For All People: The Second Week of Advent 2009

It was just another day. They simply got up, perhaps some without sleeping at all, and tended their flock. It was, without a doubt, just another day.

But I can’t help but wonder about that night. Maybe the air was just a bit fresher as the shepherds kept watch. Perhaps the sky was a little clearer, with more stars in the sky that boasted a bright, full winters moon. What if it was that night,, as they went about their daily tasks, they were, for the first time, content, their bones did not hurt, and their muscles were not sore? What if this night was so ordinary, it was different?

This night was different indeed, and while the following events would prove this fact, it was just another night in the fields, a silent night, and all was well.

It wasn’t easy to be a shepherd in the 1st century, and as someone that grew up surrounded by cow pastures, I know that line of work hasn’t gotten any easier. For those living 2000 years ago however, your line of work, what you touched, and how you spent your time had a huge effect on how you were seen in the community. Shepherds were considered unclean. They spent most of their time around animals, and many scholars hold that they were not even allowed to sleep inside the protection of the city walls. Needless to say, this wasn’t an easy life. If you were considered unclean by a community in 1st century Palestine, this meant that you were also religiously, and ritually unclean which would have probably kept these shepherds from any kind of active life around the Temple and thus unable to follow all of their Jewish law.

We can imagine how they must have felt about themselves. They were, in the truest since of the word, outcasts. How might this understanding of their own identities affect the way these shepherds thought about God? I mean, if they were unclean, and unwanted by men, why would the perfect God of the covenant want anything to do with them? In the minds of these shepherds, they were unwanted and left out by both men and God. Again, this was just another typical day, or was it?

“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for ALL the people: to YOU is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he favors’” (Luke 2:8-14 NRSV).

We all know what happened next. They immediately departed for the city of David, Bethlehem, just as the angels had told them. What must have been going through their minds at this point? Think about it, they were shepherds, unclean, and unwanted outcasts. If what they angels said were true, everything they once thought of themselves must be wrong. Even more important, if this good news was for all people, and a savior had actually been born to them, then perhaps the feelings that they once thought God had for them were wrong as well.

As modern readers, we have the privilege of history for we know what happened. The angels were right, there was a savior, and he was for all people. This savior, Jesus, had come, to save those from oppression and even to save their oppressors. He came to save the lowest shepherd and the highest king. He came to be all things to all people, to meet them where they were, and redeem even the darkest, most ordinary night.

I’m not sure where you are as we move into the middle of this second week of advent. Maybe you feel a bit unwanted, or even unclean and believe that God overlooked you. Perhaps your misery is simply the ordinariness of the everyday life in which you live. Regardless of where you are, or where you have been, today, in the city of David, a savior is born to you, his law is love, and his gospel is peace for all people, even you. He has come to make all things new.



“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” – Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
When all was calm and all was bright,
For this, truly, would be, a silent night.


ACG