the Shepherds were first
22 October, 2009, 2:25 pm
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:8-11
Again with all these familiar passages! We hear this every year on the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
But the familiar question we should all ask is – so what?
Well, think about it. These Shepherds were not especially important people. They were Jewish. And as God’s chosen people, it makes sense that they would be among the first to know, but beyond that they didn’t have a great deal going for them.
Shouldn’t the “glory of the lord” have shone around some other group of people? You know the professors, Doctors and Lawyers?
Well, apparently not. God uses his announcements of the birth of King Jesus to make a couple of points.
Soon we will address the wise men, but for now lets stick to this one thing we can get from this.
God’s opinion of who is important is way different than ours.
This is significant for us to hear. Our society does not really think that elderly people dying in senior homes are as important as the president of the United States.
We don’t really think that children with autism or Down Syndrome are as important as the young prodigy who can play Beethoven’s fifth by ear on his laptop casio keyboard.
God sees things very differently. We can value humans based on their shared humanity – like God does. Or we can determine a person’s worth based on our perception of what their contribution to society is.
It’s hard to always believe that a person’s value comes from their humanity alone – especially when everything around us screams otherwise – but each day when we ascribe value to a person – and we do – we can remember that God chose the shepherds first.
