December 24: The Shepherds Find Christ in a Stable
♫ Music:
Day 24 - Tuesday, December 24
Christmas Eve
Title: The Shepherds Find Christ in a Stable
Scripture: Luke 2:8–20 (NKJV)
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
Poetry:
“The Shepherds”
by Mario Luzi, trans. by Luigi Bonaffini
And where would
those dazzled sheep graze now?
Where were the rams pushing them?
There was
no grass at that height.
There was some
Much further down
But they didn’t want it, that grass
was crushed
and bitter,
now
they craved something else.
And they were all made prophets and angels
of what?—they did not know—
imminent?
already happened?
The prophetized
and feared nativity
they saw and adored
blazing
well inside the human plasma
had made them so,
lost
in the beaming darkness.
THE SHEPHERDS FIND CHRIST IN A STABLE
As we have been tracing the love song of Song of Solomon throughout this Advent season, you may notice a contrast between the lush, kingly garden that is the scene of the lovers’ meeting, and the lowly stable that Jesus was born in––the young, royal bride, and the shepherds working through the night in a field. The God of the universe chose a place and means that were mundane, perhaps even profane, to make his grand entrance into the world. What does this teach us about Jesus? What does it teach us about ourselves, as his beloved?
Mario Luzi’s poem “The Shepherds” describes the sheep and shepherds alike as “dazzled” after the angels’ visit. Their normalcy was forever shattered. They were now made into “prophets and angels” of some blazing, glorious reality. The shepherds were humble, lowly workers, but they were transformed by Jesus being announced and given to them. These men were chosen by God: his beloved ones, made by God’s glorious arrival into that beautiful spouse.
Leslie Leyland Fields’ poem “Let the Stable Still Astonish,” set to music by Dan Forrest, draws out another interpretation of the lowly manger’s significance. God could have chosen Jesus to be born anywhere, into any family or place, but it was this astonishingly simple, undignified stable or cave that he chose. Fields describes the stable as it might have been––dusty, painful, and inappropriate for the birth of a child, let alone for the incarnation of the Lord God Almighty —and then presents it as an allegory for our lives. As God chose such a lowly place for the birth of his Son, so also does Christ choose to enter, be born into, “the darker, fouler rooms / Of our hearts.”
What does it mean when Love enters our dirtiest, darkest, most seemingly unworthy parts? What does it mean for Love to choose those who are lowly and humble, those who are overlooked by the world, to be his messengers and witnesses of his glory? What type of Bridegroom makes his birthplace a stable? What does it mean to face the terrific glory of God, and be told, “Do not be afraid”?
I encourage you to meditate on this reality: what it would mean to you to be met in the places of your heart that feel most unsuitable to the presence of a lover or a king. Meditate and consider until you find yourself dazzled, the former realities you subsisted on crushed and bitter, your life radiant and transformed. The Bridegroom Jesus will come again like the lover in Song of Solomon, in power and kingly glory, seeking a beautiful bride. But because he came first for the lowly; because he took on the humility of human flesh—not tidied up, but born helpless among animals and nomads and pain and dust—we do not have to fix ourselves to be loved by him. He himself will clothe, redeem, and transform us. Because he came to us, not despite our lowliness, but in the midst of it, we do not have to be afraid. The coming of his glory is news of great joy. A Savior, a lover, born to us! May you enter into Christmas with that joy!
Prayer:
My soul magnifies You, Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because You have looked with favor on the humble condition of Your servant…You have done a mighty deed with Your arm; You have scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts; You have toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. You have satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
Thank you for Your mercy, O God, great Lover of our souls.
Amen.
Adapted from Luke 1:46-55
Grace Ducker
Alumna, Biola University & Torrey Honors College
Administrative Coordinator
Office of the President
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Francesco Fontebasso
Mid-eighteenth century
Oil on canvas
44.9 × 58.9 cm.
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Houston, Texas
Public domain
After the birth of Jesus, an angel appeared to the shepherds who were sleeping that night in the surrounding fields and announced to them the birth of the Lord. Artist Francesco Fontebasso places the adoration of the shepherds in a humble stable setting. The Christ Child is illuminated by an otherworldly celestial light that illuminates the faces of shepherds as they venerate him. The presence of the shepherds provides the clearest illustration of just who Jesus had come to redeem—those that were considered second-class citizens by society and sanctimonious religious leaders of the day.
About the Artist:
Francesco Fontebasso (1707–1769) was an Italian painter of the Late-Baroque or Rococo period of Venice. He first apprenticed with Sebastiano Ricci, but was strongly influenced by his contemporary, artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In 1761, Fontebasso visited Saint Petersburg and produced ceiling paintings and decorations for the Winter Palace which served as the official residence of the House of Romanov. In 1768, Fontebasso returned to Venice, where he helped decorate a chapel in San Francesco della Vigna, a Franciscan church.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Fontebasso
https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/84/the-adoration-of-the-shepherds
About the Music: “Let the Stable Still Astonish!” (single)
Lyrics:
Let the stable still astonish us
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen
Crumbling, crooked walls around us
No bed to carry that pain
And then, the child
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry in a trough.
Let the stable still astonish us
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen
Crumbling, crooked walls around us
No bed to carry that pain
And then, the child
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry in a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said
“Yes, let the God of all heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place?”
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said
“Yes, let the God of all heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place?”
Who but the same God who stands
in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts
And says
“Yes, let the God of all the heavens and earth
be born here, in this place.”
“Yes, let the God of all the heavens and earth
be born here, in this place.”
Let the same God be born here in this place. (x2)
About the Composers: Lyrics: Leslie Leyland Fields; Music: Dan Forrest
Leslie Leyland Fields is an American author and editor from Kodiak Island, Alaska. Her books have been widely translated and reviewed. She was a founding faculty member of Seattle Pacific University’s M.F.A. writing program, where she taught creative nonfiction for six years. She is a national speaker addressing topics of faith and culture at conferences, retreats, and churches, and a popular radio guest with more than two hundred interviews on stations around the country. Fields is founder of the Harvester Island Wilderness Workshop, an annual writers' workshop on her family's wilderness island in Alaska that has hosted Philip Yancey, Ann Voskamp, Bret Lott, Luci Shaw, and others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Leyland_Fields
https://www.leslieleylandfields.com/
Dan Forrest (b. 1978) has been described as having “an undoubted gift for writing beautiful music…that is truly magical” (NY Concert Review), with works hailed as “magnificent, very cleverly constructed sound sculpture” (Classical Voice), and “superb writing…full of spine-tingling moments” (Salt Lake Tribune). His music has sold millions of copies, has received numerous awards and distinctions, and has become well established in the repertoire of choirs around the world via festivals, recordings, radio/TV broadcasts, and premieres. Forrest’s work ranges from small choral works to instrumental solo works, wind ensemble works, and extended multi-movement works for chorus and orchestra. His Requiem for the Living (2013) and Jubilate Deo (2016) have become standard choral/orchestral repertoire for ensembles around the world, and his more recent major works, LUX: The Dawn From On High (2018) and the breath of life (2020), have also received critical acclaim. Dan holds a doctorate in composition and a master’s degree in piano performance, and served for several years as a professor and department head (music theory and composition) in higher education. He currently serves as editor at Beckenhorst Press; chair of the American Choral Directors Association Composition Initiatives Committee; and artist-in-residence at Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina.
https://danforrest.com/
About the Performers:
The Beckenhorst Singers are associated with Beckenhorst Press, a publisher of quality sacred music. Founded by John Ness Beck in 1972, the Beckenhorst Press catalog includes works by over one hundred fifty of today's leading composers, arrangers, and lyricists of church music.
https://beckenhorstpress.com/
About the Poetry & Poet:
Mario Luzi (1914–2005) was an Italian poet and literary critic who emerged from the modernist Hermetic movement to become one of the most notable poets of the twentieth century. His complex, meditative verse deals with turbulence and change. Widely respected, Luzi had been considered Italy’s best hope for the Nobel Prize in literature but never achieved that honor. Luzi studied French literature and began publishing his poetry in the 1930s. His work was rooted in the “Hermetic school,” which originated in Italy in the early twentieth century and was characterized by unorthodox structure, illogical sequences, and highly subjective language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Luzi
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mario-Luzi
About the Devotion Author:
Grace Ducker
Alumna, Biola University & Torrey Honors College
Administrative Coordinator
Office of the President
Biola University
Grace is an alumna of Biola University and the Torrey Honors College, and currently works as an administrative coordinator in the office of the university president. She loves to think, research, and write about how faith interacts with social issues, politics, suffering, and loss. She also cares deeply about the ways the profundity of the Christian life plays out in the simplicity of baking, gardening, and daily life with others, and takes joy in practicing this alongside her church, family, and friends.