From the Chaplains
I bet you didn’t know it, but there is a connection between Taylor Swift and the birth of Jesus.
Well there is now. I made this connection, in a desperate attempt to keep large groups of hot, tired teenagers engaged in chapel after lunch at the end of Term 4, in the sticky weather of late November.
I asked the students to imagine that they had just received the Most Amazing Invitation Ever – a VIP invitation to Taylor Swift’s last concert, with exclusive backstage access.
Experts who have written about the world-wide phenomenon that is Taylor Swift have noted that being part of the global fan community is a powerful human experience – the experience of feeling part of something that is bigger than yourself.
Being part of a larger story.
As we continue in the season of Advent, we are reminded that we are part of a big, big story. A cosmic story.
We journey closer to the ‘reason for the Season’. For some, this reason is precious time with family and friends. For some, it is simply rest from the routine. For some, it is a time to set aside in prayer and thanksgiving – the celebration of God’s miraculous gift to the world; God Emmanual; God with us.
Here at school, we have fast-tracked the liturgical traditions of Advent so that students can be part of this journey in chapel before school breaks up in the first week of December.
Last week we lit the rose-coloured Advent candle, which represents Joy, and read the story of the shepherds who were tending their sheep just outside the town of Bethlehem when suddenly they became the first people to hear the joyful news of Jesus’ birth and receive the Most Amazing Invitation ever – to go and see him for themselves.
You might expect God to deliver this momentously good news – Peace on Earth, Goodwill to humankind – and the Most Amazing Invitation Ever to the political leaders, to the Roman Emperor, the religious leaders, or at least to the owners of the sheep …
But the first ones to get the divine scoop were social nobodies. God chose to send a host of angels to the poorest, most voiceless and most marginalised – literally – people who were living on the edges of respectable society.
Similarly, the person who was chosen to bring Jesus into the world was a poor, young woman.
They’re out in the fields. On the hills. It’s dark. It’s cold. They have to take turns staying awake, because their whole job is to protect the sheep and goats (who probably didn’t belong to them, they probably belonged to someone more wealthy in the nearby town of Bethlehem), and make sure no wolves attacked them and that none wandered off.
For most of Israel’s history, before Jesus’ time, being a shepherd had been a respected job. The great King David himself had been a shepherd. God is referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures as the “Shepherd of Israel”.
But by the time that Jesus was born, times had changed and shepherds had a reputation for dishonesty. In a society that lived under crushing oppression from Roman occupiers, shepherds were among the poorest and most exploited people. And sometimes, because they were oppressed and felt voiceless, they sometimes caused trouble.
Their world was in a mess.
Just like ours.
So it’s no wonder, when these social nobodies, these shepherds, who hear this extreme heavenly announcement, hear the most beautiful singing they have ever heard in their life, see a cloud of angels, and are told that “a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” has been born – it’s no wonder that they grab their staffs, follow the star and run into Bethlehem to see this child. Could this be the circuit-breaker they had been waiting for? Could this really be news of great joy?
The place that the shepherds hurried to, the place where God entered our world, was not a marble palace, a gold throne or a royal hall – it was a small room where animals ate and slept, on a dirt floor, in a poor town.
That night, those shepherds became part of a story that was much, much bigger than themselves. Even bigger than Taylor Swift.
A story that reaches back into the very beginning of everything and forward into eternity.
God reveals Godself in the humblest of places. God reveals Godself to us when our hearts are meek and we realise we cannot rely on ourselves. God chooses the humble ones to do the work of loving, serving, seeking justice and making lasting change.
I pray that the Joy of the shepherds will be real for you and your families this season.
Glory to God in the Highest. Peace on Earth, Goodwill to humankind.
Edwina O’Brien
Assistant Chaplain