Messiah, Recitative & Accompagnato: "There Were Shepherds..."

Listen: (1:34)


There were shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

Luke 2:8

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

Luke 2:9


And the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord

Luke 2:10-11

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying:
Luke 2:13

Reflection: 

In getting ready to write these devotions, I learned some opera terminology. A "recitative," if I'm correct, is a piece of musical dialogue, sung without a set rhythm, but at the normal speed of a person speaking. That's how this piece begins: in the normal, measured rhythms of a human speaker. And then, the orchestra kicks in, and we are cleared for take-off. Angels, God's glory, Good Tidings of Great Joy, setting the stage for one of the most beautiful praise songs in history...but we'll get to that. 

Luke's Gospel has by the far most set-up for Jesus' birth. Mark and John don't even have a nativity story, and Matthew's is a good deal darker, grittier, and more brief. But Luke has already been setting up the story for a while now. The shepherds, however, have not been in on any of the goings on with Mary, Joseph and their extended. They're clueless. They're going about their nights the same way they always do: watching the flock. (I got a kick out of visiting Jerusalem in 2015, to see modern shepherds walking down the street with a few sheep, looking down at their cell phones. For 3,000 years, shepherding has been a daily routine). 

As I hear this passage sung, and think about the fear, the thrill, the joy that comes so unexpectedly, I can't help thinking the story itself has become routine for us. Honestly, isn't repetition part of what is comforting about the holidays? The same songs, the same stories, Charlie Brown always getting the same crappy tree and having the same breakdown, to be comforted by Linus' same retelling of these same words, every year? What if it were different? What if we popped in the DVD one year, and Linus were coming at us from Isaiah or Malachi? What if we opened our hymnals, and "Joy to the World" were suddenly avant-garde jazz instead of the joyful baroque melody (300 years old this year, BTW)? Then maybe we'd have just a fraction of the shock and surprise the shepherds felt. The angels and a newborn savior were not part of the routine. And the news they gave changed the shepherds' lives forever. But they had to be ready for it. 

My prayer for you in these waning days of Advent, is for a few surprises from God, to break up your holiday routine, and for your readiness to accept them and praise God from them, as the shepherds did.    

Prayer: God, save us from routines, from worship of nostalgia, and from comfortable repetition. May your Word take flesh anew in us this year, and may we be ready to praise you loudly for it. 

Discussion Questions: 

1) What do you think about the role of tradition and routine in our celebration of Christmas? How does it help us, or hurt us, in welcoming the Christ Child? 

2) Have you ever had some tradition or ritual be disrupted at Christmas time? How did it affect your celebration?