The whole of Christianity is inherently extraordinary. The incredible realities of the triune God’s works of creation, redemption and new creation transcend our feeble finitude and understanding.
So then, how do we live, how do we respond? How do we reflect what we profess to believe? How does the extraordinary intersect with the ordinary?
Zack Eswine addresses this in his book, The Imperfect Pastor, which I highly recommend, even if you are not a pastor. Eswine reflects upon the story of Christ’s birth being announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 and the anticlimactic aspects of this narrative.
First, is the sudden, extraordinary appearance of the angels proclaiming the sign that the long-awaited savior has come, will be found in the most unexpected of forms and places. “But here the anticlimax begins… ‘You will find a baby,’ they said, “wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ The sign of God’s fame lay in the aroma of cattle and hay-the placenta of new birth, the cries and warmth of the ordinary life.”[1] `
Second is the response of the shepherds to the appearance of the angels, the announcement of the sign and the encounter of him. “And now the second anticlimax confronts us…after beholding and participating in this too-grand-for-words event, ‘the shepherds returned,’.”[2]
Have you ever noticed this part of the story? While this narrative emphasizes the beauty of God coming to us in Christ, the return of the shepherds to their flocks is no less profound. Sidenote: Have you ever considered why Christ’s birth was first announced to shepherds? Might be worth contemplating:) With this extraordinary event, the shepherds had experienced the potential for “celebrity opportunity,” however, “right here, God in his grace disrupts us. By means of the shepherds returning, God seems to seriously imply that seeing God’s glory, hearing his voice, receiving his good news, and beholding his love was never meant to deliver us from the ordinary life and love in a place-it was meant instead to provide the means to preserve us there.”[3] Where “celebrity opportunity” is found it “does not remove the arrangements for neighbor love that still exist. Someone will still need to care for the sheep, create clothes for others, provide milk and food for neighbors…their [the shepherds] call to love each other and their neighbors, to eat, to wash clothes, to seek and ask for forgiveness from each other in ordinary moments, to attend to sickness, to celebrate birthdays, and to seek God would not go away.”[4]
The return to the ordinary. This is where some of God’s greatest work takes place.
[1] Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in our Limitations Through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus. (Wheaton; Crossway, 2015), 79-80.
[2] Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor, 80.
[3] Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor, 81.
[4]Eswine,The Imperfect Pastor,81