ACCEPTING UNEXPECTED INVITATIONS
15 mins
Ask the group to imagine this situation:
You are sitting in the park after a hard afternoon’s shopping. You’re dressed in trainers and a t-shirt, your shopping bags are at your feet. You’re tired. Suddenly, a smartly dressed man approaches you and says he’s an equerry to the Queen, who is passing through your town and has expressed a desire to meet an ordinary person. Her limousine is just 500 yards away, the champagne is on ice, and you must come instantly. There is no time to change or freshen up – this is your one opportunity. You must leave your shopping and go.
Discuss: What would you do? Which young people would go and which wouldn’t? What would your reasons be? What is the strangest invitation you have ever received? This session investigates the strangest Christmas invitation in the Bible story: the one that went via the angel to the shepherds. Read Luke 2:8- 16. Why was this a strange invitation?
FIRST REASON: THE SHEPHERDS WERE DISREPUTABLE
10 mins
Say: At the time of the first Christmas, shepherds were not popular. They had no civil rights. They couldn’t be witnesses in court cases. It was illegal to buy wool and milk from shepherds, since they were probably stolen goods. Shepherds were officially classified as ‘sinners’, excluded from the temple and synagogue. So for the birth to be announced to shepherds was pretty unlikely.
In small groups, work out a list of those who would be equally unlikely in our world: Syrian refugees? Transgendered people?Compare results and write all suggestions up on a large sheet of paper. Ask: what was God saying by sending the birth announcement and invitation to a group as lowly as this?
KEY POINT 1
By inviting the shepherds to see the baby, God was making it clear that this new king was for everyone, not just the respectable people.
SECOND REASON: THE SHEPHERDS HAD NEVER SEEN ANGELS BEFORE
10 mins
What did they say in verse 15? What might they have said? In groups, think of some responses that might have changed the whole story. (E.g. ‘It was probably just an optical illusion caused by exposure to sheep poo.’ ‘If we run off and leave the sheep here they’ll probably stray all over the place.’ ‘It might be a trick to fool us into looking stupid. Kings aren’t born in mangers.’ ‘This is too scary, I don’t want to even think about it’. Give a small prize to the group that comes up with the best reason for not going to Bethlehem.
THIRD REASON: THE SHEPHERDS WERE BUSY DOING THEIR JOB
10 mins
There must have been hundreds of people nearby who were doing nothing that night so why pick men who were on duty? Ask: can you see any possible clues in verses 15-20? (E.g. the shepherds trusted the angel’s message, were prepared to leave everything to find the king, were willing to tell everybody the news, helped Mary to understand what her son was all about (v19), got really excited and thankful about God’s initiative.) When you’ve discussed some of these points, summarise: the shepherds were unlikely people, but God knew they’d do the job perfectly.
THE OTHER THING ABOUT SHEPHERDS
10 mins
Say: There was another reason for including shepherds in the big moment. In groups, play a sixquestion time-test game. Give each group a card with the first question to solve, telling them the answer is on one of the Bible verse posters around the walls of the room. Once they have the answer, they come back and tell you, and are given the second card – and so on until they complete the whole thing. The first team to supply the final answer wins.
The questions on the cards are:
- What did Jacob say God had been for him? (Answer: a shepherd. Genesis 48:15.)
- What did David think about God? (Answer: the Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23:1.)
- How did Isaiah say God treated his people? (Answer: he tends his flock like a shepherd. Isaiah 40:11.)
- Which of Jesus’ royal ancestors started as a Bethlehem shepherd? (Answer: King David. 1 Samuel 16:1, 11, 13.)
- What does Micah predict about a great leader who would come from Bethlehem? (Answer: he will shepherd his flock. Micah 5:4.)
- How did Jesus describe himself? (Answer: the good shepherd. John 10:11.)
Afterwards, review the answers and summarise: God’s ideal leader isn’t a dictator, tyrant or despot, but the shepherd of his people. So when the king arrived on earth, God neatly underlined it by involving Bethlehem shepherds from the outset.
KEY POINT 2
Throughout the Old Testament, God shepherds his people; Jesus’ ancestor King David was a shepherd; and God’s coming king was destined to be a shepherd too.
WRAP UP
10 mins
What happened to the shepherds afterwards? Would they ever have seen Jesus again? Probably not given that the average lifespan of a shepherd was between 25 and 40 years, and Jesus didn’t begin teaching and healing until 30 years later. But their excitement and the story they spread (v 17-18) had an important part to play in preparing people for the work Jesus was to do three decades into the future.
Ask the young people to think about these questions in a moment of silence:
- Am I ever tempted to think that some kinds of people just aren’t of any interest to God? (Hang up the paper with your combined list of unlikely people groups once again.)
- Am I ever tempted to think that God wouldn’t ever choose me for anything important?
- Am I prepared to trust God as the shepherds did, and get excited about the good news as they did?
- Am I happy to be a small part of something much, much bigger, without being the centre of attention all the time?
Close by praying about these things.
