become like us. “God is my shepherd, I shall not want,” says the Psalmist.
But what did the shepherds
say? They said, “Let us go to
The shepherds not only responded verbally , but they also took action.
Jesus’ birth, God’s miracle, elicits a response in the shepherds and it elicits a response in each of us, too. What is your response?
Let us recapture the Christ of the manger. May our Christmas celebration celebrate the fact that Jesus the Christ comes to us lowly shepherds as a lowly homeless child. And if God can do this, then even us lowly shepherds can realize that nothing, NOTHING is impossible for God. God breaks the silence of this evening with good news. “For unto us unto us, unto You, is born today a savior which is Christ the Lord.”
Come, let us go to