Why the shepherds?
Why does God send an angel, tramping across the
hills by starlight, to carry a message to this band of night-shift workers?
Why do they get an additional host of angels,
marching, under cover of darkness, across the sky?
Some say it is because God seeks out the
marginalised. And there may be some truth in that. But God seeks out all of his
children; and perhaps it is truer to say that the powerful prefer the darkness
while the poor, knowing how dark it is – how it hides their suffering from the
eyes of the world – are more open to welcoming light…
No, I think there is another reason why, of all
the village peasants, the shepherds must be fetched down from the hills.
This is the story of the restoration of the house
of David. This is the key. When God chose David to be king, he was a young boy
charged with looking after his father’s sheep. When Samuel sends news to Jesse,
to gather all his sons, for the prophet comes to worship God with them, David –
the very son Samuel is sent to anoint king – is overlooked. Out on the hills,
watching over the sheep.
He must be summoned – and even then, he’s only
recalled to mind, and recalled home, when every other son has been ruled out.
So when God sends news to David’s hidden son,
Joseph, to gather his family at the ancient family home; in order that a son
may be anointed king –
not crowned, not yet, for first will come the
hidden years; the crowning will come after suffering, and in Jerusalem –
when God sends this good news, the shepherds of
the town of David must be fetched home.
They are the guests of honour. Their presence
represents David, some-time shepherd of Bethlehem, at the birth of the heir to
his throne.
It could not be allowed to come to pass without
them.
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