2 Turtle Doves

        Each year I like to pay a bit of tribute to one of the more sobering elements of the Christmas story. We're all familiar with Lully Lullay, the lament over the baby boys of Bethlehem and, in our grief over slaughter of dozens of innocents, we often forget, I think, what a heart-wrenching thing it must have been for Mary and Joseph to pack up and flee to Egypt for an indeterminate amount of time. 

          We know that Jesus was about two-years old when they left. They'd obviously decided to stay on in Bethlehem, which worked out since that's where the magi were directed to when they reached Judea at about that time. People in those days didn't just up and move like we do today. To travel from Bethlehem to Egypt would have been unpleasant for multiple physical reasons, not to mention it would have been a humiliating journey by nature for a Jew, and especially for these two were both descendants of David. Every time the prophets spoke of returning to Egypt it was always given as a rebuke, a punishment, a sign of judgement. To go to Egypt was for Israel to regress beyond the time of Moses. To return to Egypt was a sign of a lack of trust in, and obedience to, the God of Jacob.

           I've often wondered if the Shepherds kept up a report with Mary and Joseph after the climactic events of His birth. Did one of them stop by every now and again to bring Mary a portion of meat and maybe try to wring a laugh or smile out of the baby? Did they catch up with Joseph on their way back to the fields to see how his carpentry was getting on?

         I've laughed at myself for such imaginings but apparently I wasn't the only one. The carol I will share with today stemmed Hector Berlioz's image of the Shepherds bidding farewell to the family as they snuck off to the land of pyramids. It's a beautiful set of lyrics and captures some of the emotion I've always wondered about. It must have been very sad and very jarring to all involved. The Shepherds might not have known they'd fled until after they'd done it, but, perhaps, if they did give them a send-off, or, maybe help smuggle them all out of town, this is what they might have said or thought.

          Friends, for our next to last Carol this year, I give you Berlioz's Shepherds' Farewell.