Shepherding Season

It was a rare day for me yesterday. I had planned and managed to follow through on a whole day in my home church, Kirkintilloch Baptist. The morning was given over to the Sunday School crew with shepherds complete with foam crooks which are a lot less dangerous than the cane and coathanger crooks I used to beat people up with as a child. None the less the young shepherds complete with the obligatory T towels discovered that T towels could be used as a great weapon to strangle the donkeys.
The evening service took the form of a classical Christmas with young musicians including my own children. I had the privilege of leading the service and speaking briefly at the end. Again the shepherd became the focus of the evening. As the evening drew to an end the string quartet played Corelli's Christams Concerto which finishes with the movement entitled "Pastorale". It is a beautiful movement and I hope you enjoy listening to the live performance I have included on the blog. The inspiration for the movement is not directly the shepherds on Bethlehem's hillside but rather the shepherds on Italian hillsides who, imitating those earlier shepherds, entered the towns and villages every Christmas Eve to play their pipes by the nativity scenes.
I have come to love the significance of the shepherds to the Christmas story. They speak to me of the all embracing love of our Father God who invited them as his special guests. Shepherds would never be invited into the average person's home. Shepherds were not acceptable company to the religious or even to those who did not see themselves as religious. They were the outcasts of their time and yet invited as honoured guests by our Father God to welcome his Son into the world.
When I think about what is Christian about the way we celebrate Christmas, surely something of this welcome and warmth of invitation for the stranger, the outcast, for those that others reject (I'm not talking about the in-laws!) is key to our celebrations.
What are you doing to celebrate this Christmas that relates to the spirit of the first Christmas? If this is the shepherding season, what are you doing to gather people in? Why not listen to Corelli and contemplate these questions.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
If video does not work try this link!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=696438926&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=478344308926