Thursday, December 19, 2019

Who Knew First


Image result for shepherds michelangeloAnyone who has been even casually involved in a church knows that who knows something first is important. The week after I announced my departure from my first church, the main pastime was speculating as to who knew what and when did they know it.
We rank ourselves by where we stand in the hierarchy of information.  The earlier we know, the more important we feel.  And, of course, nothing boosts our self-esteem like having something shared in confidence before anybody else knows.

 When shepherds in the field receive the first public announcement of the birth of the Son of the most High God, it upsets the customary hierarchy of information (Luke 2:8-20).  Mary and Elizabeth and, presumably, Joseph were the first to know; but they were family.
The angels bring “good news of great joy" to these workers in the field.  Shepherds likely did not get a lot of joy-giving good news.  No one dreamed of growing up to be a shepherd.  It was a job you took because you could not get a better job doing anything else.  They were poor, and their lives were harsh.  People stereotyped them as dishonest; they were not permitted to testify in court.

So why are shepherds, people at the bottom of the social order, the first to hear the news that Jesus is born?

We would expect the rich and powerful to get this news first—people like the Wise Men or the governor.  We would expect the announcement to be made to the Chief Priest in the Temple maybe.  Why do shepherds receive the news first?

Remember what Mary sings after the angel announces that she will be the mother of the savior:

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:51-53)
Mary sees that the coming of Jesus will turn things upside down.  People who were discounted, ignored, and exploited, will be raised up.  The hungry will be fed, and the rich will go away empty. What Mary sings about begins with these shepherds.

These lowly shepherds are privileged by receiving the Good News before the rich and powerful find out. God notices the people who usually go unnoticed.

The angels say to the shepherds:  “You will find this baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Manger is a nice word for a feeding trough where animals eat.  Jesus is born into the humble surroundings of poverty and is visited first by people who know that tough world well.

Not long after this, his family must escape to Egypt because of danger in his homeland. Jesus begins his life as a refugee fleeing danger.  In Jesus, God identifies—from the very beginning—with the foreigner, the stranger, the castaway.  God stands side by side with those who are unwanted and unwelcome. This is what Mary is singing about.

The angels announce “peace on earth;” and Mary sings about God repairing what is broken in our world.  But when we look around at our world, much of our world is still quite broken.  Recently, the International Criminal Court heard the case against Burma for its violence against the Rohingya people, this violence being just one of the daily outrages that fill the news.

So where is this peace and new world the angels and Mary announce? 

Something began in the first coming of Jesus, and someday God will finish it off.  Until then we live in the middle, between what has begun and what is not yet finished.  Karl Barth wrote it is this great and final hope that gives life to the small daily hopes that carry us through our days. Here and there, now and then this work God began in Jesus breaks through. Sometimes we must look hard to see it among the debris of what we have made of God’s creation.

The shepherds return to their fields “glorifying and praising God.”  Their lives are not very different.  They still spend cold nights in the fields, eat bad food, and get no respect.  They still live with smelly sheep and wear worn out shoes. Yet they glorify and praise God anyway.

Their world has not changed much, but they have.  They know that God notices people like them; they got the good news first after all.  For the shepherds of the world, this is a good omen. 

For the rest us, we could take a clue from the Wise Men, those kings from the east.  They do not get there first; but when they do, they recognize this child for who he really is and have the good sense to worship him.

Jim Kelsey
Executive Minister--American Baptist Churches of New York State