In Touch With The Shepherds In Our Lives

I attended church service on Christmas Eve morning at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. The pastor’s sermon was from Luke 2:1-20; quoting specifically from Luke 2:19 “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” The pastor continued to preach that the Angel Gabriel had not shown up and had not been seen by Mary since the day she conceived. He showed up to the shepherds with the multitude of angels on the night that Jesus was born and sent them to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. After they had seen Jesus laying in a manger, they went out and made it known that what was prophesied had become the truth, the Savior was born. The shepherds in those biblical times were considered dirty, were accused of thievery and were at the lowest level of the human chain. In Christ’s days, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the social ladder.

I attended evening Mass at Saint Benedict the Moor on Christmas Eve night in the Northeast section of Washington, D.C. This is a Catholic Church parish that was founded in 1946 by the Josephines, a religious order committed to serving the African American community. The Priest’s sermon was from Luke 2:1-18 with a lot of emphasis on the shepherds.

In the Bible, shepherds are used to represent Leaders of God’s people (see Isaish 63:11; Jeremiah 23.2). Shepherds watch for enemies who might attack sheep, and they defend them when necessary. They tend to the sick or wounded sheep and search for, and rescue lost or trapped ones. Our shepherds today are our spiritual leaders who keep us in tune with the reason for the season and any distractions that will lead us into temptations, hate, lies, mockery, deception, and evil.

Watch Night is a religious service held on New Year’s Eve in many African American churches. It is a celebration and remembrance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves during the Civil War. The slaves stayed awake all night and watched the night turn into dawn while waiting for the news of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The holiday season in the Antebellum South for those southerners who celebrated it was for six days: the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Christmas was a brief period of rest but a relief from something difficult or unpleasant for the enslaved people. It was a respite from bondage.

The first day of the new year was often a heartbreaking one for enslaved people in the United States. New Year’s Day back then was called “Hiring Day” or “Heartbreak Day” because New Year’s Day was a day of waiting and wondering if their owners were going to rent them out or sell them away from their families so that they could pay off their pending debts.

Today, we have become economically obsessed with commercialism. The lack of the Christmas spirit is dampened by these things. Find a shepherd in your life to keep you focused and balanced during Christmas and all through the New Year.