The Window of Worship - Shepherds

Greeting

(HAND RAISED) Has anyone ever done any shepherding in a wilderness? Maybe a side hustle to help out with gift buying during the holidays. Most of us probably have pretty specific ideas about shepherds. Some of our minds likely think of a young David, envisioning that small Hebrew boy fighting off a lion. Others of us may think about the very old, yet spry middle eastern man with the long shepherds hook standing watch over his flock. There are just specific types of people we automatically envision. usually, young and thin, or old and weathered. That’s where my mind usually goes.

I doubt that any of our minds race to a large middle aged white guy in shorts and a tee shirt, but it would fit the bill. The truth is that I have, in the not so distant past, assumed the responsibility of shepherding in the wilderness. From 2013 to 2017, I was a a DYS in charge of summer camp for four consecutive years in both the mountains of Colorado and the back country of Wyoming.

Each year, both Jan and I assumed the responsibility of protecting young adults and kids at High Peak Camp and at Aspen Alley. I will tell you that I took my job as shepherd very seriously. I ran off several bears which had wandered into camp, even chasing one away on foot. Late at night, I would often sit outside at a small fire until I thought everyone was asleep just to make sure that none of the sheep in my charge wandered away. It Was a tough job, but certainly a labor of love.

There was nothing glamorous about the position. I was often dirty, sweaty and stinky from running around all day long. I was definitely fatigued and sleep deprived all summer. Most days left me in a little pain through the nighttime reminding me of my age. And as much as I truly loved my role all summer, much like most officers feel of kettles, I couldn’t wait until it was over. By the end of summer, I simply needed camp to be done.

Context

There are a lot of similarities that a DYS shares with the Shepherds we find in today’s scripture. Both live and work among their flocks in remote areas outside the safety of the cities. Both charged with protecting their flocks from danger. Both fulfilling their roles for the purpose of God. Ours to draw the children closer to Jesus, while these shepherds were caring for sheep that would be used for temple sacrifice. It was a really important job –however, it definitely was NOT a glamorous job.

Ironically, in fulfilling this duty of safeguarding sheep for temple sacrifice, the shepherds themselves were deemed unclean, rendering them incapable of coming to the temple to make their own sacrifice. Due to their spiritual “uncleanliness”, others would avoid human contact with them. What a lonely role to fill!

These shepherds were of simple and meager means, most likely disregarded by others. Yet, here we are, 2,000 years later, discussing their role as documented witnesses to the moment that changed everything on Earth. And today, we get to look at the Christmas story through their window.

Let’s pray!

Transition

Throughout this season you’ve been considering the different perspectives we can take when it comes to the Christmas story. You’ve heard about having a perspective of Exaltation as demonstrated by the angels, peering through the window of Wonder as shown through Mary, and the perspective of Obedience as seen through the life of Joseph. Today, we settle on the Shepherds’ experience where we’ll explore the window of Worship. So first, let’s take a look at what worship is?

What IS worship

Sir Isaac Newtons famous third law of motion states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. The teachings of physics might explain this as a person pushes against a wall, the wall pushing back on the person in the opposite direction. Or perhaps a better illustration is to consider the recoil of a gun. When a gun fires a bullet, the velocity and force of the bullet pushes back on the gun in the person’s hand. This third law of motion is often referred to as the “action/reaction law”, and it offers a fairly accurate picture of one of the most central acts of a christian life; the act of worship.

It is best understood by considering biblical accounts. For instance, consider the exiles in Egypt. Exodus 2:23 reads that years passed and they cried out for help. God heard the cries of those exiled and remembered his covenant with their forefather, Abraham, and became concerned about them. You know how the story goes from there. God used Moses as an agent of salvation for His people. While protecting the Hebrew people, God Himself caused great distress to befall the Egyptians until finally, they allowed the God’s people to go. But after a very short time, they lamented that decision and pursued the Hebrew people until crossing the Red Sea where God decisively and miraculously halted the Egyptian pursuit. As a response, all the Hebrew people sang a song of deliverance honoring God as their salvation. So we see in this short account the law of action/reaction in the form of worship. The enslaved Hebrews cried out, God heard and delivered them, and they praised Him. That is an act of worship! They needed, He provided, they praised!

Worship, while it can incorporate all of our typically associated acts, is really nothing more than a right response. Singing and praising is a responsive act of worship, but our act of worship need not be relegated to only those responses. True and complete worship incorporates much more. True worship incorporates ones entire life, entire purpose and entire being. Take a quick look at Romans 12:1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

True worship isn’t a moment of reaction, but an ongoing, unceasing devotion. Not that we express it in a certain way for a fleeting moment, but that we live it in every fiber of our being. That is what God is looking for. That is TRUE WORSHIP!!!!

What WE worship

So now that we understand what the act of worship really is, let’s talk about the object of worship. You might think that we would begin with talking about God, and trust me when I tell you that we will arrive to that. However, to get there, I think that it is better to start by looking at ourselves.

If you are like me, you have studied philosophy a little bit whether it was in high school, college, or through personal pursuits. Some of my graduate degree at Trevecca required philosophy classes and one of the philosophers we studied was Rene Descartes. Descartes offered an array of philosophical ideology, but is perhaps best known for coining the phrase “I think, therefore I am”. The idea behind this statement is that we are cognitive beings. We have the ability to consider, reason, and decide. So, Descartes thought that at our core, thinking is what truly sets us apart from the rest of creation; that thinking is our uniquely human attribute.

Descartes wasn’t entirely wrong. After all, we do have the capacity to think and exercise all of our related cognitive abilities, and I certainly do not intend to undermine those God-given abilities. They are valid and special, and certainly lend to our humanity. However, philosophers more inclined to consider from a Christian perspective have arrived to an altered version of Descartes’ statement saying of the human being that “I love, therefore I am”.

The rationale here is derived from scripture such as 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” You see, the Christian thinker says that because God is love, and because we are imprinted with the imago dei, the image of God, we can embrace the fact that our chief human attribute is the ability to love. These great Christian thinkers would say LOVE is what makes us uniquely human.

Love has many bi-products, and one of beneficial note for us is DESIRE. You’ll all be able to recall times when you were sad, frustrated, or felt all alone in life. You may recall wanting to find some sense of fulfillment in those moments to help change your mood or disposition. People approach this differently based on their individual interests, but a common response to these feelings is “retail therapy”. When I am feeling down and out, my two favorite places to go are Cabela’s and Home Depot. Those are my happy places for shopping. And if I time my trip to the Home Depot down the road here just right, well there’s a fantastic BBQ restaurant right in front of it. Friends, it doesn’t get much happier than that. Thats a day trip that will turn my frown upside down. Most people have a place like this. I know for the O’Brien’s, that’s Disney Land. We all have those places. A common one for many is the mall. Just behind us we have the Clackamas Town Center, a one stop shop to meet all of our retail therapy needs.

The Clackamas Town Center offers an opportunity for corporate gathering with no requirement for interaction. That’s the best of both worlds, right. You get to be around others, but there is no expectation for you to interact with them. And the Clackamas Town Center offers something for everyone, doesn’t it! If you want to sample perfumes, you can do that. If you want to enjoy the food court, its right there offering a plethora of options. If you just want to sit in a dark area and be entertained, the theater awaits you. The Clackamas Town Center offers a lot, but if you go there to feel better, if you go to any of the places mentioned to find a moment of happiness, you’d better plan on going back again and again, because it will only satisfy your desires for a while.

You see when I said that loves desire is beneficial to us, it is because it leaves us restless until it arrives to that which it truly longs for; it’s creator, the author of life. I love what scripture says about the longing of our desire in Psalm 42:1 “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.”

The thing about retail therapy is that it even emulates worship. It takes us to a place of gathering. It offers different expressions to satisfy us. It even calls for something to pour into us, we consume something there. The gathering at the mall is like the gathering at a church. The different opportunities at the mall are similar to church. The food court replaces the love feast. Our exchange with the cashier replaces tithing. The theater offers a screen where a pulpit is offered in a church. It becomes a surrogate for what our soul truly desires. The benefit of desire is that it will not settle for the surrogate. Desire will cause us to continue to search until we arrive to the One who offers lasting satisfaction, the object of its deepest affection. We can consume all we want in trying to satisfy our restless desire, but until it arrives at the feet of Jesus and feeds on the bread of life, it will remain restless.

So What

So what does all of this have to do with the window of worship from the perspective of the shepherds? As we discussed earlier, these shepherds were relegated to the wilderness. They lived and worked outside the safety of the city gates. There were always predators lurking, danger at every corner. The very work they did for religious requirements for others sins to be cleansed deemed them unclean. Where is the justice in that? People avoided interaction with them due to their uncleanliness. Can you imagine the desire within them? Desire for human touch! Desire for safety! Desire for rest! Desire for a life filled with hope where perhaps none was seen! Yet here they are, surrounded by heavenly hosts who are praising God and sharing with them that the object of their desire, not a surrogate but the very object has arrived and they are about to come face to face with Him. They refer to it as Good News, and it is good news indeed. The requirement of the surrogate is gone, the real deal has arrived and their desire will find a lasting satisfaction in Christ Jesus!