Broken Connections

Evil happens in the world all the time, every day. In fact something horrendous is probably taking place as I type this. The text I had to work with this Sunday was one of the tough ones--King Herod and the slaughter of innocent kids. I'd been wracking my brain since the Christmas chaos ended to come up with something to say. Floating in my head: Why did they entrust this text to the intern?? (Though props to Paul for noting that I was the lucky one really because I got the one with dead babies while he ended up with the blah 3 magi text.) The transition is so jarring. What does this story possibly have in common with the stable scene from last week?

Last Thursday I happened to have the morning news on TV. I've been avoiding it as of late because I just haven't been in the mood to deal with the blaring outside world when I'm groggy at 7am. But Thursday morning I heard the breaking news that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at an election rally. Still not sure why, but when I heard the news I had this awful sense of gloom and doom. I knew nothing of Bhutto and I'm no big feminist, but something about her death seemed very wrong and catastrophic. Somehow an important person had been lost.

This story was front page in my mind as I reread the text again and again. Blood is a cheap commodity in the world today; humans mere pawns in the power games of life. People in early Israel were expendable and disposable. They still are today too. Children are still slain around the world each day. The prayers for kids, refugees, etc. were much clearer today. I found that I couldn't just glaze over them and guild them into fairytale land like I (and most likely other people in the congregation) had been doing with the Christmas story. Thank God that Christmas is real because we have real problems. Thank God for a real flesh and blood savior who rescues us from this nightmare of evil.