Include Herod and Love All

I love Christmas. Always have. I love the singing, the holiday decorations and especially the creches. At present I have eight. They are artfully displayed throughout our tiny apartment including the bathroom. One is made of some unknown white stone and doesn't even include Joseph unless he wants to be a shepherd. Another is made of clay from Peru. I love it because Mary and Joseph are lying down and gazing at baby Jesus the way new parents are want to do. Another sits nestled in a gourd from Mexico and includes what looks like a mariachi band. My Polish blue and white ceramic set only includes the holy family and due to some careless boxing they now stand before a coconut hut which once had figures from the Caribbean. One creche lost baby Jesus along the way so they now stare at a tiny marble painted with planet earth with the word peace written on it. Another creche is made of what looks like straw or bamboo with a large holy family with a baby who doesn't get brought out until Christmas day.  It is sometimes  accompanied by a reindeer made of sticks by my artistic sister and Felicity's sheep (yes, Felicity from the American Doll collection). The doll and her very expensive clothes are long gone and all that is left is this very sturdy lamb who is just the right size to keep watch. These are my holy families and I love each and everyone of them for the memories they hold and the reminder that there are not set protocols for who should be included or what counts as holy.

But my favorite ones now are the creches I brought back from Palestine in 2011when I served as an Ecumenical Accompanier in Bethlehem. The first is a felted little cave with only enough room for Mary, Joseph, a little sheep and the babe. They are made from the wool of the Bethlehem sheep who used to walk past our apartment. They are made by the L'Arche community of Bethlehem called Ma'an lil-Hayat( Together for Life) as a way for the community of young adults with and without intellectual disabilities to work together. I used to visit them on occasion after my long mornings at the checkpoint. Their quiet industriousness was a balm to my tired body and depleted spirit and the smell of damp wool and mint tea gave me a sense of another less stressful life.

The other nativity set is an olive wood set complete with a removable wall that my cat keeps knocking over as if she could read my mind or blog. It has two baby Jesus'--- one is the one that came with the set, a very crude baby on a little board and the other a larger hand painted Jesus from the Swedish creche I grew up with. The little manger is missing a leg but just seeing it brings back happy memories of my childhood when my sister and I used to play dolls with the creche figures. One year we lost this baby Jesus stuck in his manger and couldn't find him until months later under the couch covered in dust.

As you can see I am a creche aficiando with a very flexible nativity theology. And so it came with some surprise that I realized that all my sets are missing a  most important figurine, one I have never seen in a set. This character is also often left out of most Christmas stories. Can you guess? It is Herod, the King who was so "disturbed" to learn that the Magi were looking for the King of the Jews that he sent his men out to kill all male children under age two. This year's lectionary politely bypasses this bloody chapter by going directly to Mathew's presentation of Jesus at the Temple but because we do want to celebrate Epiphany and the three kings we skip back to Mathew but cut right before the bloody part, the killing of the children. I guess it was felt to be too graphic for our ears but without Herod and the slaughter of the innocents I think we miss the real meaning of incarnation, the real meaning of the coming of the prince of peace. Herod's interaction with the kings helps us understand the threat Mary's boy is to imperial authority. Mathew's gospel tells us that Jesus entered this world to challenge the powerful, to turn it upside down. Neither the Messiah nor his holy mother are meek and mild and neither is their message.

The Catholic church remembers Herod and his massacre on December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents or the Feast of the Holy Family. Robert Ellsberg in his book All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses For Our Time says "This is not simply a memorial to those who died before their time. These infants represent all those who are cut down to prevent the seed of liberation from taking root and growing... In remembering the Feast of the Holy Innocents the church commemorates these victims of Herod's rage. But it also celebrates his failure. His power is doomed. The child lives."

Last year I lifted up Rachel's weeping as we remembered the 4th anniversary of Cast Lead and the slaughter of almost 400 children. This year I lift up the children of Gaza again, the 35 who died in November from Israeli bombardments and the countless others who live terrorized in their homes without parents or family members. I also lift up the over 900 children who have been detained illegally in Israeli prisons for indefinite detention and the many more who have lost hope that there might be life separate from occupation.


Let us ponder then the world's ongoing hatred of the God of peace, how those in authority from presidents and kings to generals and soldiers continue to kill our children or let them die in order to maintain their power. Let us put Herod back into our nativity drama so we can remember that Jesus the Christ entered the world amidst turmoil and terror hiding out as a refugee in Egypt. Let us also then name and deal with our own power hungry Herods with their imperial or zionist visions of a land just for themselves.

Let us also remember that Miryam's Song and Jesus' miraculous birth were first witnessed by lowly shepherds and that even the Wise Ones bent down to worship him. And finally, let us remember too that "He came down so we could have love." Love for all or as the children of Bethlehem spelled out for us, "Love All."

Maan Images/Project Peace on Earth