The Christian gospel began at Bethlehem one star-kissed night when a baby was born, and angels sang, and shepherds came - when the heavenly Father was so loving the world that he was giving his Son. To most of us the outward signals of the Bethlehem Event are rather well known. We know how shepherds received from heavenly messengers the announcement of the birth of Jesus, and how they said, "Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened." We know how, having made their journey there, those shepherds "returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had seen and heard." It is around these two actions of the shepherds that I would build the message I share with you now - their going and their returning.

It is written that these men made known widely the information they h…