Childermas | Wondering As We Wander with the Holy Family

The Magnificat of Every Tribe, Tongue & Nation (Lk. 1:45-55)

Wondering as We Wander

with the Global Holy Family

During Childermas

The story below was pulled together after meditating on preparation for Childermas and Matthew 2:12-23 in consideration of what poets, artists, theologians, and historians help us bring to life when we consider what the holy family endured and would have had to endure today.

Jesús was born to a teenage girl, María, before she was married to anyone, though she was engaged to a blue-collar carpenter and construction worker, José, at the time.  

María’s pregnancy out-of-wedlock likely made her, José, and Jesús' family social outcasts in their town.   

While María and José were still unwed and her pregnancy continued, they were forced as a couple to travel south due to an unjust tax implemented by the rulers of the state.   

To make their reputation even worse, when they arrived in the town José's family was originally from, they were visited by local animal caretakers and bottom feeders (seen as untrustworthy and dirty) and then foreign mystic rulers and astrologers (seen as untrustworthy and evil).   

Jesús then spent the first few years of his life on the run with María and José. This holy family embodied civil disobedience by not allowing Jesús to be a part of the rule of law’s mandated infanticide.   

Somehow, in the midst of a time that included an insecure ruler, a fearful people, and a violence-justifying state, God sent an ethnic minority baby born to a poor, teenage mother to bring His Good News of great joy from heaven to earth.   

And because of Jesús – or as He was also called Emanuel, God with us – new life continues to be born in individuals and families today in a global Kingdom that surpasses country lines and walls, and stretches across time, bringing together poor and rich, native and foreigner.   

Jesús was born right in the middle of the mess of human bigotry, power, injustice, fear, and violence, and that's exactly where He continues to seek to meet us now to bring new life today through His salvation that forgives and unites people together from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

What would "bringing back Christmas" really mean for us if this is what Jesus' coming would look and sound like to our eyes and ears?

"Jose y Maria" by Everett Patterson

Away from the Manger: The Refugee King

Liz Vice, Wen Reagan, Bruce Benedict, Greg Scheer, Lester Ruth, 2018 A.D.

Away from the manger they ran for their lives,
The tiny boy, Jesus, a son they must hide.
A dream came to Joseph, they fled in the night
And they ran and they ran and they ran. (Ooh x 2)

No stars in the sky but the Spirit of God
Led down into Egypt from Herod to hide.
No place for His parents, no country or tribe,
And they ran and they ran and they ran. (Ooh x 2)

Stay near me Lord Jesus when danger is nigh
And keep us from Herods and all of their lies.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, the Refugee King,
And we sing and we sing and we sing ...  (x2)

Alleluja! x 5

Our Savior's Infant Cries Were Heard

Thomas Troeger, 1986 A.D.

Our Savior's infant cries were heard

And met by human love

Before He preached one saving word

Or prayed to God above.

In Joseph's arms, at Mary's breast

While Herod's vi'lence spread,

God's love by human loved was blessed,

protected, nurtured, fed.

By trusting Christ to human care,

God blessed forevermore

The care of children ev'rywhere —

The bruised, the lost, the poor.

Whoever calms a child by night,

Or guides a youth by day,

Serves Him whose birth by lantern light

Was on a bed of hay.

For Christ, who was a refugee

From Herod and his sword,

Is seeking now through us to be

Our children's friend and Lord.

Bonus Read:

Prep for Childermas  

+ Bishop N.T. Wright 

& Pope Francis

Bonus Songs & Creeds:

Songs of the Refugees w/ Proskuneo 

and the Immigrants Apostles' Creed

To close this post, here is a prayer that Christ would overcome the most the destructive darkness, not outside of us, but in us.

Childermas Prayer | Overcome the Darkness in Us

Immanuel, reveal You are with us now. Don't hold back. Magnify Your presence and Your great salvation for us! Disrupt our way of life without You. If in the darkness of Mary's womb, the holy child grew, You can grow in us. If in the darkness of the world's pain, Your blessed light came and overcame, You can overcome the darkness in us and ignite Your light and love in us.

In our own doubting of You, and of ourselves, cause us to be born again to a living hope that begins to grow like a lump in the throat: the holy hope that You came and still come to us truly, that You will be born again in our midst. We need You, Jesus, our Messiah, the Prince of Peace in a world at war. You are our hope. We need You to ransom us and our beloved neighbors, friends, and enemies in the city of Worcester from the darkness of everything that we are selling ourselves short for.

Lord Jesus, our Savior, open our mouths and our hearts to sing like Your mother, Mary, did, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on me, His humble servant! ... " When people in the 1980s in Guatemala began to sing Mary's song, the government outlawed this first Advent hymn about God's preferential love for the humble, poor, and needy. It was deemed too dangerous and revolutionary because men, women, and children began to believe that freedom and change were indeed possible, and that following the way of Jesus would interrupt the flow of civilization as they knew it.

Holy Spirit of God, make us dangerous to believe the way of Jesus transforms our lives like that today. Make us believe the Magnificat's words (i.e. Luke 1:46-55) are true, that You look on us and intend to bring dynamic change in us and through us, Your poor and humble servants in Worcester, to bring Your resurrection power and life to people in our city. We pray all these things in confidence because we are praying in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

+ Adapted from "Come and See" by Frederich Buechner & "A Divine Disruption" by Christiana Rice

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Prep for Childermas | Light Shines Brightly in Brutal Darkness

Jesus entered a world plagued not only by the darkness of individual pain and sin, but also by the darkness of systemic oppression. Jesus’ people, the Hebrews, were a subjugated people living as exiles in their own land; among other things, they were silenced, targets of brutality, and exploitatively taxed. For many, the darkness of long-standing oppression had extinguished any hope for liberation. It was into this "worst world" that the Light-in-which-We-See-Light was born, liberating the people from the terror of darkness. So it is in the midst of our worst world that we, too, can most clearly see the Light, for light shines more brightly against a backdrop of true darkness. + Dr. Christena Cleveland

The gospel of Jesus the Messiah was born in a land and at a time of trouble, tension, violence and fear. Banish all thoughts of peaceful Christmas scenes. Before the Prince of Peace had learned to walk and talk, he was a homeless refugee with a price on his head. + N.T. Wright

Salvete, Flores Martyrum (Ye Flowers of Martyrdom, All Hail)

By Aurelius Clemens Prudentius from Cathemerinon ("The Hymns of Prudentius")

348-405 A.D.

All hail! ye infant Martyr flowers,
Cut off in life’s first dawning hours:
As rosebuds snapt in tempest strife,
When Herod sought your Savior’s life.

You, tender flock of lambs, we sing,
First victims slain for Christ your King:
Beneath the Altar’s Heav’nly ray
With Martyr-palms and crowns ye play!

For their redemption glory be,
O Jesu, Virgin-born, to thee!
With Father, and with Holy Ghost,
For ever, from the Martyr-host!

Amen.

Holy Innocents Icon - Lament of Rachel

"Remembering the Holy Innocents and Refugees," including excerpts from Bishop N.T. Wright, Pope Francis, and Dr. Christena Cleveland for the Feast of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs during Christmastide, especially Childermas
Scriptures: Matthew 2:12-23

At times, some people can make waves about saying “Merry Christmas” again and “doing it right.” But are we ready to see that Herod is a necessary part of Christmas, too, and that he often is in us, the ones playing the power games?

Matthew’s story of the birth of Jesus has a ruler of a nation making big pronouncements. And he’s a scheming, frightened, insecure tyrant who lashes out at others. Matthew’s Gospel reveals again that God has entered our world as it actually exists. He isn’t wrapping it in bows or playing pretty music. God’s love is too powerful and too true to enter a world that doesn’t exist. But have we turned life and faith and spirituality around Christmas time into something that ignores reality? Are we trying to cover up the Herod in us and in the world around us?

What causes you to become a little Herod? What fuels your planning and protection without God? What makes you insecure? Who do you lash out at and why? How does Jesus disrupt your life?

At the heart of the Christmas story in Matthew's gospel is a baby who poses such a threat to the most powerful man around that he kills a whole village of other babies in order to try to get rid of him. At the heart of the Christmas story in Luke, too, is a baby who, if only the Roman emperor knew it, will be Lord of the whole world. Within a generation His followers will be persecuted by the empire as a danger to good order. Whatever else you say about Jesus, from His birth onwards, people certainly found him a threat. He upset their power-games, and suffered the usual fate of people who do that.

In fact, the shadow of the cross falls over the story from this moment on. Jesus is born with a price on His head. Plots are hatched; angels have to warn Joseph; they only just escape from Bethlehem in time. Herod the Great, who thought nothing of killing members of his own family, including three of his own sons and his wife, when he suspected them of scheming against him, and who gave orders when dying that the leading citizens of Jericho should be slaughtered so that people would be weeping at his funeral – this Herod would not bat an eyelid at the thought of killing lots of little babies in case one of them should be regarded as a royal pretender. As his power had increased, so had his paranoia – a not unfamiliar progression, as dictators around the world have shown from that day to this.

The gospel of Jesus the Messiah was born, then, in a land and at a time of trouble, tension, violence and fear. Banish all thoughts of peaceful Christmas scenes. Before the Prince of Peace had learned to walk and talk, He was a homeless refugee with a price on his head. At the same time, in this passage and several others Matthew insists that we see in Jesus, even when things are at their darkest, the fulfillment of scripture. This is how Israel's redeemer was to appear; this is how God would set about liberating His people, and bringing justice to the whole world. No point in arriving in comfort, when the world is in misery; no point having an easy life, when the world suffers violence and injustice! If He is to be Emmanuel, God-with-us, He must be with us where the pain is.

And we can be with Him in the pain. If this is Jesus' story, and we are saved by being redeemed and adopted into His family, where does He lead us to step into the pain of the world? How will we join Him in fulfilling the Scriptures in His entry into the world by how we welcome others' entry into our world?

According to Jesus Himself in Matthew 18:5 ("Whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me"), we can and should see the defenseless baby Jesus in the children who suffer the most from war, migration, and natural calamities caused by mankind today. 

Christmastide invites us to focus on the sign of the child and to recognize Him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus, 'there is no place in the inn.' 

So we can see Jesus in the children in Myanmar and Bangladesh within whom are relatives of our Worcester Refugee Assistance Project community and families. We can see Jesus in the innocent children suffering from wars who are too often largely forgotten, with serious humanitarian implications for its people who suffer from hunger and the spread of diseases. We can see Him in the conflicts affecting children in South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Ukraine, Venezuela, and more.

Will we welcome them like we say we welcome Him through our words and actions, through our policies and practices? Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how hard it is not to have a place to lay one’s head. May our hearts not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem. This season of Christmastide is an invitation to plunge into the deep, dark waters of our worst world, knowing that when we re-surface for air we will encounter the hopeful, hovering Spirit of God. Indeed, Jesus' Light of true hope is found in the midst of darkness.

"Away from the Manger: The Refugee King" Reprise

Liz Vice, Wen Reagan, Bruce Benedict, Greg Scheer, Lester Ruth, 2018 A.D.

Away from the manger, they ran for their lives;

The crying boy Jesus, a son they must hide.

A dream came to Joseph, they fled in the night

And they ran and they ran and they ran. (Ooh x 2)

No stars in the sky but the Spirit of God

Led down into Egypt from Herod to hide.

No place for His parents, no country or tribe,

And they ran and they ran and they ran. (Ooh x 2)

Stay near me Lord Jesus when danger is nigh

And keep us from Herods and all of their lies.

I love Thee, Lord Jesus, the Refugee King,

And we sing and we sing and we sing ...  (x2)

Alleluja! x 5

Next post: Childermas 2020 | Wondering As We Wander

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us