Shepherd monologue – Christmas 2022
Let me introduce myself – I’m Melki – the lads call me milky, they think that’s hilarious, because I’m a shepherd, not a dairy farmer and I make a bit of a mess of the milking.
Have you tried mailing a sheep? Not easy
believe me – not as hard as milking a Goat, though.
If you want a goat – you’ll get Messy.
Melki is an old family name – I’m from the tribe of Benjamin, I’m from Bethlehem. The great city of David. I mean I say city, it’s a village really.
You’ve probably heard of it – bit of a nothing place really – except for all the old prophecies, like Micah saying that the Messiah will come from our little town, or Isaiah talking about the Root of Jesse.
I guess our great local hero King David was a Bethlehem boy – so anything is possible.
– the greatest king of them all – he started out like me – a little Shepherd boy.
I guess that’s a bit like a fisherman from Galilee becoming Pope or something.
Anyway – I want to tell you about what happened last night.
“Oh my God!!”
Oh, it doesn’t seem right to say that now.
I was never really sure about the God stuff before – but now, he’s real – let me tell you – he’s real.
So I was out on the hills – Dad had sent me out, again.
We were all out there – a bunch of us, the young lads – it was a fairly mild night, not much going on.
Suddenly there’s this being right in front of us.
HUGE! – about 10ft tall – brightest light I’ve ever seen. – had a huge broad sword in his hand.
– So scary. – We were absolutely terrified.
There are different types of fear aren’t there.
I have to admit – I get scared quite a lot out there on the hills.
There’s the danger of disease, when you see one of the sheep come out of the brook with a leech on it’s leg.
Or the nasty shock when a creepy-crawley comes out of their wool.
Or when you go to town and see a Roman archer on the walls – defending the city, but think your sheep could be his target practice.
There’s always a bit of fear with the lads mucking around, you can get hit by them throwing sheep poo if you don’t duck it in time. I can’t bear stone throwing though – that’s not great.
Or when someone stokes the fire and a whole loads of sparks fly up.
The light from this angel – much brighter than that & it was a totally different type of fear. Just this deep terror – we were all frozen still gazing.
I was thinking of all the bad stuff I’ve done – he looked like he knew about it all. This was it…
It’s so hard to describe – there was this awesomeness to him. So huge, so powerful, so bright lit up the whole hillside — yet something in those eyes.
Glory – that’s the word for it.
Not a word we shepherd boys use much really, glory.
I mean… we play this game, we’ve got an old pig’s bladder we fill with air – we’re not supposed to touch pigs, so we kick it around.
We put two lots of cloaks down with a gap between them, and then see which group can get past the other and try to kick it between the cloaks – we see who can do it the most – it’ll never catch on.
I prefer the one where someone throws a ball of cow’s leather and you have to try and hit it – much more fun.
But when someone kicks the pigs bladder perfectly, or hits the ball past someone – they think that’s glory.
That’s not glory .
this was different – this was something so beautiful – majestic and yet so full of life. – I guess that’s what glory is.
Then he spoke and the first thing he said was
“Don’t be afraid”
– which was crazy, but the minute I heard his voice – the fear left me.
Such a rich, deep tone to his voice – once I realised he was with us – that he had come to help us not tell us off – weirdly – it was all ok.
A bunch of naughty shepherd boys, sent out of town, social rejects.
When someone important talk to folks like us – it’s usually because we’re in trouble. – but he had come to us and… sounds crazy, but I think he’d chosen us.
I have never felt so safe – just knowing that he was on our side.
Never need to be afraid of anything, ever again.
Next thing – he tells us that it’s happened – the Messiah has been born.
The Saviour.
Now, a I said, we’re Bethlehem Shepherds – we know all about Messiahs.
We grew up on the ancient prophecies, every time a local boy becomes a great warrior – we wonder if they’ll be the one, but they never are,
But currently – The Romans still rule, Herod is still corrupt,
I guess I always thought we’d know who the Messiah was once they’d proven themselves, won some battles – raised an army, started a campaign, to reclaim David’s throne.
But this news blew us away – the great news of hope – God’s saviour – born as a baby. And the angels already knew – he was the One.
And believe me – we weren’t going to argue theology with that angel
Then, as if that wasn’t crazy enough – the whole sky was full of them. Hundreds of these angels – all bright and burning full of light.
Absolute scenes!
A few years ago, I went up to the capital – Jerusalem. We have a rich cousin – he’s a Rabbi, so we call him Robin. He has a beautiful daughter, and a son – It was his son’s wedding.
My parents took me to the temple – we even took a lamb for a sacrifice as part of the wedding. It was amazing – huge, and so much gold and light and noise. And the wealth of those Romans and all their armour & chariots.
Robin’s son’s wedding was amazing too – they’re rich, so there was all this fancy food and music – the Almonds were to die for.
But all that – was nothing compared to those angels – I’ve never seen anything like it.
They started singing:
‘Glory to God in the highest’ – there is it – that word again. Glory.
I don’t know much about these things and I’m rubbish with words.
But if that’s what God’s glory is – I’m in.
It was just spectacular, I felt so alive.
I was totally caught up in the moment, yet more aware of who I am than ever before.
I realised how tiny I am and yet it was like my heart and my courage expanded as they sang
I felt so privileged that we got to see it – that we, shepherds, were chosen for this news.
All I wanted to do, was find out more about this good news they were telling us about. Well you couldn’t stop us. We rounded up the sheep – got them safe and set off to town.
Took us a while to find them – loads of visitors in town for the census. I guess the tribe of Benjamin has spread out a bit. Cousins everywhere.
But once we found them – Mind blown!
There they were – this Lovely couple – I think they were called, Joseph and Mary. And their baby was just there – in a manger, nothing special, just a feeding trough, made of wood.
Now, I’m not really into babies – messy, cry-ey little things.
They all look a bit alike, everyone gets a bit goo-ey about them, but I’m a teenage lad, they’re an ugly little bundle of flesh and random hair.
But this one! – Wow.
Back on the hills – we’d heard the angels singing ‘glory’ – and they were glorious – the fire, the light, the sound.
But this… the sparkley eyes of this little thing
the sense around him
I wish I could describe it to you, it was like… like… that word ‘glory’ again.
You’ll think I’m weird – it was just a baby.
But I wanted to start my life all over again – in that place.
To give the rest of my life to telling people about him, letting everyone know that I’ve found hope, that there is a future.
That’s why I’m here telling you this – I’ve found him – he’s the one!
We all felt it. I mean the lads and me, we’ve had our moments.
Plenty of sheep poo dropped into my brew, no one listening,
There’s the trips, I’m often the target, I get laughed at for all my wrong answers up more times that you can imagine, had the odd sheep stolen, fights over girls in the village, all that stuff.
I always felt a bit on the edge of the group really – they laughed at Melki, the banter got brutal at times. I always felt a misfit amongst the folks I the village.
Most of us have been chucked out by our families – so we’re a rough bunch.
But in that little room, it’s all changed – we experienced family,
we experienced what it meant to be loved – accepted.
I don’t know what will happen to that little baby – but I believe those angels –
he’s the real deal.
Seasoned with Grace 