Faith and Promise: Do Not Be Afraid

Against the backdrop of a small, but bustling town of Bethlehem lies hills speckled with the providence of sheep and isolated herdsmen. The sky is alight in the midst of a typical summer night. The warm air soothes one older shepherd into a quiet slumber. He sits on a bolder and leans against a weathered staff as the content sound of sheep searching the ground for young shoots fills the approaching dawn. Yet, within the moments of peace, some look for 'joy'.

“Ah ha!!!”

A young shepherd darts from behind the elder man and lands a sudden surprise. In response, the elder shepherd shoots awake, dropping his staff and his eyes look up, wide with alarm.

“You fool!”

“You should have seen your face! You… You…. You!”

The younger shepherd, so impressed with his prank, drops to the ground in a fit of laughter. Unimpressed with this childish behavior in the start of the night, the elder shepherd looks on with a face mixed with tiredness and also with disappointment. The younger one slowly comes out of his bout of giggled and pulls himself into a seated position next to the other.

“Do not look so peeved, Zelaph. It was only a bit of fun!”

“I am not peeved… I am wide-awake.”

Zelaph retrieves his staff from the ground and the younger let’s out a deep, happy sigh into the night.

“Wow… it is so clear tonight. I did not think the heavens could be so… so deep! Do you not think?”

Zelaph quietly nods in response.

“What’s the matter Zelaph? You are not much yourself tonight?”

“No… it is just…”

“Just?”

“It is just when I dozed off… and you woke me, Noam, I had a flash back to a long time ago, when I was a young man – about your age.”

Noam tilts his head in curiosity to his senior, and then with unbridled sarcasm:

“You were my age?”

“Quiet.” Zelaph playfully bunts Noam with the end of his stick.

“Tell me about it?”

Zelaph’s eyes find a distant point of focus and sighs, recalling the memory.

“Do not be afraid.”

The stillness grows as Zelaph pulls on the chords of the event.

“Do not be afraid… I was… I bring you good news… Unbelievable… Of great joy… Terrified… For all the people… Who?!... Today in Bethlehem… This town?... A Savior is born… He is Christ the Lord-.”

“Wait. I heard stories from my father about this. Was it not thirty some years ago now? The sky was filled with unearthly creatures, singing, beautiful creatures!”

“Noam, it was the most… amazing thing I have ever and will ever see. The sky… filled… my eyes could not blink it away but, I was so filled with… with…”

“Joy?!”

“Fear. I was terrified. I would have run and hid, but I could not feel my legs. It was as if my body knew I needed – and I needed – to hear where He was to be born.”

“Wait – who?”

“And this will be a sign to you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

“Seriously? A manger. That is like putting a baby in a -.”

“He was kicking and crying, but so healthy. His tired mother was trying to keep the swaddling cloth around his little body.”

“So the sky was filled with phenomena all to tell you about some baby?”

“Filled and singing, praising…”

“You seriously have jumped off the deep end, my friend. Nothing like that ever happens, at least not since the time of Moses and Joshua. What you say is crazy.”

Noam stands in growing disinterest.

“Well why would it be crazy? Moses saw a burning bush. Joshua saw the walls of Jericho crumble as our people shouted – without a weapon drawn. So why would a sky full of angels singing glory to God to announce the birth of Savior of people – ALL people, be such a crazy thing?”

Noam shrugs his shoulders while Zelaph continues.

“Noam, I was so afraid, we all were. But, what was said to us and what was celebrated over us in the heavens… There was no doubt in my heart that the birth of our Messiah was at hand.”

“Ha! Messiah. And where is he then? He must be, what, thirty by now. Where is his army? Where is his crown? Where is his salvation? Do you really think our redemption will come from the crazy dream telling of smelly shepherds? Or the feed boxes of feeble animals?”

Zelaph looks at his staff and places his hand in the same soft spot he always does. He can see a growing, youthful agitation growing inside the young shepherd and he knows it reflects a general feeling amongst many of the day. Noam continues.

“The zealots are the only ones taking measures against the Romans. We have nothing here. You say the angel said: “peace and joy for all peoples”? That means our enemies too. I would not believe in such a message. Do you think our God would want to bring those that tax us, kill us, and rule over us such blessing? I do not want to believe in what you say Zelaph.”

Noam shakes his head and walks away into the darkness while Zelaph looks after, his eyes brimming with hope. In his years, Zelaph stands and looks upward to the same skies that were once full of the most amazing of beings and then in the direction he and others ran to find the one sung about.

“’And this will be a sign to you… you will find a babe wrapped in strips of clothe and lying in a manger…’. I did. I found him there. In the dank smell of Bethlehem, a village overwhelmed by travellers… some even slept in the streets… but in the chaos there he was. His mother and father so nervous and excited as two new parents should be. I did not doubt then… and… and I know he is out there now… somewhere… getting ready to be about his Father’s business. Maybe he is a tanner or a baker. A bricklayer or a mason. Maybe even a poor shepherd like me.”

A small chuckle rises to his tired throat. Zelaph’s eyes respond to the bleat of an approaching ewe. He smiles and raises his gaze once more.

“It doesn’t matter. Because he will one day he will save us. One day he will arise from wherever he is and the song of the angels will be proclaimed once again… Glory to God from here to on high… and peace and rest on earth…”

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I was asked to write several drama's based upon the Christmas story for my church. As I studied the times that surrounded Joseph and Mary's amazing journey of faith and promise, I realized that our world is not so different from what was going on in their day. We still fear. We still question. We are awaiting the return of the Messiah. With these thoughts in mind, I wondered about the lives of the people who we read about in beginning chapters of Luke and Matthew and what they experienced long before and after their "Christmas" encounters. Something I think we so easily forget is that the people we read about in the Bible are real people and they had real lives and lived and questioned and made choices before and after their two minutes of Biblical reference.

In the original drama, two shepherd's dialogue about the Angelic Host praising God and informing the lowly cast of shepherds about the birth of Christ. The dialogue came out of place where I kept asking myself questions like "What did the shepherd's do after they saw Jesus in Bethlehem?", "How did the event mark them?", "Were they changed and how would that be evident in day to day life?", "How is the story of the shepherd's relevant today?", and "How can I relate to the shepherd's account?" I drew on the parallel of one shepherd who shares the first hand account of the angels with a younger shepherd who struggles to believe the prophetic fulfillment. I also placed the time to be thirty years after the birth of Christ. Here, we know that Christ will soon step into the fullness of his ministry, and yet to these shepherd's they do not yet know 'where he is' and 'what has become of the babe the angels sang about.' What I was left with when I finished writing the play was the question, am I someone who has beheld the promise and await with expectation or am I someone who identifies as impatient and someone who is swayed by the events that effect my world? As I have mentioned before, nothing much has changed between then and now...