Woe to those who threaten the king! Woe to those who do not obey!
Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Why all Jerusalem? Wasn’t it enough for the despot to feel threatened? Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you.. the child king would prophesy once he had grown up, crying over the city.
No, it takes more than a despot and his army to persecute and massacre. It takes complicity and silence. It takes people who just look the other way.
A despot without the support of the people would be nothing, would have no future. A despot needs a people ready to obey, always ready to say “yes”. People like praising the winners, they feel safe when they’re on the strongest side. In order to survive themselves, they’re prepared to let others die. With indifference.
However, siding with the despot means selling one’s soul.
This year we’ve all heard about refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, a sea of indifference.
We’ve continued to hear about millions of children killed by hunger, thirst or ordinary illnesses. Our world, our Jerusalem has done nothing or very little to stop it. This year arrogance and power have been behind a politics of evil and inhuman praxis.
Many of us have turned the other way.
We, however, want to side with the child king. We want to get involved with the family which is fleeing death, share in the project to free the world from today’s despot and sow the seeds of justice and of peace. We want to dream, pray and walk towards the new Jerusalem.
Christmas means siding with the child king.
This, then, is my wish: that all who worship the child king do not forget the children that today are fleeing, those who might not make it, those who are abandoned..
Let us dedicate our Christmas prayer to them!
This year, as many of you already know, a delegation of our Union has visited Zimbabwe and personally conveyed the affection of our churches to the brothers and sisters of the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe, four years after the start of our covenant of mission and service.
The trip undertaken by Dr. Mescia (a member of the executive committee) and myself together with a troupe from Protestantesimo, made us even more aware of how important it is for us today to side with the child king, helping to offer children (and adults) a way to face the future fearlessly.
Christmas time is a time for giving.
Let us give generously to support the families in our churches who are in difficulty.
Let us give to support our Union.
Let us give to support the European Baptist Mission with the Free Will Offering
Let us give for Zimbabwe.
Be generous and be joyful. God loves a cheerful giver. It is a true fact that every time we give more than we can afford our heart is filled with deep joy. It is the joy of integrity, of matching what we say with what we do. It is the joy of obeying the kingdom’s economy, one which is opposite to the economic system which governs and ruins our world.
Best wishes, then, to you all, to your families, and to your churches.