Where is the Child?

Where’s the Child?

Matthew 2: 1-12

Epiphany Communion Meditation

By the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

Epworth United Methodist Church

January 1, 2012

The night is still dark

And a procession of Herods still terrorize the earth

Killing the children to stay in power.

The world still knows it Herods…

Poet Ann Weems reminds us that we live in a world – today – everyday – where children are placed in harms way, where children die from diseases of poverty, from violence, greed, warfare, indifference. Where children are targets or collateral damage as the powerful seek to secure their power and profit on the lives of others.

A procession of Herods…. Today Herod is not as easily identified, personified, and vilified as the King who served Rome’s empire in our Gospel text.

Our text begins… In the time of King Herod,…wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” Herod was called “King of the Jews,” and so was threatened by the question! His power subverted by the birth of a Jewish child!?  He designed a plot to destroy this child.  He told the wise men: Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage. Herod was frightened. He had too much to lose.  And when Herod was frightened, all Jerusalem was frightened.

These wise ones from the east, travelers from a different nation, faith, and culture, testified by their pilgrimage, their presence, and their gifts to the truth of Christmas.  They also paid attention to the power of King Herod’s fear.

The magi did not return to Herod and thereby saved the life of the Christ child, but Herod’s terror against children continued, and continues to this day.

We are not Herod – neither royalty at the center of power nor seeking to do harm to any child.  But are we wise ones?  Are we magi?  Those — who study history, sacred texts, and the night sky? Those who search, ask for help, pay attention to dreams, who journey far? Magi who observe and defy powers and principalities, who know great joy and bring gifts to worship? Are we magi who honor God-with-us in a small child?

God is not born at the centers of political or religious power.  God is born and lives on the margins.

What small child is God calling you to keep safe?   Find that child… in your home, in Bethlehem, in Afghanistan, in your neighborhood, among the 15 million children orphaned by AIDS. Find that child and the Christ will be there.

Some years ago, our congregation began wearing buttons with a version of a greeting from the Masai people of Kenya and Northern Tanzania… The greeting is, “So,… How are the children?”  and the response is, “All the children are well.”  So, how are the children? All the children are well. Is this true? We are called to live lives that make our response to be true.  The wellbeing of children is an indicator of the wellness of the whole community.

Margaret Gordon was a housecleaner who had asthma and other health problems that she noticed all her grandchildren, and many people in her neighborhood also had. Margaret studied, raised her voice, organized others, and gave all her God-given gifts to bring clean air to her community.  In 2004, when agencies said there was no research on diesel pollution’s impact on the poor communities of West Oakland, she created the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project and she has been moving and shaking up her community ever since.  Margaret, often says, “If you’re not at the table, you’ll end up on the menu!”

The Christmas question, “Where is the child?” becomes the work of Christmas, “How are the children?”  And we are called to be as diligent and faith-filled as the Magi as we seek and work for truth in our answer.  Don’s ministry in the world, Mikko’s ministry in the world, Barb’s ministry in the world, Randy’s ministry in the world is the work of Christmas in an age of Herod.

If we seek the child, if we work for the wellbeing of children, we honor the child within each of us.  If a threat to children becomes more important in this world than a threat to power, hope will set us on a new way home.  If we seek the children we have stopped seeking, the children we’ve given up on, the children who scare us, the love of God will lead us to the joy of new life.

Ann Weems’ poem continues,

And the world still knows those persons

Wise enough

To follow a star,

Those who do not consider themselves

too intelligent

Too powerful

Too wealthy

To kneel to a child….

Kneeling before the Christ child, we experience an amazing truth: As we seek God, God is seeking us.  Nothing can separate from the love of God-with-us!  God freely chose to share everything — our lives, and our death – and so our capacity to love expands to include all God’s children, including ourselves.

May the communion we share today draw us closer to the wise ones and set loose the light and love of Christ