There is always a question I have when we read the Christmas narrative from Luke and that question is: Who was keeping watch over the flocks by night when the shepherds decided to go to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place? Maybe there was a shepherd apprentice who they left to take care of things, with a cute non-threatening name like Tommy. You could almost making a catchy novelty Christmas song out of it like Tommy the Apprentice Shepherd. The only issue is that there are very few things that rhyme with shepherd. The only words I could come up with were leopard, peppered and former House majority leader Dick Gephardt. So I think I will have to keep my day job. But back to the shepherds. The most likely thing that happened is that the Shepherds just left and had no contingency plan. The birth of the Messiah was, in the words of our president, so “huge” that it overwhelmed everything else. They forgot about their livelihood and rushed to see the birth of the Messiah without regard for anything else in their lives. And I think on some level we can understand this. We have probably dropped everything at some point, but generally speaking it is usually for something negative. At least for me it is. The last time I can remember dropping everything was when the planes hit the World Trade Centers in 2001. Sadly it seems that if something horrible has happened we will forget everything else and run and see it, but not always when something wonderful has happened. But just listen to some of the ways that Isaiah describes what is happening tonight:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined.
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
And so the question for us this night, this night on which the shepherds rushed towards Bethlehem is: Can we get this excited about something wonderful? Can we drop everything to rush to something that is pure and beautiful or will we be too consumed by the mundane, the routine and those things that offer us distorted images of the divine? In a world that is so consumed with acrimony and anger can we rush to the light to this thing that must be seen?
Before I go into the next section I need to issue a disclaimer and say that I tend to limit my knowledge of what celebrities are doing to the checkout line of the grocery store, but I happened upon a very curious celebrity spat the other day. It seems that Taylor Swift, who is a singer of some sort, went on the Twitter and announced in a greeting for her birthday that she could not have asked for a better year. Which to me seemed innocent enough and even kind of nice, but I guess it was not. She was immediately attacked for her tone deafness for not realizing just how horrible of a year it was. I did not read enough to see what her detractors were demanding she put on sackcloth and ashes about, but it appears in some people’s mind there can be no light to shine in the darkness. And what a strange world we live in where there is an incessant desire to rush to the awful and claim it as a full representation of reality. And just in case you do not believe my theory, let me give you another data point. On a different other day I was waiting for an oil change and as I sat in the lounge I picked up a copy of the magazine GQ. I had not looked through this magazine in years but as I recall it used to give you tips on new pants for spring and the best exfoliating products to give your skin a radiant glow. Anyway it now appears that they have decided that well groomed men have important views too. And so the magazine was filled with sophomoric political observations. But the point is in looking at the deep thoughts of GQ, I read in one of their rather glib articles that 2017 was the worst year in recorded history. Yes, that is right, it would have been better for you to have experienced year zero in Pol Pot’s Cambodia or have had your village sacked by Attila the Hun than it was to have experienced the blood dimmed tide that was loosed upon suburban Milwaukee in the year of the beast that that was 2017. And anyway in thinking about GQ and Taylor Swift, which I honestly try not to do very frequently, but in thinking about these incidences I have to wonder when did we decide to be such a bunch of sad sacks? Has the whole world turned into that kid in college in your dorm who would not go out to a party because there is just so much pain in the world?
But tonight is Christmas Eve - a perfect night to proclaim that all is not lost in the year 2017. For tonight is the night when God burst into the world and we were brought good news of great joy. God has come and declared to us that we are worth saving. No matter how many stupid things we do or bad things happen to us, we worship a God who came into human history and declared that humanity was capable of being in communion with the creator and sustainer of the universe. Because in the incarnation human and divine lived together in the one body of Jesus Christ. I really don’t know where 2017 lies on the list of worst years because I don’t have an electrified bad year measurer, but I do know because of the Incarnation (and resurrection but we will have to wait until Easter for that), but because of the Incarnation nothing can ever be that bad. And the reason it cannot be that bad is because God has not only declared it as such, but has demonstrated this fact on this night in Bethlehem of Judea were unto to us a savior was born.
In a world where everyone seems in a rush to out misery one another maybe it might just be time for some joy. Sure there are things that are wrong with the world and certainly there are things yet unimagined that will go wrong with the world. But tonight the shepherds, who had one of the worst jobs around and were living in a country occupied by Roman oppressors, literally dropped everything they had and rushed to see this momentous and joyful thing that had taken place. For those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them a light has shined. Tonight is a night of unmitigated joy, a night where wonder and beauty are so overwhelming that they consume everything else.
And since as best I know none of us have flocks in the fields that we are watching over, I would ask of you what is there that you should leave so that you may experience the fullness of joy that tonight is all about. What needs to be left behind so that all of us may see the incarnation in all of its wonderful and strange beauty? We should rush to a manger in Bethlehem on this evening so that we may see the glory of God as revealed in his son, Christ the Lord, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.