Angels We Have Heard on HighНамуна

A CALL TO PRAISE

It is significant that the lowest class of society, the shepherds, were included in the public announcement of Christ’s birth. God will not exclude any people from His good news.

Even though shepherds were considered lowly in occupation, untrustworthy in character, and ceremonially unclean for worship, this was the group with whom God wanted the message to go public. What the shepherds experienced out in the fields was unforgettable. It all but took their breath away, which is why the first thing the angel says is, “Fear not.”

The shepherds were told that the manger would be the sign to indicate which baby in Bethlehem would be the one who would save all the people from their sins. And they went with haste and found everything just as the angel had said.

And that’s the key, isn’t it? We know what to do. But do we do it? The doctor prescribes the medicine, but we must take it. The fitness instructor says we should lift these weights and run these drills, but they can’t make us do it. The angel says Jesus is waiting, but we must choose to go and find him.

The shepherds knew what they had been told. But then they had to go. And go, they did!

When they got there, they told all who were present what the angel had told them.

Now the secret was out! It was no longer just a “Mary and Joseph secret message” from the angel. These men from the fields had been told where to find the Messiah; look for the baby in the manger wrapped in swaddling cloths. That will be the sign.

It is the message the shepherds would tell all whom they encountered upon their return to their jobs. The shepherds went back to work after they celebrated Jesus’ birth.

At some point, we must get back to doing what God has called us to do. The shepherds did!

The shepherds were the first evangelists of the good news, but they didn’t leave their vocations as shepherds to do it. They went back to work and spread the news through their work.

Likewise, we are called to go to our neighborhoods and jobs and social settings after the holidays are over and tell the story of the good news of Jesus.

We get to be like the shepherds, telling the story of Jesus as we go about our day and our way wherever we happen to be within our community. The shepherds did so as they praised the One whom they met in the manger.

That is the call of Christmas. It is a call to praise.