Who were those shepherds, anyhow?

A Sermon for

THE FEAST OF THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

January 1, 2023

Today is the day the church celebrates The Holy Name of Jesus. For a long time, the church celebrated this day as The Circumcision of Jesus, because that’s the time, eight days after his birth, that  Mary and Joseph, being good, observant Jews, would have called a Mohel to circumcise their newborn male in accordance with the covenant God made with Abraham.

 

Today, our Roman Catholic friends are celebrating The Solemnity of Mary. It’s a celebration of her motherhood and the role she played in the salvation of humankind as a Theotokos, a God-bearer, the Mother of God.

 

The designation of the feast in honor of Jesus' Holy Name is new to the 1979 BCP. Celebration of the Holy Name reflects the significance of the Holy Name of Jesus, and the emphasis of the Gospel of Luke on the naming of Jesus rather than his circumcision.

And, that’s the end of the lecture portion of this sermon. So, here’s what I want to know. You know those shepherds? The ones in Luke’s Gospel to whom the angels appeared? They were the first ones to hear the Glad Tidings – the Good News – of the birth of Jesus – and to tell others. So, what were their names?

 

I mean, naming is obviously very important. We had to give Mary another name, one that sounds all ancient and fancy like “Theotokos”. We even know that one of the angels is named Gabriel. So, it seems important to name the first heralds of the Savior’s birth. Doesn’t it?

 

Let’s say that there were three of them. Three’s a good, biblical number. So, I’m thinking one has to be named David after the great Shepherd King. But, the other two? I’m sure they had the Palestinian equivalent of the names of regular guys like Caleb, Ali and Ahmad.

Names like . . . oh, I don’t know . . . .Ed.

You know, I always liked Ed Norton. Remember him, the guy from the Honeymooners who worked the sewers in New York? He was a real underground philosopher.

He once said to his buddy, Ralph Kramden, “A sewer worker is like a brain surgeon. We're both specialists. Like we say in the sewer, time and tide wait for no man.”

 

Yeah, one of them is definitely Ed. So, Dave and Ed and one other shepherd. What shall we name him? What about Norman? Do you remember the great TV program, Cheers? Remember Norm? Norm had previously served in the Coast Guard but then lost his job defending Diane in their accounting firm and, after struggling for years as an independent accountant becomes a housepainter.

 

 

And, every time he came into Cheers, everyone said, “Noooorm!” Diane would always say, “Norman.”

Sometimes, someone would say, “Hey, Norm, whaddya know?”

And Norm would say, “Not enough.”

Or, “How’s life, Norm?”

And Norm would say, “Not for the squeamish.”

 

Names are very important. When you think of the shepherds being Dave, Ed and Norm, they sound more like guys we’d know and the whole story becomes more believable.

My point – and I do have one – is that this is the Octave of the Incarnation – the time when we celebrate God in the flesh – and nothing grounds things in human reality better than human names.

 

In fact, I learned something very important about the incarnation from a real shepherd named Fred. Alfred. But his mates called him Fred or Freddy. I was doing some study in England and, while there, I had to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road, you know, as the English do. Not only that, but I had to learn how to deal with the occasional herd of sheep whose shepherd let block the road while they crossed from one pasture to another.

 

There was nothing to be done but to sit and wait it out. Eventually, I learned to strike up a conversation with the shepherd – mostly because I was curious to learn about sheep and shepherds, since that’s one of the metaphors used for Jesus and the people of God – that’s you and me – who are part of His flock.

Here’s the thing I learned best about sheep from my Shepherd friend, Fred: the problem with sheep is not that they are dumb. They are decidedly not. Sheep have a very keen sense of smell. They can actually smell the new green grass and they can smell where the water is and they know how to find it. They really don’t need a shepherd to find it for them.

That’s not the problem. The problem with sheep is not that they are dumb. The problem with sheep is that they get very excited when they smell the new green grass and the water.

The problem with sheep is that they can get so excited about getting to the new green grass and the water that they don’t watch where they are going. They can trip over each other and hurt each other – especially the new little lambs. They will run into big trees or stumble over rocks. They have even been known to head over a cliff because they smelled the water beneath.

As I considered what my shepherd friend, Fred, was saying, the whole Good Shepherd Sunday thing began to make more sense. We’re not dumb sheep, but sometimes, we do get excited about life.

Well, at least I do. I have been known to go running off with half-baked plans that were doomed to fail until, in prayer, Jesus sort of tapped me on the shoulder with his shepherd’s crook and said, “Hang on. Wait just a minute. Have you considered this?”

I was feeling a bit better about the whole Sheep-Shepherd thing, but a question continued to nag at me. As luck would have it, I got a chance to ask the question of Fred before I left.

My question to Fred was this: “Why is it that the sheep follow your voice and not mine? They know my voice after all these weeks, I can see that, but they follow your voice. Why?”

“Ah,” said Fred, “that’s the other thing about sheep. Not only are they not dumb, but they have a great sense of smell.”  

 

“Well, yes, you’ve already told me that,” I said, wondering whatever any of that had to do with the price of wool.

Fred smiled and said, “You see, I smell like them. When I help with the birthing of new lambs, or when I sheer the sheep, there is a sort of lanolin that is given off. After a while, that lanolin gets under your skin. You can’t smell it, but the sheep can. They know my smell and they know that I am one of them. And so, they follow.”

And then, I got it. Like a dumb sheep finally smelling the new, green grass, I got excited and said, right out loud, “It’s the Incarnation, stupid!”

Fred, thinking that I was talking to him and questioning his intellect, got a bit startled and then distressed. I quickly explained to him that, suddenly, this passage of scripture made sense.

God came to earth and put on human flesh. God got ‘under our skin’ the same way that the lanolin from the sheep gets under the shepherd’s skin. God in Christ Jesus smells like us, so when God speaks to us in the name of Jesus, we hear and recognize God’s voice. And, we follow.

Well, I got so excited about this new insight that I tripped over a rock and fell flat on my backside. I suddenly remembered what the shepherd had said about the problem with sheep not being dumb but getting excited, and I started to laugh. So did Fred.

Some of the wee lambs and momma sheep came over to check me out and make sure I was okay.  “Careful now,” Fred called out. “Besides the smell of lanolin, the other way sheep know you is if they pee on you.”

 I wasn’t that dumb. I got up very quickly.

 

Friends, today we are celebrating the Holy Name of Jesus. "Jesus" is from the Hebrew Joshua, or Yehoshuah, "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh will save." We also know him by Emmanuel, “God with us.” He is the Great Shepherd. The King of Kings. The Lord of Lords.

He has a name and he also has a shape and flesh. Which means he thinks like us and feels like us and, yes, smells like us. He knows who we are so that we will better know who God is. And so, we follow Jesus when He calls, because we know the sound of His voice and we know His name.

 

Scripture tells us that His name is above all names. Higher than Elizabeth or Alice or Diane. Higher than David or Ed or Norman.  It is the name that was given him by the angel Gabriel before he was conceived in Mary’s womb.

 

Even so, Jesus loves us so much that he walks with us, as close to us as our next breath. The birth of this Christ child is about God coming to us in our everyday lives and saying to us, "Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news."

• It's about God meeting us in our pain and loneliness as well as our failures and success.
• It's about God meeting us in our frustration and anger as well as our happiness and joy.
• It's about God wanting to be a part of our lives every day, in the field or woods or in the office, even when we get excited and ahead of ourselves and trip over our own feet.

 

Because we are promised that our names are written in the palm of God’s hand.

So yes, we know God’s name, but God also knows ours.

And to God, we are also holy. Amen.