Sermon 30th Dec 07: Ayot St Peter: Colin Hull
Texts: Isaiah 63: 7-9, Matthew 2: 13-end
Theme: Sharing in atrocity
Introduction
O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
By, by, lully, lullay.
Herod the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.
Words from the "Coventry Carol" is a Christmas carol dating from the 16th
Century, performed in Coventry as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of
the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from the Gospel
of Matthew with the visit of the wise men and Herod’s orders to kill all male
infants in Bethlehem. The lyrics of the carol represent a mother's lament for
her doomed child.
December the 28th has been remembered as Holy Innocents Day in Christian
tradition for many centuries. The reading coincidentally occurs today in the
lectionary readings. The story of the killing of the infants has been questioned
by many as being unhistorical because there is no other evidence for it
contemporary records of Herod’s reign. But some scholars defend the massacre as
something that Herod was cruel enough to do and event was local enough around
Bethlehem enough to pass without remark outside the Gospel of Matthew. The
contempary Jewish historian Josephus records Herod's execution of two of his
sons and his wife Mariamne because he believed they posed a threat to him and
there are several other examples of Herod’s willingness to commit such acts to
protect his power against perceived threats. Josephus suggests that not all such
acts were recorded, as he summarizes that Herod “never stopped avenging and
punishing every day those who had chosen to be of the party of his enemies. So
therefore the killing of the infants at Bethlehem is quite in keeping with the
character of Herod.
The gospel mentions the event as part of the emphasis on fulfilment of a
prophecy by Jeremiah about the weeping of the Ramah women. If we want to
be true to the Jeremiah reference as well we should recall it is historically
linked with the destruction of Ramah in the Babylonian conquest of Judah in
597BC and hence the destruction of the town and the killing of many, including
children in the conquest. The killing of the Bethlehem infants is therefore part
of that ever present evil that touches the innocent in every age, in cruelty and
warfare. Jesus born into the world is involved in this early threat to his life,
as many others are. Atrocities against the innocent are never far away and the
Son of God is at potential risk as he comes into the world.
The story of the Bethlehem massacre is more than the hatred of one man. Herod
could not have carried it out without the willing help of the Roman soldiers.
It could not have happened without them. It takes more than one person to create
and carry out such and atrocity.
Before Christmas I was reading a book Unholy Alliance, by Mark Ellis, an
American Jew. In it he reflects on the fact of the Nazi death camps that could
not have captured and killed so many Jews without the willing co-operation and
complicity of many thousands of the people. The already existing prejudice that
was centuries old made it possible.
What was it that enabled a possibly loving family man to write letters to his
wife and children in the evening, and then do this horrendous act the very next
day. How could people turn away? How could one race of people so treat another?
Perhaps we should recall that Martin Luther, well celebrated for starting the
Reformation by his criticism of the Pope and the RC church, was also
anti-Jewish. Luther advocated the killing of Jews. Generations of pious and
sincere Christians despised Jewish people and other races.
Ellis goes on to raise other historical acts of atrocity. He includes the
European Settlers that settled all over the Americas enslaving the indigenous
people and occupying their land. The so-called “savages” were not seen as people
with any rights of their own. Because of their different culture and religion
the indigenous people were seen as ripe for exploitation. The settlers believing
they had a God give right to occupy and take over the land, like some kind of
new fulfilment of the OT exodus and settlement in the Promised Land. There were
some better examples of Christian communities like the Quakers trying to live
alongside the Indians and some priests in South Americas who tried to fight for
Indian rights but they were an exception to the main events. In the name of God
people’s rights and cultures have been trampled on and abused by people
professing to believe in the Prince of Peace. In the name of Christ so-called
Christian civilisation enslaved much of the world and the effects of it still
reverberate in the present time.
Perhaps it has taken the massacre of the Jews in Nazi Germany to wake the world
up to the extent of atrocity that can happen, with the prejudice and blindness
of even religious people to anyone outside their own groups and culture. And
since then the very idea of “ethnic cleansing” has become seen as an
international criminal act. However, the involvement of religious people in
slavery and atrocity should make us alert to recognise our own tendency to
religious blindness and the reading of religious texts that support or own cause
and outlook while ignoring others that are inconvenient and might actually judge
our way of life.
But there is another form of sharing in atrocity and massacre.
People were shocked when the suicide bombers flew planes into the two towers. We
were all shocked because of the few thousand that were killed or injured that
day. But behind the scenes on the same day, away from cameras and newspapers
several thousand children died around the world from preventable diseases, due
to poverty and lack of drinking water we take for granted. Others died in
refugee camps. The inequalities of the world are a silent war on the poorest of
the earth and a war is waged against the environment.
These are Holy Innocents of another sort and in various ways we are held in a
web of connection to them. We are all involved in an unwilling suffering of the
innocents. The recent banking crisis has revealed again that we are all caught
up in our financial institutions in which many are victims of unjust trade, debt
and poverty. Our cheap food in supermarkets can be the cause of poverty for
others because they are not paid enough for their crops or their labour. As many
of us drove here today we were each adding to global warming and the pollution
of the environment. Ours may be a sin of neglect rather than deliberate intent
to cause harm but we are still caught in it.
Collect
In thinking about an answer to this I think of the Collect for Holy Innocents in
Common Worship.
Heavenly Father
Whose children suffered at the hands of Herod,
Though they had done no wrong:
Give us grace neither to act cruelly nor to stand indifferently by,
But to defend the weak from the tyranny of the strong
In the name of Jesus Christ who suffered for us..
Today's holy innocents are the frightened children in Iraq and Afganistan, the
starving children in Darfur, the maimed and sick Palestinian children without
medicine in the Gaza strip, the abused children in our own neighbourhoods. The
list can be expanded to include single mothers struggling to feed their child,
the mentally ill, the elderly -- all who are innocent and neglected. What can we
do to insure their human dignity, assuage their fear, dry their tears? To stand
with the mourning parents of Herod's realm is to face the fact of suffering and
evil in the world and to ask "Where is God in all this? What is he calling us to
do?”
We can of course always protest about situations of injustice we come to know.
Lobby and campaign locally and nationally for changes. We can of course campaign
about the causes of suffering and use our own time and talents to support others
in their work. Beyond that there are ethical choices to be made in our spending
habits; where we shop, what we buy. What we can ourselves do to be less
polluting and to be more energy efficient? We may not be able to escape all the
consequences of our involvement in the webs of injustice over which we have no
control but we should do what we can do with whatever means we have.
I have for some time kept in touch with the Anglican Church of Jerusalem and the
former Palestinian Bishop Riah El-Assaal. He continues to be involved in peace
movements in the Middle East. In his Christmas message published for supporters
he writes.
Christmas becomes real when we truly realise that a smile on a child’s face is
worth the treasures of the world;
It is Christmas whenever we sweep with kindness the tears of lonely widows;
It is Christmas when we become parents to orphans who lost their fathers and
mothers;
It is Christmas when we un-break the hearts of all who have broken hearts;
It is Christmas when we give food to those with empty stomachs;
It is Christmas when we replant uprooted nations and lands with the seed of
liberty and brotherhood;
It is Christmas when the leaders around our globe wake up to their humanity;
It is Christmas when Justice prevails and Truth overcomes
In conclusion
We have to recognize that many horrible and horrendous things have been done by
Christians and others of religious faith throughout the ages. They did so
believing it was for God. We must recognize that we are often part of web of
life that is inflicting injury on other Holy Innocents.
Christian discipleship today must be more than our personal and individual walk
with Jesus. It is more than our prayers and church going. It has to include our
whole life and the choices we make. I end again with words from the collect for
Holy Innocents
Give us grace neither to act cruelly nor to stand indifferently by,
But to defend the weak from the tyranny of the strong
Amen