The Reverend Richard Terrell is a retired Priest who remains in active Ministry.
Recently he celebrated the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood.
He is the Co-ordinator of the Norton Festival which brings together the local community,
with support for the Parish Church and other local concerns.

Sermon

WE ARE THE SHEPHERDS

            There’s something ‘romantic’, emotional’ even, about going out in the middle of the night to worship.   Many people are doing so this Christmas Eve.   They have left their homes to Celebrate Christmas with a Midnight Service.

            It reminds us of the first Christmas when shepherds left their sheep and walked through the darkness to a stable where they found Jesus laying in a manger.   Like them we have left whatever we might have been doing and come through the darkness to find Jesus at our Church.   Tonight I am going to suggest we think of ourselves as being a Christmas Shepherd and try to fully understand the Christmas Message by walking in their sandals.

            Come with me, then, on this Christmas night and be one of the Christmas Shepherds.   Imagine you are really there.   Imagine you are in the darkness on a hillside above Bethlehem.   It feels like any other night with long hours of darkness spent keeping watch over the sheep protecting them and ensuring they are not savaged by any marauding beast.

            The sheep are vital to the community and provide sacrificial offerings in the Temple.   Looking after this highly valued flock means that as a shepherd you can’t fulfil all the ritual obligations of the Temple and this leaves you somewhat looked down upon.   Another lonely night, another duty, on a dark hillside while others are at home cosily tucked up in their beds.

            Then something happens that makes the night far from ‘ordinary.’   Suddenly the darkness is pierced.   An angel of the Lord appears and the glory of the Lord is shining all around you.

            You are terrified.  What’s going on?   The angel tells you not to be afraid and announces the birth, in the city of David, of a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord.   Then tells you that the child will be found wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.   Then suddenly the angel is joined by a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours.”

            Pause for a moment to consider YOUR re-action.    A ‘Saviour’ had been awaited for many decades, centuries even, with the prophets of old proclaiming that the ‘Desire of the Nations’ would come.   It was a familiar message to us but, as the saying goes, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’   No one thought it would happen NOW.   But on this dark night you are being told that the long-awaited One has come – here and now.   How do you feel?   What is your re-action?

            By now we are rubbing our eyes, pinching ourselves and as the scene fades asking whether it really happened.    Are you going to carry on your duties and wait until morning to tell the tale ….. As if anyone else would believe it!

            We would all decide, I think, to say with the shepherds, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”

            So let us now leave our thoughts on the Bethlehem hillside and come back to Somerset.   Like the shepherds we have been told of the birth of Jesus and we seek to be near Him.   As we sung ‘Away in a manger’ we pictured ourselves to be there alongside Him in the stable.

            In the dead of night we are in this Church.   We have abandoned what else we could have been doing to be with the One who is Christ the Lord, born in a stable.   Tonight we are one of those Christmas Shepherds.   Our night has been disturbed and we have gone to a place where our Lord and Saviour can be found.

            Like the shepherds our lives have been changed by our experience of Christmas.   Christmas is more than an excuse for a party.   It is the welcoming of our Saviour into our hearts and lives.   This we experience and proclaim throughout the year.   The Christmas message is something we cannot keep to ourselves.   So we share the good news of Christmas in our home, in the wider community and with all whom we meet.

            After this Service we shall return to our normal duties and life.   But we have been moved by the words we have heard and the Christmas Message we have sung.   As we leave this Church we glorify and praise God for the rest of our lives because WE ARE Christmas Shepherds.

Preached at Middle Chinnock

Midnight Mass 24th December, 2025

MARTIN’S MESSAGE

Martin the Monkey sometimes accompanies The Reverend Richard and helps to re-enforce the Gospel message. He usually attends on special occasions in the Church Year and shares his thoughts with you.

Remembering

          Do it find it hard to remember things?   Some things – apart from where I left my banana – I forget so easily. We employ ‘memory joggers’ to help us – like tying a knot in our handkerchief; writing a shopping list, having a telephone/address/birthday book etc.    But it is still easy to fail to remember something that is really important.   We must certainly know what the ‘aide memoir’ means.

          Many people wear a red poppy at this time of year.   It’s more than a receipt for a donation to The Royal British Legion.   It says that we remember the sacrifices people have made in conflicts around the world and that we support the victims of those wars.

          We are also to remember the wonderful acts of God, respecting all he has given us – especially his Son, Jesus Christ who, before He died at Calvary ate the Last Supper, telling His followers to ‘do this in remembrance of Me.’   (1 Corinthians 11:24)