St. Patrick: Intimacy with God

Christmas Eve, December 24, 2013 Episcopal Church of the Ascension

Why the shepherds and why the sheep? The Reverend Dr. Howard J. Hess

I. Introduction. While growing up in the northeast, every Christmas my family would make our annual pilgrimage to New York City. The highlight of this pilgrimage was to attend the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show. The finale was always the same: a slow, moving procession across the wide stage led by Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. The shepherds followed with sheep in tow. Next came the Three Kings with their exotic camels. As a child, I never asked myself the questions why are the shepherds featured in Luke’s Christmas story, and why are the three kings found in Matthew? Through the eyes of a child, both shepherds and kings were essential characters in the Christmas story. After all, they had been a part of every Christmas pageant I’d ever seen. As an adult, I have come to understand that deeper meanings could be found behind the Christmas narrative. The Kings foreshadowed Jesus’ identity as the King of Kings, whose claim for a crown had terrified Herod. The shepherds were a different story. They were ordinary people whose primary role was caregiving and protecting their sheep from danger. The shepherds were actually a sign that Jesus was to become the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God. Come with me to look at the story behind Luke’s version of Christmas Eve.

II. Few of us in the 21^st century have ever met ~ let alone been ~ a shepherd. But in many parts of the world, shepherds do the very same things now that they did in the time of Jesus. They care for their sheep, standing between them and all manner of danger, particularly in the night and during storms. We see this in the 23^rd Psalm where the Lord our shepherd leads us beside still water, makes us to lie down in green pastures, and walks with us through the valley of death. In the early days of Israel, shepherds were held in very high esteem. Think about Abraham, the Father of the Nation, who was a shepherd; Moses, the lawgiver, was a shepherd, as was David before he became a king. But over time, the shepherd’s role became diminished. By the time of Jesus’ birth, shepherds had little opportunity to observe religious practices or to bathe, and they slept outside in the open, cool Judean hills with little shelter. Yet it was the shepherds, low as they were on the proverbial social scale, who received the first announcement of Jesus’ birth. Why the shepherds?

The Greek word for shepherd is used 17 times in the New Testament. It can be used literally, such as in tonight’s gospel, or figuratively. For example, in John Jesus referred to himself as the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep by name and will lay down his life for his sheep. Perhaps Luke chose to emphasize the shepherds in his birth narrative because Jesus himself was to become a shepherd. Yet there is more. After the Resurrection Jesus had an encounter with Peter. It is told in John 21 that three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” And three times Peter responded, “Yes, Lord I love you.” Listen now – each of the three exchanges ended with Jesus instructing Peter to “Feed my lambs; tend my sheep; feed my sheep.” There is a beautiful transition here: shepherds witnessing Jesus’ birth; Jesus becoming the Good Shepherd himself; and then Jesus passing the role of shepherd on to Peter and to all his other followers, including the Christ followers here this evening.

III. A Shepherd’s Story. Let me share a modern-day story that clarifies what it means to be a shepherd. It is appropriately entitled “A Shepherd’s Story” (Small Church Leadership Network) and has been adapted for length.

There was once a shepherd who cared deeply for his flock. His flock was not big nor was he renowned. People did not come from afar to study his methods of raising sheep. But he loved and cared for his sheep as carefully and tenderly as a father loves and cares for his children. Each morning, he arose early, and before he ate he would make sure that his flock was cared for. Sometimes on a hot summer day when the dust would churn up under the feet of the flock, it would be unpleasant to walk behind the sheep as they went to pasture, for the dirt would choke his throat and the air would become stifling with the smell of sweaty sheep. In the heat of the day, he would lead them to a cool stream where his sheep would satisfy their thirst.

There was one little lamb especially dear to him because she was forever giving him problems and needed so much help from him. She was so weak he had to carry her wherever he went. He had to give her special nourishment for often she was too weak to eat. Whenever there was a lamb missing at the end of the day, he could always count on it being her. If there were a lamb caught in a thicket, it would be her. Maybe it was because she was the smallest . . . maybe it was because she always came running to him when she was afraid . . . he had a special and tender love for her.

One fateful day, however, this all changed. A man from the city came to visit, dressed in the latest fashions and driving a big beautiful car. The man told the shepherd that his way of shepherding was old fashioned and no longer effective, and that if he desired to succeed he would have to do things very differently. And so the shepherd began to read about how to succeed in raising sheep. He read The One-Minute Shepherd and learned to be more efficient. He studied Shepherding for Dummies in order to become more effective; and he went to seminars led by successful shepherds who had large flocks. Soon, when he gathered with other shepherds, he had a sense of joy that his flock was the largest in the valley.

To achieve the growth of his flock, he no longer went with the sheep to the pastures. He hired others. The sheep no longer knew his voice. Each day he was given a report about how many sheep were lost. But as long as the births and purchases were greater than the number lost, he felt satisfied. One day, however, he came to a stark realization. He was sitting in the large chair at his large desk in his large office when he suddenly thought of his special little lamb and wondered how she was doing. He called one of the hired men who replied to his inquiry. “Her, why she was killed by a mountain lion over a year ago. She wandered off, a bad storm came up, and no one wanted to go and look for her in the wind and rain.” When he heard what had happened, sadness filled his heart. He realized that he was a CEO of a very successful wool and sheep business, but, however, the one thing he had loved the most was being a shepherd who cared for his sheep and knew each one by name. Now with a heart broken by the emptiness of regret and forgotten dreams, he realized that he was no longer a shepherd.

IV. Conclusion. Why the shepherds and why the sheep? Perhaps we need to remind ourselves tonight about how easy it can be to become caught up in the definitions of success offered by this world in contrast to the alternative offered to us by Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is too easy to forget that Jesus has taught us that we, his followers, are both the sheep and the shepherds. We need one another to rely upon ~ both to care and to be cared for. Perhaps our original question “Why did the shepherds and the sheep receive the first announcement of Jesus’ birth?” can now be answered more fully. The shepherds and the sheep are not window dressing, not cute parts of the show at Radio City. The shepherds and the sheep were there on Christmas Eve to foretell and foreshadow the whole Gospel story. The shepherds were there as a sign of who the newborn Jesus was to become. The sheep were part of the story because the Good Shepherd loves the sheep and they go where he goes. The Good Shepherd and the sheep cannot be separated.

The responsibility and blessings of caring and being cared for within the body of Christ are at the very heart of who we are as Christians. We are called by Jesus the Good Shepherd to be his sheep ~ to accept his care, teachings, and protection. And, like Peter, we are also called by Jesus to become good shepherds to one another and to our neighbors.