Wednesday, January 2, 2008 

When Herod saw that he had been tricked . . . 
he was infuriated, and he sent and killed
all the children in and around Bethlehem
who were two years old or under . . .
Matthew 2: 16

In the days before the French Revolution Queen Marie Antoninette is rumored to have looked out her window at the masses protesting near the palace and asked her companions why they were gathered together.  "They have no bread," someone replied.  "Well, if they have no bread,"answered the queen, "let them eat cake!" (Cake was more expensive and harder to find!)

Every now and then I witness something going on.  Inside me it feels like a wound that keeps getting re-injured.

Why do those who have, despise those who do not?  I see it in everyday people around me, not just in large companies and in the wealthy. 

In the motorcycle world there are bikers and then there are "civilians."  The child at her birthday party doesn't just feel gifted, but superior for a day.  People who have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps think everyone can do it, too, and why haven't you?

We have turned the garden of Eden into fields of competition.  I think that's a part of the answer: competition.  Competition defines a world where there are no equals, is no justice, so inclusivness is a very strange concept.

Herod has inspired my thinking for today.  Matthew helps me understand this nut. He is absolutely petrified.  His solution is revealing.  It is born by despising those who do not have what he has.  God in the Flesh is moved here and there, and the instructions are coming in dreams.

Matthew communicates by way of dreams and other associations with the Hebrew Scriptures. I begin to understand that it is Incarnational to not despise, but to embrace those who do not have something I have.  How might I do that today, I wonder!