Who weeps for the children?

This was posted this morning by the minister's wife on another chat board.

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Reflections on Christmas 2004

“Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no moreâ€
Matthew 2: 18

If one quietly pauses amidst the cackle of the Christian Right and Fox News’ complaints about how Christ has been taken out of Christmas and how the secular liberal establishment has refused to allow crèches on school grounds, one may hear the weeping for the children. Or one may not. The sad truth is that no one is listening for the children anymore. They are too busy worrying about symbolic representations of the birth of Jesus and how the ungodly Left, in the interest of political correctness, unhinges the moral fabric of the country. It is the depressing fate of moral Christian values in our country to be relegated to concerns about whether the manger scene with baby Jesus is presented on the county courthouse lawn. It is tragic because no one weeps for the children anymore, least of all the Right in their manger mania.

It is ironic that those who claim to take the bible literally have so sentimentalized the manger that it has become a consumer driven symbol of Christmas rather than the radical critique of power it truly represents. The common myth of the manger scene encompassing baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Magi, shepherds and various cute animals has become most people’s image of Christmas. Yet the gospels portray quite a different picture of the birth of Jesus. Mark and John do not give details of Jesus birth while Luke has the shepherds and Mathew has the wise men. Somehow they have become combined into one quaint panorama to be purchased at Wal Mart for $19.95. The Biblical literalists with their confused concern for the symbol have emptied it of any real meaning: for the birth of Jesus is really an image for those who would weep for the children who are victims of those in power.

Luke begins with Mary’s song where God has pulled down the princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly and has filled the starving with good things and sent the rich away empty. He tells of how Joseph and Mary, nine months pregnant, forced by the whims of those in power to travel to be registered for the census -- victims of a bureaucracy intended to keep track of an unruly populace yearning for freedom. And the angels announce this birth not to those in power, not to the religious authorities in their mega churches, nor to the wealthy in the comfort of their mansions and governmental seats, but to lowly shepherds unsheltered in their fields. Luke wants us to understand that the birth of Jesus is intended for the homeless, the hungry, and the poor. It is the powerless asking who is weeping for their children?

Matthew paints a picture of the birth of Jesus where an innocent, helpless baby becomes a threat to the power elite; such a threat that Herod, the king, orders the killing of all the children two years old or less in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. Better for those in power to feel safe than worry over such a thing as the death of innocents. Matthew evokes the image of Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted. One must ask today of all days who weeps for the children?

Who weeps for the children? Who weeps for the children maimed and killed in far off wars so that some may feel safer from terrorism; for the children of soldiers who spend this Christmas without a parent because of the decisions of the powerful; and for the children who make up a significant portion of our population living below the poverty line. Who weeps for them? Not the media with their news entertainment and talking points. Not those in power who seem more concerned with their tax breaks and protection of their own wealth. Not the Christian Right and their commodified crèches and worries over culture wars. No, they do not weep for the children. The story of Christmas is supposed to remind us of one thing. It is God who is weeping for the children. And the hard question is whether anyone is listening?

Rev. P. Alex Thornburg