the shepherds' song

Listen to the shepherds’ song.

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazing at what the shepherds told them… 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:15-18, 20

Sheepherders.

These kids were tough. These teenage boys ‘tending their flocks by night’ were touch. The job of a sheepherder in first-century Palestine. Sheep were critical to the economy and to their own livelihood. They provided meat, milk, fat, wool, skins, horns. But the job was not easy. Searching for pasture land and water took the sheepherders far from home. They put up with simple food, harsh weather, and primitive lodging. They had to deal regularly with danger ranging from lions and tigers and bears to thieves. These kids were tough. But they were surprised by an unlikely visitor with some good news and then an angel band. God chose blue-collar, tough-skinned, weather-hardened, uneducated, teenagers to be the first to hear about the biggest news in the planet’s history. God has always worked this way. God still works this way. We are immediately on the wrong path in our care for the poor and orphaned of the world when our first response is to disrespect or diminish them because of their condition. They are not, if I may be blunt, ‘helpless babies’ or ‘dirty slum trash-pickers.’ They are God’s kids with God’s breath and God’s purpose.

Who do you think is outside of the reach of God? Who is unable to be used by God? How can you change your mind about what is success and failure, what is poverty and affluence, what is plenty and need?

Go now.

I’m not a patient person. I’m not patient with myself and I’m not patient with other people. That’s one of the reasons I love the character of the sheepherders in the Christmas story. They waste no time. They show no patience. They don’t say, ‘let’s wait for the morning and take a walk to town in the daylight.’ They don’t say, ‘let’s find someone to watch our sheep so we can take a break.’ They go! And they go now! The needs of the poor and orphaned are both urgent and important. Poverty and being an orphan in much of the world is literally a day-to-day life-and-death situation. Now is the time! Now now now is the time! So with the haste of the sheepherders, when I hear that God’s glory, peace, and favor is breaking into ordinary lives, I want to run to the scene. I want to run to the orphanage. I want to run to the village. Put on your track shoes.

What are you waiting for? What is standing between where you are right now and caring for orphaned children? Are you waiting for more time, more money, more reason? Why wait?

Seeing is believing.

What’s wrong with this? So often we give ‘Doubting Thomas’ such a hard time for wanting to see the wounds of Christ before he would believe. But wouldn’t we all admit that seeing is believing. Awareness leads to action. I think this is one of the major obstacles between the extreme poverty in our world and more health, wholeness, and holiness for the poor and orphaned. People just don’t know. They just haven’t seen conditions on the ground. We need to take the responsibility to not turn a blind eye, but rather to open our eyes, arms, and minds wide to the way things are and the way things ought to be. Then when we see poverty in the empty eyes of an orphaned child, we will believe that God is calling us to live the Christmas mission of peace, justice, and compassion. When we see God’s Spirit breaking through bringing light and life, we will believe that this Christmas message really is ‘good news of great joy for all people.’

What do you believe about the world? What do you believe about poverty? What resources or experiences do you need to access in order to understand more how life actually is for many of the 7 billion people on our planet?

Telling the story.

‘When they saw this, they made known…’ We are responsible for what we know. I am responsible to tell Nastya’s and Sergei’s stories from Russia. I am responsible to tell Kaufi’s and Emanuel’s stories from Ghana. I am responsible to tell Marvin’s and Marilynn’s stories from El Salvador. This is contagious compassion. And I believe that compassion is more contagious than HIV/AIDS. I believe that it can take over a continent faster than that horrible disease. I believe it can spread through our churches, schools, neighborhoods, and corporations. If only we would make known what we have seen. The thing that sheepherders ran to see spread like wildfire. The conditions were right, the wind picked up and pretty soon the place was ablaze.

Where do you need to add heat and oxygen to get a fire burning to care for the orphaned and the poor? Who do you need to infect with contagious compassion?

All were amazed.

Floored. Overwhelmed. Speechless. Haunted. Compelled. And yes, also amazed. This is what happens when we truly open our eyes to God with us, the Christmas mission. And this is what happens when we truly open our eyes to some of the gloryless, peaceless, and favorless things happening on our planet. And so I amazed by what I’ve seen in caring for the poor and orphaned over the world. I pray and hope that as I share it with others, they to would join me in picking our jaws up off the floor. And so that’s why we must keep running. We must have bigger eyes, a wider embrace, and a longer stride. We must be amazed. Amazed that beautiful people and beautiful children are being stripped of their God-given right to live peacefully and with provision. Amazed that God is breaking in and giving hope and help.

Do you need to be shaken up like the sheepherders were? Have things become dull and mundane? Does anything surprise you anymore? How can you pray and what perspective can you have this Christmas to really be amazed and compelled by the beauty of the Christmas mission?