Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday December 14 – 3rd Sunday in Advent
Scripture: Luke 2:8-20
This is the third
week of a 4-week (plus Christmas Eve) story-telling series. Different people
who are part of the nativity scene tell the story of how they ended up at the
manger.
You asked me
how I came to be at the manger. I came
to the manger because the messengers of God-whose-name-is-Holy told me come.
I am Saul, the youngest son of Isaac, and our family are smallhold farmers here
in Bethlehem. As well as working the
land, growing wheat and barley, we also had a small flock of sheep, and every
year someone would have to accompany the sheep to the pastures outside of town.
My journey to the manger happened when I was in my third year of tending the
sheep. My older brothers had done this
job before me, but as soon as I was old enough to go, 12 years old, it was my
turn to take over. I felt like I was a
fully grown man, given a responsibility like this!
It is hard, even impossible, for one person to watch a flock of sheep, so the
different families in Bethlehem would tend their sheep together, one person
from each family, and we would bring the sheep together into one larger flock. We would all take turns watching for
predators, keeping the sheep from wandering away, and then from time to time
moving them to better grazing ground.
It can be a lonely life as a shepherd.
The only people I saw for 6 months at a time were the other
shepherds. Our food was simple, and
while there was water to drink, there wasn’t any extra water for bathing and so
we always smelled like sheep. When we
had to travel into town, people would cross to the other side of the road and
make a display of holding their noses so that they wouldn’t have to smell us.
But there was a beauty in the life as well.
You have to imagine the night sky, far away from the lamps of town,
stars filling the expanse from one horizon to the other. There was time around the campfire most
evenings with the other shepherds, and together we would sing the songs that
our mothers had sung to us when we were children. Sheep can be stubborn creatures, and if one
of them starts to run, the others will follow even though they don’t know why
they are running. But that gave a
challenge to the job – we had to figure out how to think like a sheep to stay
one step ahead of them.
Our journey in to town and to the manger began one night as the singing
ended. We would keep the fire burning
all night to discourage any predators, but all of us who weren’t on the first
watch were starting to set up our bedding, not going too far away from the fire
as it was going to be a cold clear night.
All of a sudden, just as we were getting comfortable wrapped in our blankets,
one of the stars overhead started getting brighter and brighter and
brighter. As we watched, the light
became almost painful to my eyes, and I couldn’t look directly at it any more.
And then there came a voice – I don’t know how to describe the voice, and I
don’t even know if they were speaking any human language. It sounded something like the rumbling of
thunder combined with the ringing of the biggest bell you’ve ever heard. I was terrified. I wanted to curl up and pull the blankets
over my head – not that I could ever really be hidden from this being, but at
least I wouldn’t have to watch whatever was going to happen next.
But then I realized that I could understand what this being was saying, and the
first thing that it said was “Don’t be afraid.”
And, even though my legs were still trembling and my stomach was going
flippity-flop, the terror went away, and I sat up and uncovered my face.
And then the being said: “I am bringing
you good news of great joy for all people.
To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the
Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign
for you: you will find a newborn baby
wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”
And with these words, even the nervousness vanished, and my heart was filled
with only joy. Good news of great joy –
I wanted to sing and dance and shout it from the rooftops! And right here in Bethlehem, the city of King
David! And the good news brought to us
shepherds – people who tend the sheep, just as our ancestor David did!
We all wanted to race into town as quickly as we could, to find this sign that
the angel had told us about. For surely
it must have been an angel, a messenger of God, bringing us this news.
But then this being was joined by a whole host of other beings, all too bright
to look at directly, and all of that singing with that thunderous ringing
voice. “Glory to God in the highest,”
they sang, “and on earth, peace and goodwill among all people!”
Despite their words of peace, I was a bit worried that a fistfight was going to
break out once the angels had left us.
All of us wanted to go and see, and no one wanted to stay behind to
watch the sheep. I was ready to start
running – I didn’t want to wait for the matter to be settled – but someone had
grabbed my arm and was holding on so tightly that I wasn’t able to go anywhere.
Eventually, we decided that the shepherds who were going to be on the first
watch that night would stay behind with the sheep, while the rest of us would
go into town to look for this newborn baby who was lying in a manger, lying in
the trough that our sheep would feed from if we were in town. We promised to make our way back as quickly
as we could, to be back before the sunrise.
We started off walking, but the pace picked up, and before long we were
jogging, and then flat-out running, leaping over stones and tufts of grass in
our excitement to get there as quickly as possible.
We hadn’t really considered how we were going to find the baby once we got
there. When we got to the edge of town,
we slowed down and stopped. No one
wanted to be the person to knock on the first door, waking a family up in the
middle of the night to ask if the saviour was there.
But then I saw Rebekah, the midwife, walking towards her home. She had visited my family not too many years
ago when my youngest sister was born. I went over to her, and introduced myself
to her, and she said, “Oh, yes, Saul, I remember your birth.” I asked her if she had delivered a baby that
evening, and if so, where would we find it?
She told me where the baby was, and we started making our way through
the streets, a bit more quietly than we had been while we were still on the
hillside.
Slivers of lamplight were peeking through the shutters when we got there, and
the others pushed me to the front of the group to knock on the door. I didn’t know what to say when Abigail opened
the door to me, but I greeted her politely, the way I had been taught, and then
stammered out my question – “Is there a baby here in this house?” She pointed me towards the lower level and
held the door open to us. I’m sure that
she was full of questions for us, but she opened her door to us anyways.
When we got down below, there was a young couple reclining on a pile of
hay. They looked exhausted, but they
welcomed us into the room anyways.
Again, the group pushed me to the front as their spokesperson, and I had
to find the words to tell them what had happened. When I started to describe the angel, the two
of them smiled at each other, and nodded gently, almost as if they too had seen
an angel. When I finished my story, the
father got up and lifted the baby out of the manger and placed it in my arms. I didn’t know what to do with it – what do I
have to do with holding babies? But then
I realized that this little one wasn’t that different from a newborn lamb, and
I held him carefully, looking down at his little face and soft skin, eyes
closed.
I don’t know how long we stayed there, but the sun was starting to rise when we
finally left that home, and people were starting to be out and about in the
streets of Bethlehem as we made our way towards the fields. They still crossed over to the other side and
made a show of holding their noses, but this time, instead of trying to make
ourselves smaller, instead of scurrying out of town as quickly as we could, we
echoed the words of the angel for anyone who would listen. “Good news of great joy! A saviour has been born for you – yes,
you! Good news of great joy!”
I came to the manger because of this good news that the angel brought – good
news of joy and of peace and of goodwill for all. Good news of the birth of a saviour for the
world.
What about you? Why are you coming to
the manger this year?
Newborn Lambs, being warmed up.
Image Credit: Tim Difford on flickr
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