Thinking deliberately about those “Christmas shepherds” makes me envy their boldness and readiness to listen, to move and to return!

The sermon text follows the sermon video.

Click here for sermon video: https://zionepiscopal.com/Sermon%20Videos/first-sunday-after-christmas-12-31-2023-neale.html

Sermon Preached at Zion Episcopal Church, Washington NC; Sunday December 31st 2023
The Reverend Alan Neale “The Shepherds’ Shepherd”

Luke 2:8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

Luke 2:15 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.

Luke 2:20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.

As a naughty schoolboy, I was one of many who loved to sing the paraphrase for the well-known carol, with apologies to Nahum Tate, 17th century hymn writer. “While shepherds washed their socks by night, And hung them on the line, The angel of the Lord came down, And said “Those socks are mine!”

But… back to text. It is strangely appropriate that news of this royal birth comes first to some shepherds — among the lowliest of the emperor’s subjects. We tend to romanticize those “shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night,” but in the first century, shepherds were not considered desirable company. They were poor, illiterate, and thought to be dishonorable because they could not be home at night to protect their women. They were considered thieves because they grazed their flocks on other people’s property. They were outcasts of polite society, usually ranked together with sailors, butchers, camel drivers, and other despised occupations. So much for shepherds – ouch!

Here are three spiritual lessons we learn from this divinely appointed shepherds.

Bloom where you are planted! Isn’t this what happened to Moses, that while tending his father-in-law’s sheep, he encounters the burning bush and his life is transformed? Isn’t this what happened to David, that while tending the sheep, he is called in for an interview with Samuel and his life is transformed?
And, for you and me, in 2024 isn’t this what we pray for ourselves, this church community? That, engaged in the routine, the regular, reliable… “living out in the fields, keeping watch…” that we will encounter the Lord and be transformed.

Be ready to hold the hand of the Lord and move. Once their cinematic, multi-media experience had concluded, doubtless after they had shared their reviews and responses, the shepherds leave for Bethlehem and, note, they “hurried off”. We read of no plans for a skeleton crew of shepherds to be left behind, we read of no plans to provide temporary protection for the sheep – in faith and trust, they leave and leave with eager haste. Christians and churches can sometimes be strengthened, but sometimes be weakened in their attachment to tradition (“it’s always been done like this” or “as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be”) – let 2024 be a time of bold openness to moving with the Lord and trusting His care. Oh, beware those “pillars of the church” – that never move and block the vision.

Have courage and vision to return “home”. These neglected souls of the Palestinian community (“rude, crude, impolite and socially unacceptable”), these benighted spirits had found a simply momentous calling to attend the birth and worship of the Christ-child. But, all this, they processed, was to accompany them back to the hills where wayward sheep wandered, stark landscape reigned and fierce-some animals prowled. “Back home” was their vocation and they, indeed, returned but now transformed. Reminiscent, yes?, of those mysterious wise men who, we are told, “returned home but by another way.”

So, let us be thankful to our shepherd brothers for their reception of call, their readiness to move out, and their return to face life.

As I was thinking about this sermon, I asked myself, “Am I a good shepherd?” Not just in priestly vocation, but in family, in community, in nation and beyond.

And if you find yourself asking the same question, remember this… we shepherds are shepherded by the constantly gracious and kind, protective and patient Shepherd of Psalm 23 and John 10:11 – Jesus, the good shepherd ever will shepherd you and me.

Thanks be to God, alleluia. Amen