The Shepherd’s Carol, by Clive Sansom, gives voice to the story of the shepherds as they retold it to Mary and to Joseph after they had rushed to reach the child lying, new born, in a manger.
In song, they explain that they have come with great haste to see this sign, for
a voice from the sky, Lady,
It seemed to us then
[was] Telling of God being born
In the world of men.
It’s easy to hear many of the shepherd’s words in that carol as an apology for barging in upon the scene and interrupting a cosy family gathering. Perhaps that’s how we have viewed the shepherds more generally, as being odd additions shoved to the back of a stable scene. Perhaps that idea is specially likely if we have come to imagine the story of Mary’s labour and the birth of her Son as a lonely and isolated affair, something taking part in a picturesque stable – star over its door – set apart in its own seclusion and purity from all the world, and from us today.
But thinking more theologically, the shepherds do not intrude on the solitude of the holy family. Nor, in some later school nativity plays with slightly less historical sense than the gospel of Luke, are aliens or police officers really that out of place. Nor, as in Love Actually, should more than one lobster be viewed as unwelcome at the birth of the child.
For the story of the first Christmas is not a private one: it’s not just a time for close and happy families. The gospel of Luke, and the angels and the shepherds within it, all know that all heaven and earth are involved in this birth. For the child born is to be good news of great joy for all the people, and he is born to all us people.
The child born was also probably already in the midst of busy-ness and chaos when the shepherd arrived as he lay in the manger; with members of his extended family fussing over him; and older midwives rushing to and fro; and noise and haste going on around him; and the offer of all eager hospitality to a birth that had occurred to guests staying within a family’s shared spare living quarters.
The child was not named immediately at his birth. To the shepherds, the child was called Saviour, Anointed ruler (which is what Messiah means in English) and Lord, by the angel. The gospel of Luke emphasises that it was slightly later, at the temple in Jerusalem, that he was given the name predicted by the angel to Mary when she conceived. Again, there, he was received by people who do not quite fit in to an idealised image of a cosy Christmas, and yet they were the ones who greeted his coming. They were the ones who knew that he was named Jesus, which also has a special meaning: that God’s salvation is coming to his people.
The traditions of the Church also bind Jesus together with the names of the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace that appear in the prophecies of Isaiah. And all these names have something in common – from Messiah to Jesus to Prince of Peace – And it is that they are titles and not really names. As anyone with a young child could say, to call a baby ‘Prince of Peace’ is to severely tempt fate when it comes to their sleeping habits!
They are titles, and they rightly compelled the shepherds to the manger: to the place already crowded with a public joy: for they are titles for them to acknowledge and to honour, especially as shepherds were associated with the kingly traditions of Israel and are intended to remind us of the image of David who came into the presence of the Lord his God and worshipped him in great devotion.
Today, on Christmas Day, we have come too. For these titles are for us too; and this story is for us too. We may not now find a baby in a manger, but the child’s meaning – his salvation; his rule; and his lordship; his wisdom; his power; his eternity; and his peace, we will find, if we seek them with haste as we have heard in the call of the voice from the sky.
We will find them in the scriptures that speak of the life of Jesus, that take us toward a greater knowledge of him in stories; in prayer that brings us before his presence now; and in the breaking of bread and taste of wine that we will soon share in obedience to his command, all gathering together.
All around God being born
In the world of men.
And so we have come, Lady,
Our day’s work done.
Our love, our hopes, ourselves
We give to your son
For it is he who has been given to and for all people.