"Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger."
Who Woulda Thought?
I want
to begin this Christmas season by focusing on the call of the shepherds
rather than moving right to the Nativity. In fact, if you follow the
various gospel readings that the Church offers, you would find the vigil
Mass (afternoon of the 24th) through the daytime Mass (Sunday
mid-morning) you would find the Christmas story and the theology of the
Christ across three of the four gospels--quite a rich fare which few,
unfortunately, experience.
Back to
the shepherds, then. Shepherds were a despised lot in Jesus' time. You
can lump them in with tax collectors, prostitutes and Samaritans. Of
course, as we have seen throughout God's interaction with humanity, this
makes them prime candidates for a special grace. So, it was to them
the invitation was extended. The much discussed "wise men" or magi,
come later (probably didn't arrive until a year or so after the birth).
So, as
the story goes, as with all angelic visitations, it begins with fear.
It takes a lot to scare a shepherd who defends his flock from any number
of hazards; they are a grizzly lot.
But, as
the gospel records, "...they were struck with great fear". The appeal
of the angel not to fear is based upon the message of a savior that will
"be for all the people." This is followed by a "multitude of the
heavenly host" singing "Glory to God in the highest". Quite a night for
the shepherds, and some essential truths about the nature of God and
salvation for us tonight.
Like
God's appointing David as king (the least likely candidate), God's favor
rests on Mary, Joseph, outsiders like the magi and shepherds. Notice
the absence of anyone really important like Temple priests,
scribes, pharisees, important legates or even the chief priest. God's
dealing once again with the consummate outsiders, widely believed to be
outside of salvation history. How ironic, then, that these were the
people most intimately associated with God's arrival as the Christ.
If Advent has sharpened our senses for
seeking justice and finding a place with the poor to be in the right
place, this visitation of the shepherds remind us that we are now in the
right place at the right time---with the poor, alone, late in the
night. Dismal.
But it
is with the outcast, far from the comfort of day, deep in the night,
that God's greeting arrives proclaiming joy and salvation. The line
from T.S. Eliot's poem Four Quartets comes to mind "...and now,
under conditions that seem unpropitious." Like so much of what God has
done in his relationship with humanity: "Who woulda thought?"
In your deepest
moment of darkness and doubt, when your prayers are bouncing back off
of the ceiling, ridiculing your attempt to reconnect with God after
seemingly failing every time, I want to remind you that those prayers
that you think mock your devotion made it through. They were in God's
heart before they ever left your lips.
Like the shepherds, the most unlikely folks in the most unlikely place,
God finds us. Search no further than your need, your loneliness, your
feelings of being left out. For the still small voice of God speaks to
you here, now, in this blog, inviting you to come home and find the sign
of God being with you in the most humble of circumstances. Join with
Christians world wide to not give up following the light until it rests
over the manger where Christ is to be found---in the most unlikely
place, at the most unlikely time.
Reprinted from Christmas, 2012
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