In the last of our Christmas Sermons, LLM Ian Wells reflects on the role of the Shepherds in a sermon at Holy Trinity, Tarleton.

“All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.”

For once the shepherds get their own story told properly, not just jammed in between the journey to Bethlehem and the arrival of the Magi, as happens in carol services.

And it’s not just carol services: many hymns and carols go far beyond the Gospel texts, including one of the hymns we sing today.

A donkey? No, he has to wait for the entry into Jerusalem 30-odd years later!

The Ox and the Ass?

No sign of them in the Gospel accounts.

They arrived when St Francis more or less invented the modern crib staging – and he borrowed them from Isaiah. (Chapter 1, verse 3, if you want to check.)

A stable? Maybe.

A manger, definitely – but not necessarily in a stable in current use.

The space offered outside the over-full inn could just have been a shed full of old bits and pieces. (Like garages in many houses today.)

I always imagine Joseph finding a discarded manger with one leg missing, and, as a competent carpenter, hastily repairing it with what ever was to hand.

And after their initial declaration of joy, their sight of the baby Jesus, and their greeting of Mary and Joseph, they returned still “Glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”

Reputable or disreputable, they rejoiced in the good news that Jesus had just been born, and went on spreading the word and rejoicing as they headed back to their temporarily abandoned flock.

I’m sure I’ve commented before that this is reflected at the end of Jesus’s human life, when the women who have seen the empty tomb are doubted.

Women’s witness was not acceptable.

So both Jesus’s birth, and his resurrection, are revealed first to those of little account,

of low or no status.

In a recent parish magazine, I commended Bishop Jill’s book, Lighting the Beacons.

Now, between the end of the Advent devotional and the very early start of 2024’s Lent devotional, it is well worth starting to read it or, as I am from St Stephen’s day, re-reading it.

There’s a section in it when she realises that the need for, and the true knowledge of,

the saving power of Jesus doesn’t come from successful academic study,

or status in the Church hierarchy –

  • both of which she has.

But the shepherds! The shepherds!

They are there:

enthused by the angelic chorus, as we are singing but didn’t have read from Luke today:

inspired by the angelic chorus they left their flocks and rushed off into Bethlehem.

I thought to say: ‘I’m not sure what the sheep’s owner would have said!’ but I’m pretty sure I do know …..

I was told of the church in the diocese of Carlisle where, at their Nine Lessons and Carols service, a gentleman-farmer was asked to read the text of the coming of the shepherds.

After reading it, instead of saying ‘Thanks be to God’ he glared round and snapped: ‘If they were my employees, I’d have sacked ’em.’

“All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.”

So what was special about that?

Shepherds really weren’t regarded as good neighbours, worthy of any respect, or even slightly likely to be worth listening to, as Fr Mark reminded us at the Bethlehem Mass and on Christmas morning.

We know from Jesus’s discussions, 30 years later, about what work was allowed be done on the Sabbath, that shepherds would inevitably be regarded with suspicion.

No way could they keep the Sabbath properly:

they had to work: the flock had to be protected, fed and watered, whatever day of the week it was.

She realises that the need for, and the true knowledge of, the saving power of Jesus

comes from “ordinary” people,  from their daily struggles with family or money problems, mental and physical health problems, any or all of the problems of “ordinary” day to day life on the front-line of society.

The people she tells us she encountered in this way are the successors to the Shepherds, to the women at the empty tomb.

Discovering the saving grace of the empty tomb and rejoicing in it – even if they don’t quite use that language.

So, in our day to day life are we reflecting the enthusiasm of the shepherds?

Glorifying and praising God!

Glorifying and praising God – not just here in the comfort of the church building, but throughout our daily lives, wherever, whenever, however we are?

Are we amazing anyone with our response to the good news?