Jesus and the Shepherds take their places in our
Creche. They go together as they go together in the climax of the nativity
story. Jesus and the Shepherds are tied together, and will be so forever.
Why shepherds? Why did God first give the good news about
Jesus’ arrival to the shepherds? Yes, Jesus’ family of course knew. But the
shepherds were the first neutral party to hear the news. Why?
There are a few reasons, I’d say. I give them quickly
before I get to the heart of what I want to say.
John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, will later call Jesus the
Lamb of God by who takes away the sin of the world. So the shepherds come to
see this new lamb who will change their lives. There is a foreshadowing here.
Also, there is the even-then revered scripture we know
as the 23rd Psalm – The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. The
Gospels will also later point to Jesus as the Good Shepherd. So the shepherds
are also coming to visit a fellow shepherd, the shepherd’s shepherd, the
shepherd of all shepherds, the Good shepherd.
But an even more telling reason for why it is shepherds
that God first reveals the good news to is seen in Jesus’ lineage. Jesus is the
son of David, the Messiah, the new David who will take the throne as King of
Israel and renew Israel to greatness again.
And who was David? A shepherd. The shepherds represent
David. David in the form of the shepherds come to confirm that here is the New
David, the awaited anointed one, the Messiah, King of Israel. David via the
shepherds is blessing and anointing Jesus, passing the torch to this babe King.
Fine and good. We got some nice bits of knowledge here.
But when it comes to spirituality, when it comes to our relationship with God,
where is the importance? Who cares that it was shepherds God first comes to?
Well, we might ask, who are we in the story? Are we more like a newborn named Jesus
than the Shepherds?
Most of us, are mere human beings doing our work,
paying our bills, raising our families, doing what we need to do to get by. We
are more shepherd than infant king, aren’t we? We are more mere common folk seeking
meaning and hope. We are the shepherds, at least initially. We are the
shepherds looking for joy and peace to be born onto us and in us.
This one in the manger, the infant is the master. The prophet
Isaiah talked about a child that shall lead us. “The wolf will live with the
lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the
yearling together; and a little child will lead them.”
This is that little child, the Christian tradition
tells us. This is the little child leading us even in a lowly manger given
because there is no room to stay in, no crib to be laid.
This is the little child we are to look to as not only
our leader sent by God, but as our model for leadership, as our benchmark for
what it means to lead – a shepherd king lying in a manger, leading us with his
mere presence.
Are we present enough to see this?
We – the shepherds – are the apprentices. We look to
this infant lying in manger to teach us the way of selflessness for the sake of
the flock. The baby surrounded by the oxen and the donkeys teach us what it means
to guide and lead, by being present with those we guide and lead. An infant is
without thoughts about the past or the future, but resides in the moment. An
infant does not judge us or ponder things for too long but simply breathes in
and out with us, letting us know what we need to do by our watching and
listening.
The little one cooing there in the manger teaches us
that there is power in vulnerability, there is power letting love feed and
nurture us.
In the Nativity Story we have a story of commoners. At
the center of the story is common people who’ve been waiting for some truth,
who’ve been waiting for some joy, who’ve been waiting for some hope, who’ve
been waiting for a love that saves them.
And wouldn’t you know it, it is through the common birth
of a common son, born to soon to be homeless, refugee parents, it is through
this common human story that divine truth, joy, hope, and love is made real.
Our mentor, the one we seek to be the apprentice of, is
us, is like us, is just as vulnerable, just as weak and needy, just as prone to
falling and losing. Baby Jesus, or even the adult Jesus, would not be someone
we’d call the winners among us.
There are some whom I know would not find much alluring
in this Jesus who in order to help others win the game of life becomes the
loser. This becoming the loser for the sake of the salvation of others begins
from the very beginning. Jesus is a child who is not even born in a room of a shoddy
motel, but in the barn outside of it. Jesus is a child who goes from being born
amid farm animals and laid in a feeding trough to then having to flee to Egypt
to escape the persecution and violence of his government. Far from victors of
the world’s ways, Jesus and his family are victims, victimized by raw power,
hate, and violence.
And so from the crib to the cross, Jesus walks the way
of the lowly good shepherd. He defies raw power by being a servant. He
overcomes hate with love. He resists violence with nonviolence. He accepts his
victimhood. As the ultimate victim, he becomes the victor. And in him,
salvation is given and sin and death defeated, as the Universalist teaching tells us.
We are called to be the good shepherd’s apprentices. We
are called to sit at the foot of the master cooing awake in a manger and learn
the way of simple love.
So as we enter this Christmas week, I pray that you
look past all of clutter and chaos all around us this Christmas season and look
to the One we celebrate, the One lying in a manger a vulnerable and frail as a
newborn can be. May we see a lesson in the fragile moments of that newborn’s
presence. This tender moment, this tender One, here to save us, namely from
ourselves, trumps all pride and greed and ignorance. This little One whom
Universalists believe extinguishes the fires of hell with the light of hope,
this humble One presents us apprentices with a priceless grace, a renewed life,
a love that helps us to love God and others. May we receive the gift and live
accordingly.
Amen.
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