Feel free to use this however you want, I hold no copyright and you have my permission.
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
Sunday, Dec. 24 – 6:00 pm
Scripture reading: Matthew 1:18-24
Song: When Love Was Born
My name is Cyrus. I want to tell you a story. I am a shepherd and we are great storytellers. We are known for being a little bit rough around the edges. I guess we can be a bit crude. Many people don’t like us. I even wonder at times if we’d be welcome at the temple. Huh, who helps raise all livestock for their sacrifices? That’s right, we do.
I lived in the region of Judea. The Lord had been good to us in recent years. We had been blessed with abundant offspring and minimal losses. My family had been shepherds for generations. My brothers had flocks to and we usually stayed pretty close to each other.
My father had taught me and my brothers the ins and outs of being a good shepherd. He was the best.
Now here I am all these years later and I have become my father. I know each sheep. I know when something is wrong with them. I know how to care for them and nurse them back to health when needed. If I noticed that one of the flock was missing I would go out looking for it. They know me and they know my voice, just like my father. This was the job of a shepherd. I was now teaching my son.
That particular night was the first night that I took my son out with me all night. He had been coming with me during the day but not overnight. I was so excited to have in out with me. I tried to spend as much time with him as I could but being a shepherd is a hard life and sometimes we have to move our flocks a great distance to find good grazing land. It isn’t always possible for the whole family to come along.
That day had gone about just like most other days. There really hadn’t been too much special about it. My son had stayed pretty close to me most of the day helping whenever he could. By mid-afternoon he was a bit board. The sheep were grazing and there wasn’t a whole lot that needed to be done. Some of his cousins and he took off to play in the nearby stream.
My brothers and I would round often round up our flocks and put them into the stone enclosure for the evening and this day was no different. We got them all rounded up for the afternoon and began to fix the evening meal.
We noticed that we were missing one of my sheep and so while the others watched the flocks my son and I went out to find him. I told him that it was the job of the shepherd to watch for sheep that would go astray like this. Sheep aren’t always the smartest of animals and sometimes for no reason they wonder off and it was our job as a shepherd to bring him back.
So off we went to retrieve the wayward one. We found him caught up in the thicket. It was one of the smaller ones. We tended to him and got him out of the mess that he had gotten himself into. Somehow in all of this he had gotten a gash on his front leg. My son took out his water pouch and washed out the wound while I held the little guy. He was learning, my boy.
After the wound was good to go I picked up the sheep and said let’s get back to the rest of them, the evening meal should be ready by now. Sometimes, the shepherd steers the lost sheep back to the fold and at other times he just has to pick them up and bring them back.
I had also noticed that there were extra people on the roads leading into Bethlehem. We weren’t too far away from the city. Caesar Augustus had declared a census. Everyone had to go to the town of their ancestry to register. Bethlehem was the town of King David and so many people had come to our small town. I didn’t care too much for crowds and I’m sure it was getting crowded in town as there was only so much room for people to stay. In fact I wondered if there was even room left in the inn?
Read Luke 2:1-7
I was so glad to have my son by my side. We got back and placed the little one into the fold where all the rest of the sheep were for the night and sat down to eat.
After mealtime was the best because that is when the stories came out. Stories passed down for generations. Some of them were family stories but my favorite stories were ones about my people. I was a Jew, an Israelite, also a descendent of King David. Throughout the history of my people we had times where we followed God well and other times, not so much.
The stories had been told for generations how God had used Moses to help lead his people out of Egypt where they were slaves. As I kid I loved hearing about the plagues that God sent because dumb old Pharaoh wouldn’t listen. Finally, he let the people go only to change his mind. God however would part the waters of the Jordan River for the people to cross and then when Pharaoh’s army tried to follow the waters came crashing down on them.
Yes, God had been faithful to his people even when we weren’t so faithful to him. King David was a mighty king and for the most part followed God, other kings weren’t so faithful. It seemed like we were always looking for someone to lead us but we didn’t follow very well. Hmmmm…..kind of like sheep.
The prophet Isaiah had said however that there would be one who would lead his people once again and he would come from the house of David,
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:7
Most people think were just dumb old shepherds but we knew the stories. We knew the promises. We waited like everyone else for the prophecies to happen. Generations and generations had told these stories out on the hillside much like that night and for over 400 years our people had been waiting.
We told lots of stories and on that night my brother’s story of his encounter with a lion was beginning to become quite a tail. My son was wide eyed and captivated by their every word but all of a sudden my brother stopped in mid-sentence for there before us was an angel. We were all struck with fear and didn’t know what to do.
The angel then spoke to us, he said, “Do not be afraid” Too late for that! Then he said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
And then the whole sky was full of angels. It was the most beautiful and inspiring thing that I have ever seen. They were all praising God. They kept saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” And as quickly as they had all appeared they were gone and we all sat there for a minute with our mouths just hanging open.
Sing: Hope Was Born this Night
Scripture Luke 2:8-20
My son was the first to speak when he said, “Wow, that was incredible. Does that happen out here every night?”
It was after that we all found our voices. The campfire became full of laughter and shouts and tears from my aged uncle. God had spoken! We all began to verify with each other exactly what we had seen and heard.
I said, “We should go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. A few stayed behind to make sure the sheep would be okay and the rest of us went to Bethlehem to see if we could find this baby that the angel told us about.
We weren’t sure where to look but we came into Bethlehem by one of the stables that we would sometimes keep sheep in and we heard the cry of a baby and sure enough there they were. A tired mother, a proud father and one of the most beautiful babies that I had ever seen. They had wrapped the child in strips of cloth and they had laid him in a manger.
You could see that they had just cleared out a stall amongst the animals. I didn’t know if they didn’t have enough money to afford a room, if they had just been too tired to look or exactly what the deal was. What I did know was that we had found the baby that the angels had told us about.
We began to tell the couple about the birth announcement from the angels. They smiled weakly and explained that when they had arrived earlier in the day that there was no room for them anywhere and so they had ended up in this stable. It wasn’t the best but they were just grateful for a place to rest. They had hoped that the next day would bring them luck in finding a room for Mary to have the baby but evidently God had other plans for them.
The Messiah, the promised one born in a stable. (chuckle, laugh) Didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Why out here, this didn’t seem like a place for the Messiah but then again there was a lot about God that I didn’t understand. I just knew that he was good and that somehow this little baby would set us free as the scriptures told.
We probably stayed longer than we should have. They were tired and we were excited. When we finally left we told everyone we came in contact with what had happened. I don’t think most believed us shepherds. I’m sure they thought we had too much to drink. We knew, we knew.
My son and I talk about that night often. As my son grew he too learned the traits of becoming a good shepherd. We kept tabs on this family as best as we could. They found a house to stay in Bethlehem for a while. A caravan of travelers from the east came to see him. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and presented them to the child and worshipped him. We talked with them as the left going back to their land. We told them about the angels and they told us about the star they had followed and Herod’s interest in the child. They too had seen an angel and were not going back to Herod’s palace.
It wasn’t but a few days after that that Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus left in the middle of the night. They were in such a hurry as they came by our camp. They didn’t have much to say other than an angel had told them to leave, that night.
The next day Herod's, men came into Bethlehem and killed all the babies. I’ve seen a lot of things but this was one of the worst things I’d ever seen. At least my son was older and that Mary and Joseph got out.
That baby born in that stable. The one the angel told us about. He grew up in Nazareth I guess. He would come back around here preaching and doing miracles. Some said he was a sorcerer or demon possessed but we knew, but then again who wants to listen to shepherds.
I heard that he said, “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.” And he would.
Song: Christmas Hallelujah
