Christmas is impossible. How can the God who made the Cloud Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy become a little child who can only make pooh-pooh diapers? How can the God who dreamed up the eleven million different species of animals which exist on the earth today – to say nothing of the millions more who went extinct — lie in a manger which is used to feed one of those species? How can the God who is not limited by space or time be born in Bethlehem in the land of Judea while Quirinius was governor of Syria? We have gotten so used to saying that God is with us, Emmanuel, that the shocking, the unbelievable, the impossible nature of that statement doesn’t faze us. Okay, sure, son of God is born. Ho hum, now I’ve got to go shopping and what time is the game. And yet at the time it occurred this event was stupendous enough to deserve an angel chorus to mark the occasion. We have come to take Christmas for granted, alas. There is a scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice says, ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’ To which the Queen responds, ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’ Believing impossible things does not take practice, despite what the Queen said, but it does take God breaking into our world to introduce an entire new way of thinking. No longer can God to be understood to be safely ensconced in the heaven, above traffic jams, internet glitches and trial lawyers on TV. God has broken into this world and bridged the gap between heaven and earth so that we find that the human and the divine are not that far apart after all. Of course, you would need an angel chorus at such an occasion. It’s a pretty big deal!
But why shepherds? On this day we have good news of great joy to share: a child is born to us, a son is given us. You would think that would merit an elite reception committee – maybe a group from the royal court, some representatives from the high priestly families, a few scholars of the law and maybe a rabbi or two. But no, those invited to greet the savior were working class stiffs on the night shift. This was, doubtless, part of the impossible unfolding of the divine plan. A closer look at why shepherds helps us to understand this child who is Christ and Lord. While there were remarkable things happening around the child (exhibit A: angel appearances!) the child himself was born remarkably like any other child. He was one of them, he is one of us. The angel had to provide a description because the impossible child was indistinguishable from any child born anywhere. “Find that baby in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger; not the one in the garanimals outfit sleeping in a bassinette.” The impossible is true. A human being possesses a divine nature and nothing will ever be the same.
Perhaps another reason that shepherds were the chosen witnesses of the impossible birth was because of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. The Bethlehem shepherds did all they could to make sure that their flocks were well fed and cared for. They led the sheep to the green pastures where they would find their repose. They brought them to restful waters. The shepherds comforted the sheep. Having shepherds around the child right from the git-go was a foreshadowing of the path that he would walk. This child when grown would lead his flock to refreshment and peace. He would makes sure that his flock was on the right path. He would seek out the lost. His flock would want for nothing.
Don’t forget: those shepherds were around at night when the child was born because they were keeping the flock safe. There were all sorts of dangers out there that could harm the sheep. The shepherds were on the watch. Unfortunately Bethlehem is an even more dangerous place today than it was back then – and the threats do not come from wolves! The impossible child was born to a people who walked in darkness, who dwelt in the land of gloom. He would come to serve a similar protective function for his people as the shepherds. He would become the Good Shepherd who would give his life for the sheep. There isn’t any force or power that would prevent him from his role as Emmanuel, God with us. Death itself would fall before him. When any in his flock, any of us, feel the impossibility of living in peace in the midst of a violent world, of having sufficient blessings in a world of disparity, of becoming people of love in an atmosphere rife with hatred and animosity the Good Shepherd will lead us and guide us with his crook and his staff. No wonder this is a day of “abundant joy and great rejoicing.”
So the shepherds actually make sense. They were exactly the people who could model for us the ,: thing that had happened. What about us two thousand plus years after these events? Do we believe the impossible – that love is stronger than death, that no matter how deep the wound it can be healed, that forgiveness is given. That is what is entailed in welcoming this impossible child. The shepherds did it and we are invited to do the same. Our loftiest hopes for ourselves and our loved ones are the surest of being fulfilled because of who this child is and what this child means. What else can we do on a day like this but echo the song of the angels: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
