THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD (CHRISTMAS) 2022

[cappie]

Who among all the people in the Bible were the first to hear the news of the birth of Christ?  The shepherds were out in the country with their sheep. They were not worried about whether there would be room at the inn. The inn was never an option for them.

And out of their world,  comes something earth-shattering. “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 on earth peace among those whom [God] favours!’”

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.  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: “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 this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them… The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

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.  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 courage and the 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.

  There are people in your life right now who do not know that God loves them. There are people in your life right now who think they don’t count. Someone has to tell them they do matter, that God does love them, and you are that person.

Maybe that’s a scary idea or seems like hard work or you’d like to think it’s someone else’s job. Maybe you’re the one who feels like you don’t count. Maybe you’re the one for whom the love of God is more a nice idea than a visceral experience. Either way, you’re a shepherd. You’re abiding in the fields, and the heavenly host has something to say to you: “Do not be afraid; for see- - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

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.

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