Let's wake up...

Parker Palmer, one of my spiritual elders, is a Quaker who reflects on the call to serve God's people with depth, integrity, courage, hope, faith and love.  I am not usually drawn to Quaker reflections because of the underlying flaw in their theology; namely, that with enough time and education, we will figure out how to do the right and loving thing.  I believe that the history of human sin debunks Quaker optimism as flawed and unhelpful.  Still, Palmer regularly cuts to the heart of things in ways that I find helpful.  His reflection for today, the fourth Sunday of Advent, rings true to me - and I am grateful.

 

Theological complexities have always left me cold. That's why I love the warmth and simplicity of the Christmas story. A vulnerable and helpless child is born into a dangerous world, but is able to survive and thrive because of the love of the adults gathered around the manger...

As Christmas 2012 approaches, I've been dogged by a simple but demanding question the story presses on me: "Are we doing all we can to help children survive and thrive?"

Tragically, the answer is no: 

 

+ On Dec. 14, nine days ago, twenty kindergarten children were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut. And in Chicago, there was one Newtown massacre every four months on average this year, as sixty-two school-age children were killed by gun violence.

 

+ Sixteen million American children live in poverty, and one in five American children goes to school hungry.  For decades, children have been sexually abused by some church leaders, while some colleagues have conspired in covering up their heinous crimes.

 

+ The "reforms" imposed on our public schools (e.g., high-stakes testing) are doing our kids—and the teachers who care for them—more harm than good.

That list of offenses against children could go on and on. And every

item on it arises from the fact that too many adults value political leverage, economic self-interest, or protecting institutional images of sanctity or success over the well-being of kids.

I know that the Christmas message is about hope and joy. But if those of us who celebrate Christmas want to take the story seriously, we must face the sad fact that there's not much hope and joy in the lives of too many children here at home, to say nothing of the rest of the world. If "Joy to the world!" is to mean anything, it must mean working to create a world where everyone's children can survive and thrive.

This Christmas especially, we must bear witness to truths that may lose us friends—such as the fact that keeping children safe at school will not be achieved by making more guns more available to more people. That way lies madness, not the manger...

"The Night Before Christmas" is a poem some of us learned as children. It ends with the words, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!" Now that we are adults, maybe we need a different ending: "Happy Christmas to all, and let's all wake up!"

Lord, may it be so within and among us.