Welcome! It’s December the 8th, and we’re continuing with our very first Redeemer Digital Advent Calendar! This year, in the lead up to Christmas, we’ll be producing daily content which we hope blesses you, encourages you, and reminds you of the hope that we can celebrate this Christmas!
We’re continuing today with the second of 4 Advent blogs which will be released every Tuesday until Christmas and will make up a series called ‘Sounds of the Season’. Each week we will be taking the opportunity to appreciate the deeper meaning behind Christmas music, with a focus on a specific Christmas carol that helps to shed light on the true meaning of this Christmas season.
Today, we look at another classic carol - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen! You can hear a version below.
Sheep have amazing hearing. In fact, one of the first ways a lamb associates itself with its mother is by learning her voice. Though they have poor depth perception when it comes to sight, they can recognise their shepherd’s call from far off. We are the sheep of God’s pasture, and we are called to hear his voice and to follow his lead, including proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the people he sends us to.
Unto certain Shepherds….
This is exactly what the angels did in Luke 2:8-20, a passage of scripture described in the second verse of today’s carol - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same: How that in Bethlehem was born The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
The angels came and declared the incredible news of Jesus’ birth, not to the emperor Caesar, or even to King Herod, but instead to lowly shepherds.
Shepherds appear in the bible in many places, and their status changes throughout biblical history, from being an “abomination to the Egyptians” in Genesis 46:34, to a shepherd being anointed king with the selection of David by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:11). Krish Kandiah’s 2017 article “God Turns Up in All the Wrong Places at Christmas” describes shepherds as “considered untrustworthy and regarded as unclean…homeless strangers”. We however are called, as the angels were, to share the good news of Jesus with whoever God calls us to.
The Lost Sheep
The angels visit to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth is not the only appearance of shepherds in the book of Luke. In Luke 15:1-7, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep, reminding those listening (as well as those reading his words 2000 years later), that in God’s role as our shepherd, her seeks us out when we have gone astray.
Shepherds are not just used by God as an example of those to whom the message of Christmas must be told, but also as those through which the reason for Christmas is revealed. God couldn’t let us go astray, but he sent Jesus that we might be found and brought back to him.
So what role will shepherds play in your story of Christmas this year?
Perhaps you are challenged to reach out to those who the rest of society might be ignoring this Christmas, and reveal to them something of the true message of this time of year.
Or, perhaps you feel like the lost sheep, and you realise this Christmas might be an opportunity to come home.
However you feel right now, know that the Good Shepherd is calling you. Listen out for his voice.
