Psalm 96:11-13 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before God when God comes, when God comes to judge the earth. Abba God will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with Abba God’s truth.
Luke 2:1-20
Our gospel passage opens up with, Now it happened in those days a decree came out from Emperor Augustus to take a census of all the state (v.1). Luke further clarifies that this first census occurred while Quirinius was governor of Syria (v.2); this is Luke locating this very, very, very old story within the history of the kingdom of humanity.[1] We’re also told that all the people were going to give [their] names for registration [the census] each in their own cities (v.3) because that is what the census demanded. So, a (very, very, very) pregnant Mary (v.5) is traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem by donkey with her husband to-be, Joseph, who was of the lineage of David (v.4) (and this is why he’s going to Bethlehem, because it’s also the “City of David”). Mary’s physical situation wasn’t considered as a valid reason to opt out of the journey because oppression, adverse to mercy, knows no limits, and trickles down from on high and disrupts and disturbs the everyday lives of the least of these—no one is excluded from the impact of this oppression no matter how much one might be deluded by false identification with the powerful. [2] And, considering Mary’s very pregnant situation and arriving in Bethlehem, Luke tells us, Now it happened while being there the days of [Mary’s] begetting completed, and she brought forth her first born son, and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him down in a manger because there was not a place for them in the inn (vv.6-7).
There it is, the Christmas story; the one we are all here to celebrate, the one we are all very familiar with. But Luke has more to share because he believes we need to hear a bit more of the story. So, he goes on. Luke shifts the scene: we go from the stable and manger, and find ourselves among the shepherds and their sheep, in the cool night air under a blanket of stars. And shepherds were in that region living in the fields and watching over their flock keeping guard through the night (v. 8). Luke’s language is brief, but his point is anything but.[3] Remember that reference back in vv.1-2 about Augustus, Quirinius, and the census? Well, turns out that’s a bit more than a location in history; it’s a commentary on the oppressive political regime[4] that was about to become even more oppressive once this exploitative[5] census finished. This census wasn’t just a tally of who is who and who is where, but a way for the government to dip oppressive hands deeper into the livelihoods of all the people from the wealthiest to the poorest, the poorest being most impacted by the results of the census. [6] Luke sends us to the shepherds because it is these humble tenders of livestock who are looking for more than literal wolves out hunting for a quick late night meal—wolves they could and were trained to fight off. No, the shepherds on this night feared bigger wolves who were on the prowl in bipedal fashion;[7] against these they could not fight and if they did (or if they even spoke of it) it would be considered subversive and thus rebellion or insurrection and punishable.[8] These shepherds stayed awake to stay on guard and keep watch; they stayed awake because they were angry, scared, and terrified about what was coming.[9] The existing darkness of the night doubled as the shroud of socio-political darkness rolled in.
And it is to these scared, anxious, tired, poor, powerless shepherds[10] an angel of God comes. Luke tells us that in the blink of an eye the darkness surrounding the shepherds is obliterated by the glory of God shining around them, and an angel of God stood among them (v. 9). The shepherds go from hidden to suddenly exposed,[11] from the least significant[12] to the most important, and they are terrified.[13] So, the angel of God says, “Do not be afraid, for behold! I proclaim good news to you, a great joy whichsoever will be for all the people! Today a savior who is Christ the Lord was born for you in the city of David! And this [will be] a sign to you: you will find a newborn child having been wrapped in swaddling clothes and being laid in a manger!” (vv. 10-11). The shepherds may have not been the most erudite of the people, but they knew that the coming of the savior indicated liberation. As the darkness of the decree from the kingdom of humanity goes out over the land threatening increased captivity, indifference, and death, in this moment in the intersection of celestial and earthly realms it collides head-on with the light of the word of God, the Savior Messiah, now born and lying in a manger promising to bring spiritual and political love, life, and liberation.[14]
Luke tells us further that suddenly it happened a great army of heaven was praising God with the angel, saying, “Glory to God Most High and upon earth peace among humanity of [God’s] favor!” (vv. 13-14). And as fast as the angel and their folx showed up, they left(v. 15a). Here something interesting happens. As the angels leave, the shepherds talk to one another (v. 15b). What did they discuss? Luke tells us: “Indeed, let us travel until Bethlehem and let us see this word which has happened which God declared to us!” (v. 15c). Luke then tells us, And they hastened and found Mary and Joseph and the new born child being laid in the manger” (v. 16). Did you catch it? They left their fields and their sheep and hastened to find Mary and the baby, the savior, the Christ, the one who is the long-awaited fulfillment of the promise of God’s liberation, the promise fulfilled now wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a dirty manger, the ancient of days, the great counselor, Immanuel. They dropped everything and went—everything that defined them, sustained them, comforted them. In that moment, they left it all behind to pursue the sign of the fulfilled promise of divine liberation come down low, to earth, to them. Good news does that; whereas the bad news of the census of the kingdom of humanity drove them deeper into darkness, the good news of Messiah and of the coming reign of God summoned them into light. On this night, they left; they left, and when they came back from visiting with Mary and sharing their story (vv. 17-18), they were new people, with a new word, with a new vision, with a new hope, with a new song to rejoice!
Conclusion
I don’t know about you, but I want (need?) this story to be true and real right about now. I want to have God intercept this world and intervene, to come here and show up. I want the reign of God to literally break into the kingdom of humanity, right the wrongs, establish justice, and bring real, tangible peace. I want the night sky to part and the light of the celestial realm to stream through. I want to turn and see the Christ in the manger, the long-awaited promise fulfilled. I want angels to show up and proclaim actual good news to; I want them to tell me to go and see so I have proof. But here I am, just regular me in this regular church telling a regular story to some regular people. As far as I can tell, there has been no divine intervention; I can’t help it, I find myself asking, where, oh where is God…? As I celebrate and remember the birth of the Christ, where is God now, tonight?
And then I realize, this is Luke’s point. We think this story is solely about the birth of Christ and about God coming low to save us. And while it is very much about that, stopping there truncates the story Luke is telling Theophilus and, thus, telling us. Just remembering the birth of Christ and not also the oppressed shepherds met in the middle of the night in fields adjacent to Bethlehem places the emphasis on the wrong syllable of the narrative. This story isn’t solely about the birth of Christ, it is also about the rebirth of the shepherds. Tonight, in remembering the nativity of the Christ, we are also asked to recall the shepherds who were summoned and sent, who were reoriented toward something completely different and completely new. We need to see that this is the story about far-off, isolated and alienated, terrified and anxious shepherds who are afraid of what the future holds, who doubt, who are afraid, who feel abandoned, who very well may have been wondering where is God, tonight? And it’s these same shepherds who are not only met but also summoned to go (as they are!) and greet the newborn ruler of the reign of God, the one who will take on the empire of the kingdom of humanity, the one who will bring life where there is death, love where there is indifference, and liberation where there is captivity.
In the divine calling of the shepherds, we hear our own summons. Tonight, as the angel comes to proclaim good news to the shepherds, we, too, are receiving that very same news.[15] Tonight, as the shepherds are sent, so are we. Tonight, as the shepherds encounter God swaddled, we are encountered by God in the proclamation of this good news from the angel to the shepherds, of the shepherds meeting and marveling at the first-born baby of Mary.
Like the shepherds before us, we are exposed by the light of heaven and summoned from what was and sent toward something new, something different, something better. Amid our fear, our doubt, our desperations while being submerged in a world that is dead set on burning itself down, we, through this story, come face to face with God, born to a single woman of color, swaddled and laid in a manger. Tonight, if but for a moment, we dare to have hope, seek peace, grasp love, and risk having joy. Tonight, along with the shepherds we harken to the divine summons and embrace the truth of the reign of God defined by love, life, and liberation. Tonight, the Christ is born anew among us, in our heart, for us. Breathe deep, rest, be comforted, and rejoice. Again, I say, Rejoice.
[1] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 32-33. “It is characteristic of Luke, for it does not appear in any of the other Gospels…[and] indicates Luke’s interest in placing his story within the context of world history”
[2] Gonzalez, Luke, 33. “For a period before the advent of the Roman Empire, the Jews had been struggling against Syrian domination. Now their land was ruled from Syria by a governor appointed by Rome. Whatever the actual chronology may have been, the political structure is clear: the Jews have a puppet government under Syrian and Roman power. As usual, oppression is not a merely political matter, the concern only of those directly involved in politics. It also reaches the every day lives of people, as is seen in the very fact that Joseph and Mary have to travel to Bethlehem even though she is about to give birth.”
[3] Gonzalez, Luke, 33. “This is not a mellow, bucolic story about some shepherds tending their sheep with little or no care beyond the possibility of a wandering wolf. That is not the setting in which Luke presents the story.”
[4] Gonzalez, Luke, 33. “The setting is rather that of people living under and oppressive regime. The mention of Augustus and Quirinius…is politically charged.”
[5] Gonzalez, Luke, 33. “A census usually announced grater poverty and exploitation. It was as welcome among subjects of the Roman Empire as undocumented immigrants in industrialized nations welcome a census today.”
[6] Gonzalez, Luke, 33. “A census had sinister implications. It was not just counting people in order to see how many there were, and what population trends were. In ancient times, and long thereafter, a census was in fact an inventory of all the wealth of a region—its people, its animals, and its crops—so that the government could be able to tax people to the maximum.”
[7] Gonzalez, Luke, 33. “Given those circumstances, the setting of the shepherds keeping their flocks at night is much less tranquil and romantic. They live out in the fields, suffer all kinds of deprivations and even dangers, in order to protect their flocks. But the census threatens a new danger, a wolf more dangerous than any four-legged beast, a wolf that will probably decimate their flocks, and whom they cannot fight, for it is too powerful.”
[8] Gonzalez, Luke, 34. “It is not difficult to imagine what would be the talk of such shepherds as they sought to remain awake through the night. In that sort of circumstances, people vent their anger, frustration, and fear in what is at once idle and dangerous talk—talk that does not necessarily lead to rebellion, but that in itself is subversive and the authorities will consider it rebellious and punishable.”
[9] Gonzalez, Luke, 34. “…the setting itself was one of fear and oppression.”
[10] Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, translated by Donald D. Walsh (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 26. “Felipe: ‘The angel came to them because they were working men, and I find this is very important for us. Because they were poor little people who were working. They were watching over their sheep which is like taking care of cattle today. They were workers, laborers, poor people. The angel of God could have gone to the king’s palace and said them: “The Savior has been born.” But the angel didn’t go where the king was but where the poor people were, which means that this message is not for the big shots but for the poor little guys, which means the. oppressed, which means us.”
[11] Gonzalez, Luke, 34. “One of the ways in which the ‘little people’ manage to survive under oppressive regimes is not to call attention to themselves. …Now these shepherds are literally in the limelight, and an obviously powerful personage confronts them.”
[12] Cardenal, Solentiname, 26. “I: ‘It was really the shepherds who were at the bottom of the social scale in Israel…’”
[13] Gonzalez, Luke, 34. “It is in that scene, perhaps silent, but not as peaceful as we tend to depict it, that an angel suddenly appears before the shepherds and they are terrified. Their fear is not surprising…Suddenly there is a bright light, and an unknown person stands before them. It is not surprising that they would be terrified.”
[14] Gonzalez, Luke, 35-36. “The good news that the angel announces is the birth of a child, ‘a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.’ This is the only text in the entire New Testament where these three titles appear together. The title ‘Savior’ (sōtēr) was employed in the Septuagint….to refer both to God and to those whom God sends to liberate Israel. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the function of such liberators is neither purely religious nor purely political. Actually, this is a distinction that people in ancient times would find difficult to understand…The ‘saviors’ in the Hebrew Scriptures liberate Israel from its political oppressors so that the people may be free to serve and obey God…The child who has been born will free the people form bondage—bondage both to their sins and to their oppressors.”
[15] Cardenal, Solentiname, 28. “I: ‘….At this very moment you are receiving the same news from the angel that the shepherds received.’”
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