Sat 14th December

Shepherds.

Ive been thinking about shepherds.

Im not sure that we in 21st century UK have much idea about what Bible time shepherds were about.  I know they will have been very poor and that the sheep will NOT have been of the white fluffy variety so often depicted in Christmas cards.!   More likely scrawny collections of goats and half breed hardy shabby dirty brown things.

Christmas cards have a lot to answer for actually.  They subtly structure our perceptions and ideas so that when we read the scriptures we have those cosy comfy images in mind.   For example we always see the shepherds in groups of three or more adults.....   but Im not sure thats how it would have been.  In the middle east today shepherds are solitary souls driving their flocks to find the best grazing in hot scrubby land.  Its probably a family concern and almost certainly its a job that fairly young children could do .   In the Old Testament we see the young boy David looking after his flock - at the most an adolescent and certainly not

old enough to fight.    So when we hear  ' now there were in the same country shepherds....'  perhaps we are talking about a father and son,  or two or three brothers, or a few teenage boys.....  who knows?

Lambs were important in Biblical times.  Everyone who was able to afford one would take one up to the temple at Passover to sacrifice.  So they were a must-have item on the shopping list and as such there were up to 1000 lambs at any one time being looked after in the fields around about Jerusalem and the temple.   It was big business.  There must have been money to be made.   The Bible tells us that the shepherds were ' living out in the fields' - ie they were homeless.  Their sheep were the main thing and their only source of income.  They were prepared to sleep out in bothys and caves in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the flock.   As such one would imagine the shepherds were not really part of society.   Their job didnt really facilitate them being part of the community - they lived outside it.  And whilst not exactly outcasts, they most certainly were not people of any note or distinction.

So it is to these homeless, possibly young, probably tough, lowly individuals that God decides to announce His arrival.  And the remarkable thing is that having been terrified half to death and regardless of the consequences the shepherds to a man decide to leave their precious flocks - their livelihood - that for which they have invested everything until now - and go to town to check it out. I wonder how long it took to get there and what they talked about on the way.

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. ( Luke 2)

So the first to hear about Jesus were the first to leave everything to seek Him out and were then the first ' evangelists' telling people about Him.   I wonder how many of their precious sheep had wandered off in the meantime.   Ironically it is shepherds who first meet the Good Shepherd who is the one who will ultimately put paid to temple sacrifices when He becomes the ultimate , once and for all sacrifice.   The Lamb of God also became homeless to live among His sheep because He saw them ( us) as precious and highly valuable.  There is much to ponder in these few Bible verses.    God never does anything by mistake.

Lord, this Christmas as we think about the story of Your birth help us not to be distracted by the sanitised christmas carol version of events so often presented to us in cards and images at this time of year.  Help us to see past the fluff and tinsel to the real gritty human lives you touched right from the very moment of Your birth.  May we too be willing to leave the things we know and the lives we have built for ourselves in order to search You out.   And when we have spent time in Your presence let us go out  praising You for all we have seen and heard.