December 24

The Night They Were Told

A flock out in open country needs minding after dark. Sheep stray, they get into trouble they cannot get out of, and they have very little defence of their own, so somebody stays awake with them. A flock is somebody's living, which is why anybody sits up with it at all. The night itself is mostly one hour repeated, and by morning there is generally nothing to report.

Plenty of work still runs on those hours. Somebody will be awake tonight because a job cannot be put down, and the twenty-fourth of December makes no difference to whether it gets done. Most of it passes as a shift rather than a vigil. It ends, and the next one comes round. The rest of us keep smaller versions of the same thing, sitting up later than we meant to on a night when there is still something to finish.

The passage begins with men at their work. They are out in the fields with the flock, and then they are not alone.

There were shepherds in that same countryside, staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. An angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. The angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. Today, in the city of David, a Saviour has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord. This is the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough."

Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying:

Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:8-14

The glory comes before any explanation of it, and they are terrified. The first thing the angel says takes that up: don't be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy.

He brings the news to them, the Saviour is born to them, the sign is given to them, and they will be the ones to find him. Four times in three sentences the angel puts these men inside what he is telling them. In the same short speech the joy is said to be for all the people, so it carries both what has happened and their own share in it. What they have to go on is a description of a baby in a feeding trough and the angel's word that it will be there.

A multitude of the heavenly army is suddenly with him, praising God, and the song gives glory to God in the highest and turns from there to the earth, to peace and good will toward men. Praise is what the news sounds like when it reaches someone who already understands it. The shepherds have just been told; the army arrives singing.

Christmas Eve arrives with a good deal of your own still unfinished, and most of it will keep till morning. The word came to the field, in the dark, and it was said to the men standing there. Whatever hour you come to this at, and whatever the season has been, the announcement is made where you are. You hear it in the night you are keeping.

Lord, it is night, and I have heard it. Bring the news into the hour I am in. Your angel stood by working men in a field, and that same word is meant for me.