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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion January 1, 2007 Take Me Baby |
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Frontline Devotion for January 1, 2007 Fritz Foltz
Matthew 2: 16-18 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.’
Walk to the end of a long porch on the front of Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy, and you’ll find a roundtable. Half of this stone wheel is outside on the porch and half is inside the building. Mothers who decided not to raise their newborn babies could place them on the wheel and rotate them incognito into the building. Nuns would find the children and raise them in the orphanage.
Our first response is to protest, “How could a mother ever do this?” However, it was a rather frequent action in harder, poorer times. It was always painful. Many of the children at Spedale degli Innocenti would have half of some object hidden on their bodies. The mother hoped if she ever would find sufficient funds, she might be able to identify her baby by presenting the other half of the object.
Perhaps our second response is to acknowledge the orphanage was a genuine Christian service that prevented the killing of children. “Spedale degli Innocenti” is Italian for “The Massacre of the Innocents” the classic title for Herod’s murder of the children in Bethlehem under two years of age. This killing is an essential part of the Christmas story, because it illustrates so well the depth of human resistance to God’s changing our world.
Down through the ages powerful tyrants have always been willing to kill even innocent children to have their way. Throughout history killing a child has always been the worst that an individual could do. Christ comes to end this. Christians should constantly be struggling for better alternatives for handling the situations that lead to murder.
We still regard the killing of children a mark of a society’s values Consider the fervor in the abortion debate as people discuss whether a fetus is a child. Remember how you feel when the media report our bombs killing innocent children in Bagdad. I am sure Herod regarded the murder of Bethlehem’s children as collateral damage that should be accepted as necessary for saving the rest of his people from God’s radical ways.
Perhaps we should make “You shall not kill any innocent children” the absolute moral command. That might effectively end or greatly contain all modern war. It would mean finding better ways to care for all children. We would have to offer alternatives just as the nuns at Spedale degli Innocenti did.
It might be a good New Year’s resolution: “I shall do all I can to prevent the death of innocent children”. It certainly would be a way to observe the Christmas story year round.
Let us pray: Let the New Year be one of peace and justice, Loving Father. End all killing. We know not how to do it. Send wisdom and compassion into the hearts of all people. Enable us to live as brothers and sisters. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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