Kingdom Inclusiveness

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

~ Luke 2:8

It's hard to imagine a less deserving audience for the most significant announcement in human history than shepherds.  

Our ideas about shepherds have been romanticized by centuries of sentiment and Sunday School. Shepherds had a bad reputation. They were the bad boys of the Ancient Near East. By announcing Jesus’ birth to shepherds, God makes the gospel an open invitation to all kinds of people.  

First of all, their dirty work left shepherds ceremonially unclean all the time. While their livestock supported the temple system, they were excluded from participating. 

Besides that, people didn’t trust shepherds. They could have a difficult time keeping track of whose sheep were whose. Shepherds' reputations were so suspect that the testimony of shepherds was inadmissible in court. 

By reserving the announcement of Jesus’ birth to shepherds (for goodness' sake), God makes clear that the gospel is an open invitation to every kind of person.  And that’s exactly why God chose them.  And that's exactly why church people might squirm.  

So here are the shepherds, frowned upon as they are, minding their own business, the salt of the earth really, tending sheep as their ancestors had (and still do) for generations.  Some are dozing while others take turns looking out for predators. 

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 

~ Luke 2:9

Yikes! They weren't expecting that one. Now, we non-Jewish types like this part.  It’s our gospel, our "good news," because God’s invitation extends to us: to the (ceremonially) unclean Gentiles, to women, to children, to Samaritans, to the morally icky, to the outsiders.  These are all featured in Luke's gospel account, by the way.  The shepherds may be “outsiders,” but they're not outside God’s reach. And neither are we. And neither is... take your pick. Fill in the blank. 

You see, God's invitation extends to the “outsiders” in our lives, too: to the people who wouldn’t feel comfortable in most churches – and to be honest, that we might not feel that comfortable with either. Kingdom inclusiveness can make church folk fidget, as it challenges our ethnocentricities.  

Counter-intuitive Kingdom inclusiveness flows from God through you and me.  Who is the “outsider” in your world?  Who is the “unclean” one, the morally suspect, the "other?"  Who is the one who’s worthiness is suspect, maybe by virtue of his or her income, or religion, or lifestyle, or skin colour? 

In an era when churches seem as divided as the country, how does God’s choice of "unclean" shepherds inform your mission?  How does it speak to your reason to get up in the morning? How does it speak to the mission of your church?  How can it be better?  

You see, in the end we’re all outsiders.  We’re all unclean, we're all dirty, and each of us needs to be included, that we're welcome, that we belong.  

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 

~ Jesus, in Luke 5:31-32

This third week in Advent reminds us of joy (versus repentance, as Advent has been historically), and the shepherds.  Because after all, the Kingdom – and the King, and Christmas – is also about striking contrasts.  The Saviour of humanity comes through a suspect pregnancy.  The King of Kings is born to a poor couple.  Christ the Lord lay in a feeding trough, among unclean beasts.  And his birth is announced to shepherds. And that's a good thing for you and me.