Advent Week Three: Love

 

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Luke 2:8

God’s marketing strategy for spreading the good news of great joy for all people rests on shepherds.  God doesn’t call up Oprah or George Clooney or LeBron James for an endorsement.  God doesn’t take to Twitter or post on social media.  God doesn’t buy pop up ads to appear on our computer screens.  Pause for a moment to consider just how counter-cultural all this is:

First, an unwed, young woman named Mary is the God-bearer.

Second, Mary and her betrothed, Joseph, are forced to travel miles right when Mary is great with child.

Third, a drafty, dusty, dirty barn becomes the setting and scene where God makes God’s grand entry.

Fourth, the Christ-child is wrapped in strips of cloth lovingly by Mary (the God-care-giver) who then lays the holy child in a common feeding trough for animals. 

Finally, shepherds are the messengers – for the full weight of this head scratching/shaking statement to settle in, consider the following: 

Shepherds were lowly.  They were seen as thieves often letting their sheep graze on property that belonged to other people.  They didn’t just occupy the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder, they were not even allowed near the ladder to begin.  Shepherds would band together for protection and because of shared identity – they all felt like they were least and left out of society. 

In the Christmas narrative, God moves in mysterious ways that doesn’t make linear, logical sense.  We are so conditioned by our rational, Enlightenment, minds that we have removed all the contradictions and counter-cultural parts of the Christmas story.  Yet, if God moved at the fringes and fray back then, does that mean God is still moving in ways that challenge us, push our understandings beyond where we are comfortable, and call us to let go of our score cards of who is in and who is out?

If you have a Creche scene, I invite you to take the shepherd into your hand, lean in and listen to this important messenger of God.  What are the shepherds saying to you this year?  I think about the Christmas Carol, “Do You Hear What I Hear”.  One of the verses is:

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king
Do you know what I know?
In your palace warm, mighty king
Do you know what I know?
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold
Let us bring him silver and gold

I pray that I would have open ears, heart, mind, and soul to sense what God is up to even now in my life, our church, and world.

Prayer: May the words above sink and sing from me this day, O God, I pray.  Amen.