Christmastide Musings, 2018

The first Noel the angel did say
Was to certain poor shepherds

in fields as they lay…(The First Noel, 1833)

At our Christmas Eve service, while singing “The First Noel”, I noticed that word “certain” that appears in the second line of the hymn: “Was to certain poor shepherds”. There were all sorts of shepherds “tending their sheep on that cold winter’s night.” But only “certain poor shepherds”, heard the fear-not-angel say, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.”

Why were these “certain poor shepherds” chosen to hear the angels’ song? What about the other shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night? Why where these “certain poor shepherds” chosen to hear such “good tidings”? It has to do with the doctrine of election. It’s a troublesome doctrine of itself, but at this Christmas Eve gathering, as we sang the hymn, this troublesome doctrine turned into something beautiful. I teared up. That’s what hymns do.

After having its way in my heart, let me move the doctrine of election back into my head and think it through in light of how the hymn moved me. It’s the doctrine about God choosing particular shepherds—particular folks to be saved, while others are passed by. It leads to discussions and arguments about predestination. Are we simply predestined to salvation? And, if we have nothing to say about it—if we have no “Yes” to God’s “Yes” to us, then are we simply automatons fixed by God’s decrees? If we have no say, and all history has been set in place “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1); then how does this differ from the stoic’s notion of fatalism, or current scientific ideas of determinism?

Back, to those “certain poor shepherds”—those elected shepherds, chosen shepherds, predestined shepherds. Did they have a say? They did discuss it all: “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds talked it over.” I suppose they could have questioned, doubted, gone back to their business and dismissed it all as an illusion. “Let us go now,” the shepherds decide, “and see this thing the Lord has made known to us.” And, “so they went with hast and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manager.” They journeyed, like all believers, by faith and found “the child lying in a manager.”

All the while “Mary pondered these things in her heart”. Maybe it’s best that we, like Mary, humbly ponder such wonders in our hearts. The story ends with how “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God.” That’s a good place to end up (Lk 2:20).