Based on Matthew 2. The slaughter of the Innocent babies of Bethlehem
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our
Lord Jesus. Amen.
Merry Christmas. My middle son, Luke, wanted a new
scooter for Christmas. And he received
it. Along with a new helmet. I think he has three helmets now. One for his bike and scooter, one for his
skate board, and one for his roller blades.
Luke must wear them when he rides.
It’s a requirement. I think we
would wrap his body in bubble tape if we could to avoid injury. With the exception of some minor scrapes, we
have done so. For 10 years. Luke did fall off the monkey bars once, got a
bad cut on his forehead, landed in the ER twice. Ended up with a bad staph
infection. A little wound debreeding in
the OR and some high octane antibiotics and he was good to go. That was not a fun weekend. He still has that scar, like Harry Potter.He
lost a weekend and a little skin. His
mother and I lost about 5 years. It was
multiplied by the fact that she and I
were in Philly with friends visiting a museum on the morning that he fell at
school. My wife’s parents handled the
first er visit. But our day out came to
an early end.
Talking helmets and head injuries, when I was a kid
we didn’t have bike helmets. I think I
got a head injury about every other day.
Accounts for a lot of things, come to think of it. You know that old saying, its like falling
off a bike. I tested that many
times. We used to build jumps out of
scrap wood. We’d fly down the hill as
fast as we could and hit the jump doing about 35 miles an hour, and then we
would crash. No helmet. Just me and the Cherokee chief, my first bike
that outweighed me. They build
everything light weight now. But then,
you landed with the bike on you, it hurt more than the ground. I also got a
three wheeler ATV one Christmas, when I was 10.
Don’t get any ideas, Jonah. It
ain’t, happening. I remember racing in
the woods against my neighbors’ dirt bike with no helmets on. We could’ve died. I flipped that thing a couple of times. That was scary. But I never broke a bone. And I never told my mom. That was the rule,
risks are secrets.
When we were kids the seat belts were safely tucked
under the seat cushions, out of the way thank you. We did not wear them. In front or back seats. On those vinyl seats, ice cold in winter, hot
and sticky in summer, you would just slide around. My kid brother fell right out the car
once. Turning left in the inner
section. He pulled the car door handle,
no child safety locks, and out he went.
Eventually we alerted my mother, who was driving and we turned
around. He was scraped, but
uninjured. Today, my mother would do
time for that. We don’t move the car,
unless everyone is buckled. And baby
seats? You have to have an engineering
degree to install them in the vehicle.
This is one of the 700 things new parents have to figure out. And the baby looks like an astronaut about to
launch; seat is reversed, five point harness, baby helmet, padding, cushions,
bubble wrap…in 1962,John Glenn was launched into space and orbited the earth in
an aluminum can. Our babies are wrapped
in Kevlar body armor and strapped into a tank before we go to target. As parents, we get a new perspective.
Its Christmas and we are celebrating the birth of
Jesus. His incarnation, the physical
presence of God on earth, does not provide divine protection. His birth was not to provide a blanket of
safety and a way out of the insecurity, vulnerability, and risk of human
life. It was the opposite. God joined us in the vulnerability. God takes off his seat belt and climbs in the
back seat with us. God gets on the three
wheeler, takes off on the scooter. God
takes the risk of being human. And it is
a great risk, a perilous one. The story
we hear of infanticide is remembered on the 28th of December by the
church every year. As we celebrate the
joy of birth, we encounter the risk of death.
It is the second bible story about infanticide by public policy or
government decree. The first is the
story of the Exodus, now in theatres.
The Egyptian Pharaoh feared the growing population of foreigners in his
country. So he enslaved them and
instructed their midwives to kill and the males, drowning them in the
Nile. Baby Moses was saved in a basket
and rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter. He
would later become the public leader of the liberation movement that included
violent opposition and the death of Pharaoh’s own son. Four women protected baby Moses from
drowning; midwife, mother, sister, Pharaoh’s daughter. Maternal instincts doing the work of
God. Further proof that God is a
woman. Or he answers to one.
Jesus’ parents are warned in a dream to flee to
Egypt to avoid the tragic massacre. They
do. But the massacre happens. Mother’s
wept and Father’s cried. No one should
have to bury their baby. That is a rule
in every culture. Unfortunately, we live
in a world where that is impossible to avoid sometimes. War, disease, famine, violent
oppression. Children are casualties
still. We remember them today. All of them, in every time and place.
Baby Jesus will grow up.
And be baptized. And lead a
liberation movement to free all people from the power of sin and death. He leads the forgiveness, healing, and
reconciliation movement. He gives his
life for the life of the world. He leads the death and resurrection movement
too. According to the story, Jesus’
mother Mary will see his crucifixion and bury her son. Despite her attempts to
protect him as a boy, she could not protect him as a man. And he died young. As a prisoner, executed under the watch of
the son of the man who ordered the slaughtering of the children of
Bethlehem.
Today we baptize Mason James. Our instincts are to protect our
children. We may think of baptism as a
kind of holy protection. An insurance
policy against sin, death, and the devil.
And it is, in part. But it is
more than that. Mason becomes a child of
God. You are handing him over today, in
one of many acts of parenthood in which you must risk letting him go. He belongs to God and to the Christian
family. He is our baby now. If he is
raised to know Christ, then he may also risk following him. If he does, he will experience the cross.
Because Baptism is also Christian calling.
Put in his hands the Scriptures and teach him to love God. Teach him to walk in His ways, ways of
compassion, justice, and peace; Because we are performing infanticide
today. Luther called Baptism a daily
dying and rising, drowning in God’s Word and the water. When we are baptized into Christ we are
baptized into his death and his resurrection, said Paul. Today, you put Mason
in the hands of God. The God who knows
what it means to suffer the pain of losing your son. The God who knows what it
is to live and to die. I have done my
share of presiding over the death of adult children, whose parents suffer
terribly. I have baptized many children
too. When we are born, we enter the good
creation and take on the risk of living and the promise of death. In Holy Baptism, we acknowledge the risks and
the promise. But we hope for something
more, resurrection and eternal life. We
hope for divine protection, salvation, and peace. We hope for Mason to reflect the light of
God, to become a faithful servant and caretaker of God’s creation. May you experience God’s protection and peace
and may you risk everything for Jesus’ and his kingdom.
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