First Reading: Jeremiah 31:10-14
Psalm: Ps 97:1,6,11-12
Epistle: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:15-20
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Let us go and see
Ok, I agree, let’s get up and go to see. Perhaps it was natural curiosity; perhaps they were just dazzled into compliance with the angels’ request. I think it was curiosity.
I would like to take a moment to think about that moment of curiosity. When did you experience a moment of curiosity so strong that it led you to a change?
We don’t even have to think about anything particularly remarkable. Ever get curious about how your neighbors decorate their homes, how to grow a plant like the one you saw in a nearby garden, or how to create a yummy recipe you’ve tasted?
That sort of curiosity leads to changes. Suddenly you’re asking your spouse to help you rearrange the furniture and re-hang the pictures, or you’re at Hewitt’s selecting plants and fertilizer, or you attend a Pampered Chef party to get just the right kind of cooking implements. Our curiosity creates change.
Today we are called to encounter something new and to be changed by it.
The Hells Angels showed up
Outside of Chicago a child was born. The angles appeared to a group of bikers in the nearby locale and told them the news. The bikers put on their leathers and hopped on their bikes saying, ‘Let’s go over and check this out.’
The Hell’s Angels showed up, saw, and understood. Kind of like what just happened with the shepherds.
But, why shepherds, why Hell’s Angels? Was it just the nearest folks who happened to be there? Were they the ones who were awake while everyone else slept? Is it symbolic of Jesus as the Good Shepherd? Guess what? It doesn’t matter because what happened next is what was most important.
The disconnect
Many of the reflections I’ve read focus on the stuff Jesus did, the things He accomplished as if it were all done in a vacuum.
Today we see that Jesus didn’t do it in a vacuum or in some sort of rarified atmosphere. Jesus came poor and in need.
Jesus came to bring about change in all He encountered. His encounter with them and with us, with the shepherds in His poverty, isn’t about Jesus magically changing them or us. If Jesus had just wanted to do that He could have done it all from heaven, no fuss, no muss. Rather, our encounter with Jesus, born of our natural curiosity, is brought to fulfillment in the fruit, the growth that comes about within us. Out of that curiosity we take the steps necessary to make ourselves, our world, different.
What happened?
So what happened that night? How did the curiosity of those humble shepherds result in their moving their furniture around? How did they change? How did they become something other than what they were while lying back in the fields a few moments ago? They weren’t there just so Jesus could do unto them. Jesus needed them.
Remember Father’s homily from Christmas. He spoke about the conversation and wonder that was going on inside and outside the door of the manger. Today we are to think beyond the words and the wonder to what happened next.
I believe the shepherds reached into their bags and presented Mary and Joseph with gifts from their meager stores: bread, cheese, oil, and wine. Perhaps they offered sheepskin blankets. Mary and Joseph didn’t show up to a Bethlehem teaming with Price Choppers and Hannafords. They didn’t come to an area with a major metropolitan hospital and a birthing center. They likely didn’t even have a midwife. They were alone and on their own in a strange and distant place, one inhospitable and kind of mean. The innkeepers were mean and they ended up in a barn —“- abandoned and alone, cold and afraid.
The shepherds did something. They came as the first visitors, the reassurance that Mary and Joseph and their newborn Son were not alone. Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus had friends and benefactors. The shepherds came and were moved to change, to share, to participate, and to offer gifts and compassion —“ to be different than what they were moments ago.
The kindness and love
Saint Paul tells Titus: when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us
Jesus’ coming was and still is an encounter with something completely new, and that something new saves us. This Christmas season renews our newness. Our curiosity, coming to this holy place, this Parish church, creates the encounter that begins our change. In the encounter we are called to offer more than words. We are required to do more than just gaze on in wonder. We are to convert our wonder and our words into action —“ to act like God would act, with goodness and loving kindness.
We weren’t just the folks who happened to be nearby. We weren’t the ones who were awake while everyone else slept. We are the accountants, laborers, technicians, paralegals, police officers, teachers, priests, deacons, and students who are called to be here and to be changed people because Jesus needs us.
Not in what we do, but how we are changed
We can gaze in our neighbors’ windows and admire their decorating acumen. We can taste every dish ever created and marvel at the subtle complexity in each. We can walk through every garden and be amazed. Our curiosity cannot stand-alone. If we look on, and do nothing with what our curiosity has revealed, it will kill us.
On the other hand we can do to excess. We can throw bread, blankets, and money at issues. We can act, act, act, and if it is just acting —“ well…
Curiosity or doing alone is not enough. The curiosity we feel gazing at the Christ child and the offering and work we put forth, must also convert us.
It is said that the shepherds —saw and understood.— This seeing and understanding started in their curiosity. It came together in their encounter with Jesus. They went away doing more than engaging in intellectual efforts at understanding. They had been changed and that change made everything new and different. This change was their remodeled house, their green garden, and the food that would cause them to live forever. Because of this they glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen.
We are heirs
We are the heirs of the shepherds. We are to see and truly understand. God gives us the grace to be curious and to do good. More than that, he gives us the grace to bring our curiosity and our doing together creating real change. That change is the newness that is more than momentary. It isn’t seasonal change, one time change, change for the sake of change. It is the real and everlasting change that makes us one with each other and with our Lord and Savior. We are the shepherds, the bikers, accountants, laborers, technicians, paralegals, police officers, teachers, priests, deacons, and student who are changed by Jesus. Our furniture has been moved, our garden is green and our life is new. Our food is sweet and forever —“ it is the Lord revealed to us. Amen.
