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Welcome
Let the children come
Advent and Christmas seem to be more meaningful when viewed through the eyes of a child. Maybe its because they are dazzled by all the lights of the season and don't seem to question the mystery of the virgin birth, wise men traveling from afar and angels.
However, the children also suffer greatly in the Christmas narrative with the "slaughter of the innocents" the title given to King Herod's mass murder of male children under two-years of age. Today, children continue to suffer without cause and without complaint in our world.
How many children have died in Sudan? Or Iraq? Or Afghanistan? Or on the streets of America?
How many children work in sweat shops? Or dangerous factories in South America? How many work as immigrant laborers in the vegetable fields of our own country?
Too many, without education, without hope.
Advent and Christmas are times for children, not only for giving toys and the pleasures associated with an American Christmas, but also for giving food, shelter and clothing in our lower income neighborhoods or in developing nations where children too often only know survival and witness death daily.
In reading the stories of this issue, my mind recalled the 1970s pop song by The Carpenters -- "Bless the beast and the children." I could hear the words "For in this world they have no voice. They have no choice. Light their way, when the darkness surrounds them. Give them love. Let it shine all around them. Give them shelter from a storm. Keep them safe. Keep them warm."
The words seem to be a mandate from God. Taking care of children becomes our privilege and our calling as Christians.
We are told in our reading of all three synoptic Gospels that when Jesus' own disciples tried to keep the children from interfering, "he was indignant, and said to them, 'Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.'" (Mark 10:14). This is our Christmas mandate from our Lord -- let the children come.
As we prepare for the coming of Christ during this Advent season, we need to include in our preparation -- the children -- all the children of the world. Let us pray for them as Bishop Carder suggests on page one. Let us give generously to organizations that tend to their needs, as Bishop Coyner requests on the previous page. Let us remember those who struggle for life in the Sudan and write our Congressional representatives about their plight. Let us make plans to invite children into our congregations as we take steps to be a more welcoming congregation.
Let us, "light their way, when the darkness surrounds them. Give them love" the sustaining, life-giving love that came to us more than 2,000 years ago as a child when God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Welcome,
Daniel R. Gangler
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008