For Sunday, December 29, 2013 – Matthew 2:13-23
Imagine a city stripped bare of its toddlers. A chill runs through us to think of Herod orchestrating the murders of children two years old and younger in and around Bethlehem, driven by his deranged fear and lust for power, his obsession with the prophecy of a Messiah’s birth. And no one stopped him. It is hard to know which is worse, that he ordered such a deed or that others followed the orders.
When we think of Christmas, the spirit of giving and incarnating love, we can’t help but think of children, their starry-eyed enjoyment of the glitz and sparkle, and their innate amazement and awe. At our best, we allow Christmas to reignite our own childlike wonder, to remind us that we have the potential for a whole lot of giving and sharing and goodness making. This morning’s scripture reminds us that we humans also have the potential to wreak a whole lot of havoc and destruction.
When we tell the story, do we include this part? Do we acknowledge how quickly hatred tries to stamp out love? The story does not end with the magi and the star and the gifts, does it? It rolls right along into vulnerability and violence and “Rachel weeping for her children,” making refugees out of thousands. I prefer the Christmas stories in which crusty hearts are softened and made new by unexpected generosity. In my story, Herod would have had a midnight revelation of how loved he was and how good he could be. Yet the nature of the world into which Jesus has come—our dear suffering world—is “wailing and loud lamentation” as well as hopeful longing. Love has arrived and is yet to come. We are a people who take risks for one another, who travel beyond our familiar boundaries because we have seen a great light, and we let greed and fear imprison us.
Our story is not the pleasant parts only. We have the capacity to shine with the light of love and to disappear into a dismal slime of selfishness. We are made alive and ridiculously threatened by the promise of God-with-us. We are the whole Christmas story, both beautiful and fearful, bright and dark, hidden and revealed.
