Opening Devotions
Board of Regents Meeting—Oak Grove
Lutheran School, Fargo, ND
December 18, 2014
Matthew 2:13-18
Now after [the wise
men] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there
until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt,
and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been
spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’
When Herod saw that
he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed
all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under,
according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken
through the prophet Jeremiah:
‘A
voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel
weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are
no more.’
In
England, near the beginning of the 15th century, a religious order
called the Star of Bethlehem decided to welcome some patients into their
monastery in London. In time the
monastery was named Bethlehem Hospital—the first “lunatic asylum,” as they
called it, in all of England. Over the
years Bethlehem became shortened and slurred into Bedlam….and soon this
hospital for the mentally ill was called Bedlam….a word that eventually became
associated with any place or situation characterized by uproar or
confusion.[1]
From Bethlehem….to Bedlam…
Sometimes
it feels like that in late December. We
long for Bethlehem….but instead we encounter Bedlam in our malls, our
workplaces, our homes, maybe also our congregations.
Even the
church’s calendar has a Bethlehem-to-Bedlam quality about it. On December 25 we observe the Nativity of
our Lord, but one day later we remember St Stephen, the first Christian martyr….and
three days after Christmas we revisit this gruesome story of the Holy
Innocents, Martyrs.
I know
preachers fairly well, and I can tell you that whenever one of those two lesser
festivals falls on the Sunday after Christmas, most preachers moan and groan
and duck for cover—avoiding the stoning of Stephen, side-stepping the slaughter
of the innocents. “Let’s just sing carols
and not read these bloody tales, lest we ‘spoil Christmas.’”
But
truth be told, even if the church’s calendar didn’t shove these horror stories
in our faces….life itself and the daily news can easily ‘spoil Christmas’ for
us.
132
Pakistani school children senselessly slaughtered this past Tuesday, two years
(almost to the day) after the horrific school shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Connecticut!
Every
Advent, for as long as I can remember, something happens that threatens to ‘spoil
Christmas’ for us. At the same time,
though, such tragedies make us hanker for Christmas all the more.
Because even these heart-stopping
brutalities remind us what was at stake for God to come among us in the baby
born in Bethlehem’s manger.
Into this sorry old world where
children have always been at risk, God came among us as a child….the one Infant who got away
from cruel old King Herod….and grew to become a man who wrapped his arms around
children, blessed them, and set them in the midst of his closest
followers—pointing to these little ones as paragons par excellence of his peculiar kind of Kingdom.
Jesus
our Lord came among us not to have a joyride or a picnic, here on earth--but to
redeem us, to restore fallen humanity, and to renew the whole, groaning
creation.
Nothing,
nothing that happens to us, nothing that makes us shudder when we watch the
news on TV….nothing and no one is outside of the scope of God’s saving intervention in this fallen
world.
That is
a wonderfully appropriate thing for us to remember today as we meet to care for
this beloved school where children are treasured, where little ones are
nurtured, in the name of him who came among us as a little child and who calls
us to recognize in our youngsters, signs of his kingdom right here, right now.
Let us pray: Eternal God, whose Advent we celebrate with
joy and thanksgiving, bless all schools, and especially Oak Grove Lutheran
School, that they may be lively places for sound learning, new discovery, and the
pursuit of wisdom. Grant that those who
teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth. Open our eyes to behold in the faces of our
children the image of your dear Son, who took on human flesh to make us and the
whole creation new. Bless our deliberations
today so that everything we think and say and do will give you glory and
reflect your care for all children. In
Jesus’ name. Amen.
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