Next Step - December 13

We are just finishing week three of Advent. It has been a season of waiting and spiritual preparation for the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus. Although the Christmas story is one we hear every year, it is a story that must never lose meaning or significance. Each Sunday this Advent season, we have been using the Advent Wreath and an Eastern Nativity Icon to tell the Nativity Story. There are 5 candles in the Advent Wreath; one candle will be lit each Sunday leading up to Christmas. Each candle will allow us to enter the Nativity Story from a different person’s perspective and experience. The final Candle, representing Jesus, will be lit on Christmas Eve.

We have created a guide that tracks directly with Sunday morning’s devotions for you to use or adapt. I hope you had a chance to pick one up. If not, you can pick up a copy of the devotional on Sunday. This week's devotional is below. It is designed for you to set up your nativity, but leave all the people out of the scene. Each week as you discuss a different person’s story and experience, add them to the scene. Try to put yourself into the story, to really engage with what they might have been feeling, thinking and experiencing. Take time to share insights on the devotional question and then spend a moment in prayer, silence or reflection. If you choose, you could also light an Advent Candle each week instead of doing the Nativity Set or in addition to it.

The first week we entered Mary’s story. Last week we entered Joseph’s story. This week we enter the story of the Shepherds.

Week Three, Candle Three. Shepherds and Angels. God touches the least likely.

In the picture above, a couple of shepherds are on the right-hand side, and one of them is playing a flute. Below them, their sheep drink in a river. One of the shepherds looks up and is blessed by an angel looking down on him. The middle group of angels is kneeling or bowing in worship before Jesus, and the angels to the left are an angelic choir, singing his praises.

From Luke, Chapter 2
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town 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 cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’ Luke 2:8-14

While Matthew’s Gospel focuses on the wise men, those with wealth and power, Luke’s spotlight falls on these working men, the poor and marginalized, who hear from heaven itself the news about the birth of Jesus. God does not show favor as the world does, but rather reaches down to those the world oppresses. He brings a voice to the voiceless, a home to the homeless, and love to the unloved. Luke’s Gospel is a message for people living on the margins of society. Jesus himself said,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind…” Luke 4:18

We enter the story of the shepherds, for their story reminds us of God’s love for those who are forgotten and left behind in our world.

Blessed are you
O Christmas Christ,
that your cradle was so low
that shepherds,
poorest and simplest of people,
could yet kneel beside it,
and look level-eyed into the face of God.

May the Shepherds remind us that we come to the throne, not because we deserve it, but because we are called. May their story spur us on towards love and good deeds to those in the margin of our society today. Jesus truly is news of great joy that is for all the people!

Question: At the time the Bible was written, being a Shepherd was one of the worst jobs possible. Everybody looked down on Shepherds; nobody wanted them around because of their smell and low standing. Yet God had the angels appear to them so that they could go and see Jesus. Why do you think God told the Shepherds about Jesus when He could have told anybody?