THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY ADVENT WEEK #4

THE SHEPHERDS

SCRIPTURES LUKE 2:8-20

Abraham was a shepherd, often moving about to find pasture and water and to avoid hostile tribesmen. Jacob slipped away in the night to a shepherd kinsmen after cheating his brother Esau. Jacob shepherd sheep for 14 years. The prophet Amos, humbly claimed that he was just a poor uneducated shepherd. King David, the most famous shepherd of all, worked as a boy with fathers flock. 

Ancient Israel was not a land of cattle ranches or pig farms. For pork was forbidden. Yes that would include Bacon. Jewish Law.

The practice of agriculture was scattered- some grain was grown in Galilee, along with some vineyards and fruit trees. But especially in the southern region of Judah, sheep and goats dotted the landscape. 

The rocky hills from Jerusalem to Hebron and Bethlehem housed constantly migrating sheep and goat. The soil was so shallow, the rocky hills abundant, the rain so occasional, the grass was so sparse, and that the sheep and the goats moved continually.

So in ancient Palestine, shepherding was prominent essential. Sheep were the mainstay of the inhabitants livelihood. Sheep provided wool, meat, clothing and material for tents.  Lambs were regularly laid on the altar in Jerusalem’s Temple as a sacrifice.

In springtime, during the day, shepherd and families who owned the sheep had much to do. They worked hard, assisting in the birthing of new lambs, caring for those little ones. Amid strong winds and spring rains, they sheared the sheep, harvested the winter wool and readied the ewes and bucks for simmer weather.  The butchered young males and castrated other for later meat supply.

The firstborn lamb was taken to the Temple as a sacrificial thank offering. As David, these shepherds had to be alert for wild animals, foxes, beats and even lions.

Summertime it was more laid back. However wintertime is different. The sheep would be fed little hay..maybe some grain. They move the about . At night the pastures were cold. There was little to do. Build a fire, sing to help quiet the sheep and keep animals away. The hired hands were called shepherd, their main jobs was to bed down the sheep. Sometimes in a cave, often around a fire, then go to sleep leaving one fellow to stay awake and watch. The owners were in their homes.

So these nighttime winter shepherd were the poorest of the poor. They owned nothing, couldn’t get a decent-paying daytime job and often had neither home nor family. In this day and time, these shepherds were considered the bottom of the social ladder.

Sometimes, these people could have very well had a bad reputation. The shepherd were not allowed to given testimony in the courts in those days; they were usually considered unreliable…So why would an angel come first to the shepherds.

These humble night workers got to baby Jesus before the Wiseman did. It has been said that uneducated, simple people come more easily to faith than wise people and scholars who have to work through a lot of thought problems before they come to the Lord. Do you think that is true?

God chose to have the angels sing to these humble folks, these shepherds, the weakest of the weak, the loneliest of the lonely, the poorest of the poor.,

The angel first words was “Do NOT BE AFAIRD: because they were terrified. IT wasn’t a lion or bear but host of angels singing.

Martin Luther said the greatest miracle of Christmas was that when the angel told Mary she was to bear a child, the Savior “MARY BELIEVED”. The shepherds believed They said, lets go NOW to Bethlehem and see this thing…and they went in haste. 

While some people hear an angel speaking and keep on tending the sheep. Some of us hear heaven singing and we throw another stick on the fire.

READ LUKE 2:20. No verse in Scripture is more exciting, more fulfilling that “The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

Our God has a special heart for the humble. Those who are poor are not blocked by prestige or wealth but are often open to the eternal. Stripped of everything earthly.

Historically great Christians revivals movements have started amount the poor; Saint Francis going to Italy, John Wesley’s preaching to the peasants and prisoners in England; William Booth’s offering to Christ and started the Salvation Army.

A miracle of Christmas is that the angels sand first to the shepherd. That they hurried to the manger, and that they believed and returned to the fields glorifying God.

Even in today’s society, the poor is separated. All societies. Upper class, Middle class, the poor and indigent. I could be a migrant worker at a chicken plant, a young person at fast food restaurant behind the counter, the person that sleeps under the bridge, these are hard for US to reach for Jesus. We are often aloof and distant with them, they are sometimes suspicious and defensive. But JESUS went to the poor and the outcast.

READ Luke 14:13-14 When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrections of the righteous.

So let’s remember the shepherds at Christmas. They represent the poor, the lonely and the outcast. The angels came to them first. The poorest of the poor. Maybe never forget the poor, in our town or country or the world.