Fifth day of Christmas Holy Innocents

12/29

The Ecclesia worship crew

It's a mild winter day as I head to the Marcus Garvey Park Drummers' Circle for the weekly gathering of the Ecclesia congregation for eucharist and breaking bread with te homeless. More intense scrutiny by the NYPD has had a negative effect on people coming out, but still a congregation gathers and still there are conversations to be had. During prayers, one congregant prays  that his son may avoid the fall into homelessness he has endured. We tend to forget that most who are homeless once had homes. We assemble the alter and prepare for worship. Sing  "Joy to the World" and "O Come All Ye Faithful." Read the Gospel and it's time for reflection....

So it’s the 5th day of Christmas. (“Five golden rings!”) I am one who believes in celebrating all 12 days. We’re done with all the secular society build up to Christmas.  Now’s the time to celebrate the church’s Christmas. Liturgically, this is the first Sunday after Christmas.  Liturgically, we’ve got the "Feast of the Holy Innocents.” This darkest story within our Christmas narratives. There’s been barely enough time to unwrap the presents from the visit of the wise men when Herod flies into a rage, believing a threat to his throne is arising, a child with more legitimacy than his claim.  So he sends out his henchmen to murder all children under two in the Bethlehem region. 

There’s always debate over the historicity of the event. But the bottom line is something like this….this kind of behavior was so typical of Herod, who even murdered his own son, as to not even drew attention, especially in a small insignificant town like Bethlehem. 

All well and good but what does it mean for us?

I think it starts here….we live in a day when across our world, more people  are in motion right now than at any other time in history. Maybe some of you here this morning have come here from other places. And the fact is, most people who are in motion are doing so because their lives have become unlivable where they are. It can be for political reasons:

* Like a Muslim in Kashmir or 

* An Ambazonian in the Cameroun or 

* A Rohingyan in Burma

Or people threatened by their government like a Nicaraguan or Venezuelan who has protested having to flee

Or because some combination of agribusiness and climate change and environmental degradation has made subsistence farming impossible.

People leave home when home is no longer viable.

Christmas is about incarnation ….God wanting to be in our midst, God wanting to know our lives intimately. From inside our flesh, as it were. So God in the form of a vulnerable  human baby is With a family that has to flee for its very lives to another country. Driven form their home. Sin papeles. Undocumented. Illegal. Seeking asylum. As the Biblical narrative goes , they find asylum in Egypt. And the Christian community in Egypt is very proud of this tradition. They’ll show you places where various incidents happened to the Holy family. The house where they lived, right up the street from where Moses was drawn from the river. They are proud of having sheltered the human one, the holy one, the holy child.

How different it would  have been if they had encountered a 30 foot wall topped with razor wire at the Egyptian border. Or if they had bene forced to sleep outside in the street for weeks waiting for a chance to tell their story with a 2% chance of receiving asylum. Or been forced out into the most dangerous part of the Sinai without even a donkey. Or maybe separated with Joseph  and Mary deported back to certain death in Israel and Jesus put in a cage in the desert.  The point is, God is experiencing our lives right now. In our midst. Our displacement, our exile, our homelessness, whatever it is, whatever your story is, Immanuel, GOD IS WITH US. 

Let us see the face of God in those around us in this circle. And may we in turn, show the living face of Jesus to each around us. As we receive the Eucharist this day, may it be we who are transformed into the living body of the risen Christ, standing side by side with each other. 

Immanuel. God is with us. Happy Christmas. Amen.

Eucharist is shared. Then the meal is laid out. Turkey sandwiches. Salads. Peach pie. And festive egg nog. More conversation. the police stop by to check things out. Are offered sandwiches. Slowly the circle disperses. People off to their separate directions.  Until next week. 

Gospel Matthew 2:13-23

13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:18  “A voice was heard in Ramah,
          wailing and loud lamentation,
     Rachel weeping for her children;
          she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead.” 21Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

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New Year's Day 2017: the Holy Innocents

1/1/17

If getting people out on Christmas morning is tough, New year’s day is even worse…and for me there was a trifecta of issues to deal with. 

We opened with Jeremy’s gospel  version of “Joy to the world..”.  To bring in the Kings, we sang the traditional “We three Kings of Orient Are”.  Later we  will do the Puerto Rican carol, “De Tierra Lejana” in a salsa style.  And bring the wisemen back with “Early on One Christmas Morn.”  And finally we finish our service with “Jesus the Light of the World”  

There was a lot to think about..

Happy New Year!

There are so many ways I can go here…

1. It’s the 8th Day of Christmas
2. Because of the way the calendar falls, this year we have no Three Kings Sunday, no Epiphany …if we’re going to do wise men, Magi, they have to be today
3. The assigned scripture takes us to a place we don’t get to every year, namely Holy Innocents Sunday, the dark Christmas story we don’t read but every three years, the massacre of the children.
4. And of course, it’s New Years Day….

From Matthew 2 we read:

13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 

18  “A voice was heard in Ramah, 

          wailing and loud lamentation, 

     Rachel weeping for her children; 

          she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead.” 21Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

My friend Pastor Heidi Neumark says the wise men committed civil disobedience…at any rate they lied to Herod….and they saved Jesus but…it led to the massacre of children. In reality, there is no historicity. No external verification. However, using historic population numbers etc, it would have been  maybe two dozen children at most…an occurrence so common, it would not have even been written down. Herod was even known to have  murdered to be three of his own children…(It was said that it was better to be his pig than his son…)

In church tradition, these children were the first martyrs and the first feast day of the new church year was set for December 28th. The story of the Holy Innocents touches a nerve.  And resonates down through history.

In 1534,a  mystery play left us the Coventry Carol, the only of the collected Child Ballads with a Biblical theme. 

Lullay, lullay

My little tiny child

By-by, lullay, lullaby

Lullay, lullay

My little tiny child

By-by, lullay, lullay

Oh, sisters two

How may we do

For to preserve this day?

This poor youngling

Of whom we do sing

By-by, lullay, lullay

Herod the King

In his raging

Charged he hath this day

His men of might

In his own sight

All children young to slay

Then woe is me

Poor child for thee

And ever mourn and say

For thy parting

Nor say nor sing

By-by, lullay, lullay

Lullay, lullay

My little tiny child

By-by, lullay, lullay

Lullay, lullay

My little tiny child

By-by, lullay, lullay

By-by, lullay, lullay

By-by, lullay, lullay

It was also a common theme with medieval painters, especially Rubens and Bruegel who panted the scene with contemporary  characters. (Like by the Nicaragua Solentiname artists in the 1980’s..) 

from Solentiname

In 1886, Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck wrote a piece describing the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands based on Breughel’s painting of 1567 (which predated actual repression by two years! ) 

Breugel

Here is its disturbing conclusion:

When all the children were killed, the tired soldiers wiped their swords on the grass and supped under the pear-trees. Then the foot-soldiers mounted behind the others and they all rode out of Nazareth together, by the stone bridge, as they had come.

The setting sun lit the forest with a red light and painted the village a new colour. Weary with running and entreating, the priest had sat down in the snow in front of the church; and his servant-maid stood near him, looking around. They saw the street and the orchard filled with peasants in their holiday attire, moving about the market-place and along the houses. Outside the doors, families, with their dead children on their knees, whispered in amazement and horror of the fate wherewith they had been assailed. Others were still mourning the child where it had fallen, near a cask, under a barrow or at a puddle's edge, or were carrying it away in silence. Several were already washing the benches, chairs, tables and shirts all smirched with blood and picking up the cradles that had been flung into the street. But nearly all the mothers were kneeling on the grass under the trees, before the dead bodies, which they knew by their woollen frocks. Those who had no children were roaming about the market-place, stopping to gaze at the afflicted groups. The men who had done weeping took the dogs and started in pursuit of their strayed beasts, or mended their broken windows or gaping roofs, while the village grew hushed and still beneath the light of the moon as it rose slowly in the sky.

It is violence, murder, that serves no purpose. Those who could intervene, who the people our to are the church and local  political power . The priest impotent. And the feudal Lord indifferent. Which raises the question, where is God?  According to New York Times, 100000 of the 250000 trapped in the eastern half of Aleppo are children…

49 died in a  mortar attack in July, 

8 died n a bombing of a hospital

In November, every day more deaths….

There are 8 million  at risk (according to UNICEF) and perhaps 50,000 dead…abnd it goes on and  on

Russ’ choice for a bulletin cover is painfully appropriate..

This is the context in which we read Hebrews 2, which we read as an introduction to our Eucharist:

10It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12saying, 

     “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, 

          in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” 

13And again, 

     “I will put my trust in him.” 

And again, 

     “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”

14Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Jesus is there…where are we? The world needs us…

But yes, it is a New Year

Who knows what we can expect?  We’re all glad to see 2016 go, BUT what will 2017 bring? Happy New Year? The most I’ve ever heard those words reflected on. You can’t say them without thinking the year…maybe that is the context in which we read Isaiah 63: 7-9

 I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, 

          the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, 

     because of all that the LORD has done for us, 

          and the great favor to the house of Israel 

     that he has shown them according to his mercy, 

          according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 

8   For he said, “Surely they are my people, 

          children who will not deal falsely”; 

     and he became their savior 

9        in all their distress. 

     It was no messenger or angel 

          but his presence that saved them; 

     in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; 

          he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

We are called on to resist with hope….and joy…

In Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neel Hurston, she writes of the celebration when the first street lamp comes to a black town in Florida…

The town was full and swarming with people. They wanted to see that lamp

lit at dusk. Near the time, Joe assembled everybody in the

street before the store and made a speech.

“Folkses, de sun is goin’ down. De Sun-maker brings it

up in de mornin’, and de Sun-maker sends it tuh bed at

night. Us poor weak humans can’t do nothin’ tuh hurry it up

nor to slow it down. All we can do, if we want any light

after de settin’ or befo’ de risin’, is tuh make some light ourselves.

So dat’s how come lamps was made. Dis evenin’

we’se all assembled heah tuh light uh lamp. Dis occasion is 

something for us all tuh remember tuh our dyin’ day. De

first street lamp in uh colored town. Lift yo’ eyes and gaze

on it. And when Ah touch de match tuh dat lamp-wick let

de light penetrate inside of yuh, and let it shine, let it shine,

let it shine. Brother Davis, lead us in a word uh prayer. Ask

uh blessin’ on dis town in uh most particular manner.”

While Davis chanted a traditional prayer-poem with his

own variations, Joe mounted the box that had been placed

for the purpose and opened the brazen door of the lamp. As

the word Amen was said, he touched the lighted match to

the wick, and Mrs. Bogle’s alto burst out in:

We’ll walk in de light, de beautiful light

Come where the dew drops of mercy shine bright

Shine all around us by day and by night

Jesus, the light of the world.

They, all of them, all of the people took it up and sung it

over and over until it was wrung dry, and no further innovations

of tone and tempo were conceivable. Then they hushed

and ate barbecue.

I wish we had barbecue…but we do have each other …and as we leave here having shared bread and cup, let us remember that it is not these elements but we the people who have been transformed in to the body of the Risen Christ in the World. Let us be his head and heart, hands, feet and words…

Happy New Year!

The fifth day of Christmas: Holy Innocents

12/29

The first Sunday after Christmas. Holy Innocents Sunday.

I left my keys in a cab last night. So I call Marc to meet me. I find the 86^th street door unlocked. So I go in. Take a quick check of possible doors. No easy entry on main door. The balcony seems closed tight as well. Marc has now shown up. Good clothes and all I enter the bowels of the church, Marc following close behind. I’m looking for the door that opens up through my office. But find myself completely confused. And there is still that inexplicable doll sitting on a tiny chair down there. Probably some things its better if we don’t have an explanation for them.

So that’s it. We make our way out. Only one shot left. Marc has to pop the lock. Which with a hammer and screwdriver he does with only minimal damage.

Deacon James has arrived. And a woman who looks familiar. It’s Kia. Her mother Nora was a long time member. Now I remember. Kia is taking cell phone photos for her own memories.

Soon the others begin to arrive in by one, including my new Pittsburgh friend Wayne.

We start with Isaiah 63. And this is what we focus on:

and he became their savior 
⁹  in all their distress.  It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them

All their distress…all our distress…he is with us…

No messenger or angel, nothing supernatural…his presence..his right there, right now, human presence…

And that is what the incarnation is all about…God present in human flesh…in human form …in  the midst of humanity…

We continue with Hebrews 2: 10-18.

¹⁰It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ¹¹For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ¹²saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,  in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. 
¹³And again, 
I will put my trust in him. 
And again, 
Here am I and the children whom God has given me.

¹⁴Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. ¹⁶For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Lots of  thick theology there, but we note that:

* He is perfected through sufferings. (And we know from our own experience that sufferings do not always perfect us. What we also know is that God is present in the flesh in our sufferings.)

*  Jesus’ victory was in  going to the cross, not the resurrection. That was the cherry on top. The real victory was going to the cross,  being willing  to go all the way. Nothing  more could be done to him. As we discerned in Bible Study, that is what defeated death. Broke its tyranny of fear. We have nothing to be afraid of. My friend  Father Earl, when he was at St.Mary’s in the Bowery, called his church the we are not afraid church. 

* He became like us in every respect. Our most real relationship wit him is brother  and sister. Relationship.

*He was tested in ever way that we are. If the resurrection is to mean everything, he must mean at his deepest being every word of my God my God, why hast thou forsaken me. When we are tested, we know God knows what it is like.

Finally we finish with Matthew 2 13-25:

¹³Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, Out of Egypt I have called my son.

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 
¹⁸  A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,  Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.¹⁹When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead. ²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He will be called a Nazorean.

This is what we note:

* Joseph in a dream again. Matthew trying to have Jesus relive the story of the people of Israel. As old testament Joseph was communicated to in dreams, so too is this Joseph.

* As the people of Israel had to sojourn in Egypt, so to does Jesus have to spend time in Egypt.

* As Moses was threatened, so Jesus is threatened.

*There is a whole extracanonical narrative of the Holy Family’s time in Egypt, found in places like the Thomas infancy gospel, the Arabic infancy gospel and the Syriac gospel. Plus Coptic traditions. I’ve seen the site where the Holy family lived, a few blocks up the street in Cairo from where Moses was pulled from the bulrushes. And the story of the Holy Family being set upon by thieves and Jesus turning them away. The one thief will reappear at the crucifixion as the good thief.

But our real focus is the Holy Innocents. Wayne focuses on Rachel’s weeping for her children, the pain of my mother’s loss. And I know what Arcadia must be feeling.  And we reflect on the father last week who threw his three year old son of the roof then jumped himself. What the mother must feel.

And we note that Jesus and his family were undocumented asylum seekers. Immigrants. Today’s front page Times had a story about a civil official in Mexico giving countless people documents that would grant them legal asylum status in the US. And I think of the border territory in Arizona. The childrens’ shoes and dolls found in the desert. And my friends in Germany working with those who flee across the Mediterranean, and all those who perish.

Jose Saramago in his the Gospel According to Jesus Christ, had Jesus know of the slaughter of the innocents and that this haunted him and shaped his life and destiny.

And we talk of child soldiers. How the creator of the Kalashnikov rifle was proud of his invention  but haunted at images of children carrying his weapon.

And in the end, that is what this day is important. Christmas never happens like a Hallmark card or a Radio City Music Hall live tableau with swelling orchestra flourishes and organs. It happens in the midst of. In the midst of Rachel’s weeping which has political content but is always personal. It is in the midst where God becomes flesh and blood. And that is what we celebrate. What gives us hope.

Wayne shares another musical reflection for us. We make out circle. Bless each other.

The session reviews the recent events that are pushing us forward into a New Year.

Christmas happens in the midst of….

Marc is fixing the lock and door.