December 19, 2004
A Tale of Two Christmases
Riley E. Jensen
Before we proceed any further this morning some introductions are in order. First, you need to know my name. I am Jacob Ben Horeb, a shepherd by profession and a wanderer by inclination. My presence among you this morning is due to the fact that you are celebrating an event which you call Christmas. I have something to say about Christmas because I was there.
I would like to tell you what Christmas means to me because for me there are two Christmases. One has to do with a slice of history which is part of my life. A slice of history which records what to many people are unbelievable events. A slice of history which I can attest to because I experienced it, even though to some I am only an illiterate shepherd whose word is unreliable.
I said there were two Christmases, didn't I? Yes. And the other one has to do with the way many other people have interpreted that slice of history which I experienced. And you (all of you out there) fall into that category this morning, don't you? You're not celebrating what happened on that night 2000 years ago because you weren't there. You are celebrating what you think happened in an out-of-the-way stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem.
As a simple shepherd I beg your pardon. But as one who has some first-hand information for you, I beg your indulgence for I would like to tell you what Christmas means to me. In order to do this I don't want to recite the story. You know that well enough. But I do want to tell you about the main characters in this story. Some of them may be characters that you have overlooked or that you haven't taken seriously because for me the main characters in this story are the sheep, the angels, and the baby.
I. The Sheep
If it hadn't been for those sheep this whole thing might never have happened to me. As I mentioned before, I am a shepherd. That has been my whole life. I know no other trade. I am a shepherd; my father was a shepherd, and his father before him. Every person likes to feel that what he does, he does well. I can tell you with a great deal of pride that I am a good shepherd. The fact that I (with my two assistants) was responsible for that particular flock near Bethlehem attests to it. You see, our law has certain restrictions for the keeping of flocks. Shepherds are allowed to keep their flocks only in wilderness areas, with one expectation.
The flocks which could otherwise be kept were those which were for the temple services, and those were the sheep I was tending. The degree of my responsibility elevates me above your ordinary run-of-the-mill shepherd. However, even so, I do admit that we shepherds do not enjoy a very good reputation among the religious people in our country.
It's awfully hard when you are a shepherd. You have to care for the sheep all year round. When one is lost, you often have to risk your life to return them safely to the rest of the flock. It's hard on your family because you are not able to spend as much time at home as you would like. It would be much easier to be on a regular schedule. Part of the reason that many people despise us is that they think we are getting away with something. Because of the nature of our job, the Rabbis have freed us from the normal requirements of the law. You can imagine how hard it would be for us to keep the details of the ceremonial law. We would never be able to observe all of the meticulous hand washings, rules, and regulations. Our flocks make far too many constant demands on us. So it is for this reason that many people feel that we don't measure up; that we are not as good as anyone else.
If they only knew! If I don't do my job properly, then the whole system will go down the drain. Our religious requirements are based upon a sacrificial system. That system requires good, healthy sheep that can be offered on the altar. Once a year we are required to go to the temple to offer an animal sacrifice for the purpose of absolution of sins committed during the last year. That sacrifice is specified to be a lamb without spot or blemish. Where would the system be if there were not people like me -- shepherds to watch over and care for the sheep which one day will be furnished to meet God's requirements.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that it probably was not by chance at all that we shepherds were selected to receive the amazing vision that night on the hills near Bethlehem. How fantastic it was that in the plan of God, God would have shepherds whose job was to care for the temple sheep to witness the birth of the Lamb of God, whose own sacrifice would bear the sins of the whole world! But that's getting ahead of my story. Because before we go any further I want to talk about the second set of main characters in this story -- the angels.
II. The Angels
This next part is absolutely weird and you know I would be the first to question my own sanity if it hadn't actually happened to me. The second main character in this story was an angel. Angels! I know! Believe me, even in the 1st Century, angels were always something that happened to the other guy. Sure, there is a lot in our religion about angels. In the Old Testament a few were even mentioned by name -- Michael and Gabriel. But until the angel appeared to Mary and then to us on the Hillside that night, nobody had seen an angel for centuries.
Those words in the Bible which say very simply, "And an angel of the Lord appeared to them," do not come close to reflecting the shock and the trauma of an experience like that. If you can get the picture -- there we were -- three shepherds bivouacking on a hillside near Bethlehem. As we often did, we were passing the night in the open air. The weather was rather mild and certainly bore no resemblance to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas". The next day we were to select a dozen sheep that were to be sent to the temple. We were discussing which ones we would cut out of the flock for that purpose, when suddenly that angel showed up. There is no way that I can describe that experience adequately except to say that we were almost blinded by an overwhelming light! We heard a voice and were aware of an indescribable presence.
I want you to know that the angel did several things for us that night. The first thing he did for us was to shake us up. There are times that all of us get lost in the routine of our existence and no one is guiltier of that than those of us who are shepherds. Our existence can be described in three words -- eat, work, and sleep. In our work we tend to become isolated from the needs and concerns of our world.
But then the angel of the Lord appeared! That seems to be an important part of the job of an angel -- to get our attention and help us to think of things in new ways. I said earlier that no one had reported sighting an angel for centuries. However, the more I think about it the more I realize the fact that not seeing an angel for centuries may have been due more to our blindness than to their absence. I would imagine that even during this Christmas season there are angels who are passing through the streets and the homes of Grand Rapids. I am sure that the angel of the Lord is here for those who are celebrating Christmas in loneliness and distress as well as for those who are gathered with family and friends in fun and frivolity. An angel is here for all those who are still asleep and maybe have something to sleep off. As a matter of fact, the angel of the Lord may even be passing through this church this morning. Our scriptures tell us that frequently we entertain angels unawares.
An angel of the Lord shakes us up. However, he may not choose to shake you up in the same way that he shook us up that night 2000 years ago. He may cause you to look at your life in a new way by creating a crisis, or confronting you with a need, or by seeking to capture your attention in a myriad of other ways.
Once the angel of the Lord gets our attention, then he can deliver a message to us. That's what an angel is -- that's what the word means in Greek -- a messenger who has some news for us. You might quite simply think of a mailman bringing you some news. The angel of the Lord is God's messenger carrying the news of the Christmas story.
There is a picture which I saw recently which has an angel coming straight from heaven to earth almost like lightening. For the angel of the Lord is like the lightening striking, illumining the truth.
As one Christmas hymn has it, "Eternal light from heaven descends, the earth all new and bright extends. And vanquished is the darkest night, that we all may be children of light." So the angels came to us to shake us up, to deliver a message, and to shed light on the truth; doing all of this in order to point to the central character of the whole story -- the baby.
III. The Baby
As you are all aware (because that's why you are here), the point of this whole thing has to do with the baby. We proceeded to Bethlehem as we had been directed in order to seek out this new baby who had been born. Once we got to Bethlehem it didn't take us long to locate Joseph and Mary and the child. Bethlehem was no metropolitan area like Grand Rapids, so it didn't take us long to locate them.
When we arrived, we found everyone doing well. The child had been born several hours earlier. It is not easy to keep any kind of secret in a small town like Bethlehem. So what happened in the stable soon had become known in the town. When we arrived, friendly women were still going back-and-forth on errands of mercy. The family was housed in accommodations which certainly were not extravagant. But they were adequate, far more adequate than many people have been led to believe. It was actually quite providential that Mary and Joseph were not housed in the inn where they would have been exposed to several other couples and where they would have had little privacy. On the other hand, the stable was comfortable and it did afford them adequate protection from the elements. It was not at all unusual for travelers to stay in stables. The Eastern stable was like a series of stalls opening off a common courtyard. There the innkeeper would provide fodder for the animals and a fire on which to cook.
This is where we found the baby. I want to share a feeling with you which I felt very strongly in that moment looking upon such a scene. I had to ask myself -- a lowly, humble shepherd, "What in the world am I doing here?" For there we were, witnessing an event which we did not have the foggiest knowledge of the meaning. We knew it was special, but the full implications of what we were seeing did not hit us until later.
In those moments we were probably just like a lot of you. Christmas was the birth of a baby and that's nice. The birth of a baby is always a joyous event. However, sometimes those closest to an event have the hardest time accepting its deeper significance. We were like that. We missed what was really happening.
When Jesus grew up and began attracting followers to himself, you will note that not one among them was a shepherd. In fact I didn't start putting two-and-two together until I was a very old man and Jesus was approaching the cross.
I regret to say that we were like so many of you who will celebrate Christmas and afterwards will go on with business-as-usual. If that happens, then you will have missed the true meaning of Christmas. For the meaning of Christmas is "For to you is born this day a savior." God wants to enter and become part of your life -- this day, not tomorrow, or the next. You are in church today. You have heard the story of Christmas told and retold. Take it from an old shepherd -- at Christmas, God entered history; but the key to this Christmas for you will be to let God enter your history.
Amen.