I have a friend named Eric. He is a missionary. For several years Eric lived in Kenya.
He spent much of his time in rural areas, real remote places. If you ever get the chance
to sit down and talk with Eric you’ll discover that he is filled with wonderful and
adventurous stories. One time Eric told me about a hippopotamus that kept sneaking
into the village at night where he lived. It’s a scary thing shooing away a 15 foot, 3,5000
pound animal in the dark. Terrorized the village. So they eventually contacted the
Kenyan Wildlife Authority. Long story short, the entire village ate hippo for a week.
I remember when Eric raised enough money to finally buy himself a camel. He named it
Pedro. Pedro was mean. He even bit Eric on occasion. So when Eric told me that
Pedro had been stolen, he didn’t seem all that disappointed. “It’s probably for the best,”
he told me.
The reason I bring Eric up, is that once when Eric was on furlough he brought home
something that the people in his village called a skull crusher. It was basically a rod, a
blunt club about a foot and a half long. It was carved out of a single piece of incredibly
dense wood. In fact when I held the thing in my hands, I swore that it was made of
stone. It was something like a baseball bat with a large grapefruit-sized ball on the end
of it. It was one piece, virtually impossible to break.
Eric told me that every sheep and goat herder he knew carried one of these rods
whenever they took their flock, especially at night. They were used to protect the flock
from wild animals, dogs and lions and such.
“Shepherds,” Eric told me, “weren’t the biggest or strongest guys that you’ll meet. But
they were some of the feistiest.” I mean you’d have to be, right, to go toe-to-toe with a
lion? Shepherds, it turns out, are not the type of people who are quick to back down
from a fight.
This reminds me of king David. David is mentioned in this passage almost as much as
Jesus. We all know David. You know, David and Goliath, that David. David was a king
of Israel. But before David became a king he was a feisty little shepherd. So feisty, in
fact, that when David heard about this Philistine soldier named Goliath taunting and
mocking the armies of Israel, David wanted to go out on the battle field and fight him.
Well, you need the king’s permission to do that. So David goes to the king of Israel
asking the king for permission to go out and fight Goliath. “King, I want to go out to the
battle field and fight this giant. He stands out there, he mocks our soldiers, mocks our
God. None of our soldiers will go out and fight him. Let me do it. I’ll fight him.” Let me
read some of this interaction for you. It comes to us in First Samuel chapter seventeen.
1 Sam 17:32-36
David said to the king, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged. I will go and fight this
Philistine!” This Goliath.
But the king replied to David, “You aren’t able to go against this Philistine and fight him!
You’re just a boy! He has been a warrior from his youth!”
David replied to the king, “Well, I am a shepherd of my father’s flock.”
Did you hear that? Did you hear what David just said to the king right there? “That man
may be a soldier. I may be just a boy. But I am a shepherd.” David goes on. He says
to the king:
“Whenever a lion or a bear comes and carries off a sheep from my flock, I go out after
that lion. I strike it down. I rescue my sheep from its mouth. If that lion rises up against
me, I grab that lion by its jaw. I strike it (with my rod), and I kill it. I have struck down
lions. I have struck down bears. This Goliath will be just like one of them.”
That’s a shepherd. Kinda makes me rethink shepherds a little bit? I mean, none of the
little shepherd figurines in my nativity set captures that about shepherds. I don’t think of
shepherds like that. Then again, I’ve never actually met a real shepherd. I need people
like my friend Eric to teach me about shepherds.
If it seems odd to hear the preacher talking about striking down lions and bears on
Christmas Eve, know that it’s just as strange to be the one
When the bible tells us that there were shepherds in the field on the night that Jesus was
born, guarding their flock in the dark, out in the remote places, out there with the lions
and the bears and the dogs, we can be sure that they stood out there with a shepherds
hook in their hand and something like a skull crusher at their hip. That is what it means
to guard the flock. Come what may: lions, tigers, and bears. Bring them on. Quite
experienced with danger, shepherds are feisty.
And yet, when the angel appeared, and the glory of their God shown all about them,
those shepherds wobbled. Knees knocking. Hands trembled. “They feared a great
fear,” Luke tells us. Apparently even shepherds get scared. We all get scared. There is
a lot to be afraid of. There are a lot of scary things out there, and we are only human.
We are afraid of people finding us out, learning things about us that we don’t want
anyone to know. We are afraid of failing. We are afraid of success. We are afraid of
hurting people. We are afraid of being hurt. Even those pail in comparison to the deep
fear we have of losing the people that we love. We don’t want to lose them, but there is
only so much we can do. We get reminded of that every now and again.
But the angel said to those shepherds, “Do not be afraid! Listen to me. I proclaim to you
good news; news that brings great joy to all people. For today, in the city of David, a
Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will
find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”
Just when you think you’ve got God all figured out, God goes and pulls a stunt like this.
God’s declares war on fear, God’s proclaims joy to all, but God announces it to
shepherds out in the middle of nowhere. Caesar’s decree went out to the entire Roman
world. God’s decree goes out to the sheep fields, out to the nowhere places. The hope
of the world is back in town, lying in the animals’ feeding trough.
Where is God? Where is God working? At Christmas time we are invited to remember
where God. God comes to us in common teenage girls. God comes in carpenters. God
comes lying in the animal’s feed trough, like your dog’s water bowl. Where is God? God
is in the lowly places, the forgotten places. God is where you would not figure to find
God. God shows up in unexpected places at unexpected times, even to shepherds who
are just doing their jobs.
By the tender mercy of God the dawn will break upon us from on high to give light to
those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. But you’d better be willing to find
it wherever it may come to you. God will come to you.
Christ is born unto you! The angel said. He is born to you, and you, and you, and me.
Christ is born for you. What good is it to hear that Christ is born a thousand times, to
hear children sing it in a most lovely manner, if we never hear that he is born for me?
Let us not walk out of the doors here tonight until we have heard that Christ is born for
me, that Christ lives for me, that Christ died for me, that he conquered death for me.
When those shepherds found Mary and Joseph. When they found the baby in the
manger, just as the Lord had told them they would, the shepherds told everyone they
could about all they had seen – what in heaven or earth had they seen? – Luke tells us
that Mary pondered these things in her heart. She mulled it all over, trying to make
sense of it all. What could this all mean? What did it mean?
One thing that it meant is that God had given to his people their shepherd. The One
who would lead them, guide them, and protect them. If only they would follow. One of
the most famous poems in the entire bible is Psalm 23. Written by David of all people.
I finish up here by reading a portion of it:
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
He takes me to green fields to rest,
he guides me to gentle waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me down the right paths
for the sake of his name.
Even when I must walk through the valley of deep darkness,
I fear no danger,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.