The Risk of Birth
January 5,2014
St. Andrews Scotts Memorial Church, Jerusalem
The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973
This is no time for a child to be born,
with the earth betrayed by war & hate
and a comet slashing the sky to warn
that time runs out & the sun burns late
That was no time for a child to be born,
in a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
honor & truth were trampled by scorn –
yet here did the Savior make his home.
When is the time for love to be born?
the inn is full on planet earth,
and by a comet the sky is torn –
yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
Madeleine L’Engle
January 6th marks the day in the Western
Christian calendar that the Wise Ones arrived at the manger. In Latin American
it’s El Dia de Los Reyes, a day when the Kings come bearing gifts for the
children. In the Orthodox Church, however, it is Christmas so
many of our Christian sisters and brothers are celebrating today the birth
while we are celebrating the manifestation of the light for this is one of the
meanings of epipanea. And in some parts of Ireland, it is Women’s
Christmas, a day when the women take a break from their domestic chores and
celebrate together the joy of the season. And still for others it is the
official end of the holiday season----the taking down of the tree, the packing
up of the Christmas decorations, the return to “normal.”
For me, this first Sunday in
Epiphany, when the light was manifest to the world, is the anniversary of my
ordination, the official recognition by the church of my call into ministry, to
be “set apart.” I was ordained on Epiphany Sunday in my home church in
Amherst, Massachusetts. My mother said my father would have been proud. My
daughter cried and said, "At first I thought my mom was having a midlife
crisis...."Then she sang a song that made us all cry.
I chose Epiphany Sunday because it was
about manifesting the light of new life, hope and this seemed a good symbol, a
good way to begin my ministry. I choose it
now for my ministry because it is about the risk and danger of birth, of
children being sacrificed still by the Herods of the world, and the Wise Ones wise
enough to follow a star and kneel before majesty and mystery. I choose it now because it is about
following your path, refusing to obey orders, and finding another way home.
When I was young I loved singing We Three Kings with the alternative
verses: “We three kings of Orient Are, tried to smoke a rubber cigar, it
exploded and imploded and now we are only two.”
Later I focused on the strange gifts that the kings brought—frankincense, gold, and myrrh.
These hardly seemed liked things suitable for a baby. I rather thought, like Jan L. Richardson’s Wise
Women, the holy family needed useful gifts: “Water for labor’s washing, fire for warm illumination, a
blanket for swaddling.” And I would add a casserole, some diapers, and maybe some baby toys. The
Prince of Peace was also a baby and the holy couple also new parents after all.
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| The Journey of the Magi |
In seminary I read commentaries about the gifts being
symbolic for the different roles Jesus would play: gold for royalty, frankincense for a priest,
and myrrh for embalming, his death already foreshadowed at his birth.
My Latino friends taught me that the celebration of
Three Kings was popular because it was a chance for the poor to see the rich on
their knees, bowing to something more powerful than their money, and it was a
time for the poor to get some handy me down gifts from los ricos who were feeling generous and full.
Living here in Palestine and Israel,
however, I tend to pay more attention to Herod now and his imperial insecurity
and the horrendous and savage acts of secrets, terror, treachery, and the murder
of children. I feel an obligation to
hear the whole bloody story now, the passages our lectionary cuts out about
Herod’s slaughter of all male children under age two, the “massacre of the
innocents.” This atonement story, one
where the innocent one takes the place of another, seems to be an imperial
story true for any age. And our Gospel writer Mathew, always looking for ways
to connect the Jewish story to the Christian story, wants us to think of Moses
and Pharaoh here too.
Last year on my blog, I went so far as to
suggest that our nativity sets should include Herod. I think we miss the real
meaning of incarnation, the real meaning of the coming of the Prince of Peace,
if we don’t include this part of the story. Also Herod's interaction with the
Wise Ones helps us understand the threat Mary's boy is to imperial authority
then and now and how we should respond.
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."
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."
children and
the slaughter of the innocent ones
then and now including the three year old
killed
on Christmas in Gaza and the teenager yesterday
near the Gaza border and
of course the over 400
killed in the Cast Lead Siege of 2008. And then
there
are the children who were kept in outdoor
cages during our recent snowstorm for
throwing
stones or snowballs at the soldiers, and the children dying in refugee
camps in Syria. Their small
hallowed bodies grace my facebook feed daily with reminders that Herod lives.
Rachel and Mary
and mothers (and fathers) continue to weep and holy families continue to flee
persecution, continue to be made into refugees daily here with nowhere to take
flight. They are made refugees when their land is confiscated and they must
leave in order to survive. They are made refugees when their homes are
demolished and they have nowhere to live.
hallowed bodies grace my facebook feed daily with reminders that Herod lives.
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| Children protesting in Yarmouk Camp in Syria |
Herod lives
every time imperial forces feel threatened and decide to target the most
vulnerable members of society, usually the women and children. He lives yet
“Love still takes the risk of birth” says the poet Madeleine L’Engle. Sweet
baby Jesus was not only born in a lowly stable but in a land under occupation
too, “the crushing grip of Rome” and on an earth “betrayed by war and hate.”
Sound familiar? Herod lives but so does love every time it risks to be born.
Father John Dear, veteran peace activist, states that
like the Wise Ones we must perform three acts of non-cooperation if we are to
truly honor the Prince of Peace. The first is to worship. The second is to
repudiate the false imperial gods by disobeying orders to partake in killings, and
the third is that we should head back on a different path, that we should
resist the culture of violence.
So like the Wise Ones, dear ones, let us bow down on
bended knee and adore the Human One who came down so we could have love, who
came so we could have peace. Let us repudiate the false idols of security and
dominance, militarism and racism and like the Magi from the East refuse to
serve them. Let us disobey orders to
kill or harm the children for all of them are our children. And finally, let us
take a different path home.
T.S. Eliot in
his famous poem, The Journey of the Magi, says, “This birth was hard and bitter
agony for us, like death, our death, we returned to our places, these kingdoms.
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation…”
If indeed the light has come, let us go and worship
the one who was born from the womb of suffering and hope. Let us rise and let
go of our attachments to false idols and old dispensations. Let us follow the
path of nonviolence, justice and peace making all the way home.
From God’s fullness
we all receive room.
Life and light---
divine access and
grace filled flesh
belong to us all.
We give thanks for
the Word
who assures us that
the light
will never be
overcome by darkness.
May this light
widen our vision.
May we become
welcoming fires
in empire’s shadows.
May we see how
the story of God
with-us
invites our
participation.
May we live Christmas
all year long.
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