The shepherds were always thought of as “N’er do well” kind of folks.  To the best of our understanding, you were a shepherd if you couldn’t do anything else.  You were a shepherd if you needed to hide out from the authorities because the flocks were being moved around quite a bit, hiding especially well if you pulled the night shift as Luke tells it.

Even though they were usually untrustworthy, they had a story to tell!  They were first visited by one angel, then by a huge number of them, or so Luke chapter 2 says.  They are rightfully scared to death, but the angel reassures them that no harm will come to them; they will be the first to know the story of God coming—finally—to earth to set his children free!

These ragamuffins then are overwhelmed with curiosity and want to go to Bethlehem to see what the angel was talking about.  How many shepherds are we talking about here?  How many witnessed this amazing event?  No one knows, but it probably wasn’t all that many.  Three or four shepherds could control a whole flock of one hundred with no problem.

Now, if they left their workstation, and, if they went to Bethlehem, hopefully they put someone in charge of watching their sleeping sheep. (Usually animals slept at night.)  So—that being the case, if there were only a small handful of shepherds to start with, if some were made to stay behind, by the time they got to the City of David, there may have only been one or two of them!

They went and found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger – just like the angel said they would.  They told everyone there what they had seen and heard.  So now, one or two shepherds are reporting to whom?  To whom are they telling their marvelous story?  Joseph, and Mary, and maybe a wandering mid-wife?  Were they sharing their part of the story with anyone (in the middle of the night) who would listen?  The Bible teaches that Jews did not like to hang around out in the dark (another reason that shepherding wasn’t high on anyone’s job- hunting lists), so with whom and how many people did they tell this story?  My guess is not many.  And, because they were shepherds, people would be “..amazed at what the shepherds said to them..”  This wasn’t something one might expect to come out of a shepherd’s mouth.  This wasn’t even something that a shepherd would ever have any interest in – in the least.  I’m thinking that shepherds weren’t very religious people.  The really amazing thing is that God would choose these guys as his very first witnesses of the Messiah, Jesus.  It’s wondrous to proclaim that the Lord would give the first task of evangelism so such a motley, uneducated crew!

So—if you have ever thought that you weren’t good enough, or, hadn’t the skills for, or, just plain didn’t want to participate with such “gospely things,” watch out!  If you think you don’t fit the job description or that you don’t match with the profile to do such things—think again.

God uses every person, every resource, to share his good news.  You don’t have to be a great speaker or writer; you don’t have to have faith as to move mountains; God uses you and me every day of our lives whether we know it or not.  So, be prepared.  God has something for everyone to do in his kingdom here.

Know that this means you are blessed!  You are loved; you are forgiven; you have been given the gift of salvation through the work that this little baby in swaddling clothes would accomplish a number of years later!

That also means that the story that the smelly ol’ shepherds told was full of truth!  Wow! Out of the mouths of babes and also otherwise nasty old men.

As the New Year is upon us, prepare your hearts and minds for something new; God’s watching and he might just call on you this time!  You never know.  In the meantime, know that:

God loves you and so do we!

Pastor Jim