The Story

 Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

What an awful narrative. We wonder how it can exist here. All those babies killed, all those mothers crying, all those fathers unable to protect. Yet it happens. There are things like this which happen all the time. If you listen to the Rev. Dr. William Barber you might here of how we have become comfortable with death. We ignore the deaths of many in this country:  immigrants, homeless, prisons, mass shootings, black people, deaths from COVID. We have become so comfortable with death we don't mourn, we don't become outraged, we don't try to find answers. So the slaughter of the innocents happens even today. It is not in our face is all and we have learned not to mourn or mark it. If we did the numbers would be staggering. 

This is why it is important to hear this story today. So often we skim over it. Pick another scripture. Because we aren't this barbaric anymore, we wouldn't do this. Yet we really need to look closer and see if this isn't true. How many homeless children are taken from their parents because through no fault of their own they ended up on the streets. Just another punishment for losing everything you had because the system deems you unfit. Or how many children died in detention because they lost hope separated from their parents because they tried to find a better life, a safer life for the children here. Or how many girls are trafficked here every year to be enslaved into prostitution. Or how many children have died at the hands of an abuser because he's a good man, we never saw this coming. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

This is the truth of this story. Children die and we don't notice, or protect, or take a care. We just let it go because we can't do anything about it. 

The thing is the story is not without hope. There are dreams, a star, a flee to Egypt and being immigrants in a strange land and one is saved because of these. The one who comes to save us all. How can we plant this hope? I've seen it this year. I've seen it this year because of the opportunity to do zoom learning sessions with incredible people, people who have decided to make a start in making a difference.

Myles Bullen is one of these people. An Indigenous youth from Maine, who has had a rough life. Foster homes, jail, drug abuse and thoughts of suicide. His lyrics for songs are captivating. One of them says something about children being gardens which we put into prison, it's a more lovely phrase than this, but he is working all over the world with teens in prison. He is trying to plant the gardens inside of teens who have lost hope, who don't see their worth anymore because of a system of blame, who no longer see the beauty they are. He does this work and laments those lost. He tries to plant the dream of hope within them.

Another is Rev. Dr. Heber Brown who works with black church gardens in the inner city. What struck me most though is a new program he is doing with inner city youth to teach them black history. As he puts it, "We are not just slavery, there is more to our history." He has started an initiative to teach this as the church, outside of the church. This is so we learn to have a pride in our history and learn the rest of the story. This helps with youth seeing themselves as innovators and designers, people who can do and accomplish things, planting hope in the inner city so another type of garden can thrive. 

It is our call to find the places we might plant this hope and help others to dream dreams instead of become lost and turning to violence as a way to make it through. We have to begin to care and explore these new possibilities for the church. This is our story, one which comes through the darkness and starts to give the spark of light. It is our responsibility and challenge to explore the darkness, to go in where it hurts, only then can we become partners in helping others find the star and dream the dreams God has planted.