DAY 23

Shepherds drawn in
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…

• Luke 2:8-9

Or as many a choir member have found themselves singing inadvertently, while shepherds washed their socks by night…!

Shepherds in one way, were a likely group to be invited to the birth of the messiah. King David, from whose line a saviour would be born, was a shepherd, and wrote perhaps the most famous psalm of all, psalm 23, ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’, a title Jesus took on himself when he said He was The Good Shepherd.

However, they were also unlikely visitors. They had very little status in the ancient world and were on the edge of society. Not just as working men out in the fields, but also the kind of people you wouldn’t go out of your way to make friends with.

And yet, here they are right in the center of things. The first to encounter a magical angelic choir, then entrusted to carry news from heaven to the parents of the newborn child. It’s an interesting thought, that these, citizens of Israel, who felt out in the margins were united with wealthy travelling foreigners in worshiping the newborn King of Israel and the World.

This coming of Jesus, and coming again of Jesus that we are waiting for, is for all of us, including those of us who feel on the margins of society and of the Christian faith. It’s a reminder that we find God’s favour not because we have dazzling qualities as the world defines it, but because we recognise an inward search for hope, for love and God delights in that. “Christianity is not a religion in which we try to score points in order to be worthy of God’s love, but rather based upon God’s gracious attitude towards us.” - An Advent Book of Days
We are all drawn right in!

Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth was shared with the shepherds through the message of an angel, and the singing of the angelic choirs, help us to praise you, not only with our lips, but in our lives. Amen.