And a Little Child

12-1-13  And A Little Child.
10:30 MOSAIC Worship Message

The NY Times Weekend arts section headline on November 1 was a cultural mash up of biblical prophecy and popular culture.

It read : “And a little child shall lead them….Into Space Battle” and was a movie review for “Ender’s Game,” a sci-fi box office flop that may well become a cult classic.

Listen to reviewer Manahloia Dargis” choice of words:
“As the [adolescent hero] furiously moves spaceships and troops across computer screens, he looks by turns, like a superexcited kid, an orchestra conductor, Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and even a Christ figure.   Childhood can be tough in movies, but rarely do screen children suffer for our sins as they do here.”

Its no surprise that Mr. Card’s novel, which he followed with several sequels, has sold a zillion copies.  The charismatic leader, the divine child, the possible Christ Child or potential Hitler stand-in…..Ender is singled out because he seems to be a natural leader, which in the logic of both the book and the movie means someone who imposes his will on enemy and friend alike. He’s rational and brutal.  {His leadership potential was first spotted at age 6 when he] methodically brutalizes a bully, kicking the other boy repeatedly, including in the face.  Ender has logically decided that by crushing the other boy, he will prevent future attacks. [1],

We have many child heroes, and anti-heroes these days. 
Maybe its to be expected of a baby boomer generation never completely ready to grow up.  

Some of the heroes are real.  Others are imaginary. Some reveal our win/lose, us/them assumptions about life as survival. Others make us wonder if there isn’t another way.
Some are familiar
Some are unexpected.

I just finished reading a child’s version of the 2005 earthquake in Northern Pakistan.  On October 8, In that disaster 73,000 people were killed, 11,000 orphans left, 3.5 million children lost their homes, 6,400 schools were reduced to rubble.  

In "I am Malala," the young author remembers her father’s trip to his family village in the beautiful Swat valley a couple of days later :

.he told us that the last part of the journey had been very difficult.  Much of the road had collapsed into the river and large boulders had fallen and blocked the way.  Our family and friends said they thought it was the end of the world.  They described the roar of rocks sliding down hills and everyone running out of their houses reciting the Quran, the screams as roofs crashed down and the howls of the buffaloes and goats. As the tremors continued they had spent the entire day outdoors and then the night too, huddling together for warmth, even though it was bitterly cold in the mountains….Mullahs from the TNSM preached that the earthquake was a warning from God.  If we did not mend our ways and introduce shariat (Islamic law), they shouted in their thundering voices, more severe punishment would come.

A few years later, that punishment came.  But did it really come from God?

I was ten when the Taliban came to our valley.  Maniba and I had been reading the Twilight books and longed to be vampires.

Now it seemed to us that the Taliban arrived in the night just like vampires.  They appeared in groups, armed with knives and Kalishnikovs, and first emerged in Upper Swat, in the hilly areas of Matta.

In the dark of night, one is taken and one is left,
            By a knife,
            a bullet,
            a drone strike.

And a little child shall lead them.

God’s purposefulness pops up in the most unexpected places, doesn’t it?  

The story Malala tells takes her readers through her efforts to keep schools open for herself and other girls until one day while she's rding home on the bus, a would be assassin not many years older than herself puts a bullet through her head. She rose to international attention, a story breaking open the reality of resilient everyday people struggling to live with hope and dignity under incredible odds. 

Malala’s story aligns with God’s story, incredibly expansive enough to exceed our expectations, enduringly persistent enough to keep startling us awake.

Today we entered Matthew’s world. The text that will guide us through worship for the next year is not much longer than a comic book. With some pretty interesting characters to illustrate:

Open it up, take a look at the first 2 chapters.  Who do you see? 

___The genealogy in Mathew 1
___“will he or won’t he” Joseph,
___Magi,/Wise men/astrologers, (Why does the carol call them kings? Why do WE call them kings
 ___The unseen innkeeper (who we assume gave permission to stay in the stable)
___Archelaus

___Herod

Jesus' strange cousin John will appear in next week's reading

(springing onto the scene fully grown & oddly clothed)

Who ARE these people?
How do we dress them for the children’s pageant?
Where do our Christmas stories come from?

Movies, picture books, memories?

Reading the scripture’s Christmas stories (plural: Matthew’s Luke’s John’s Paul’s) raises questions we may have forgotten about. 

Read them this week and ask yourself
What do you notice?
What do you want to ask?
What good news do you hear?

Will you see a God who divides and conquers
or will you see a God who slips into humanity’s cracks and crevices and illuminates them with life and hope?

Come, it is the season of watching and waiting,
Even…no, especially, in the festival traditions and family gatherings,
in end of year budget crunches and tight time schedules.

Come, let us listen for stories with God’s power used in surprising ways.
Come away and let this little child, Jesus, lead you as he sneaks into the world.  Come, experience the redemption story anew.

Prayer : Lord, we confess that our savior complex kicks in pretty easily:
"I’ll take this one, and this one, and those two.Those others I’m ready to leave behind." 
Knowing that you see what we cannot, knowing that you love who we do not want to, ready to be awakened by your startling presence, We hold in prayer the unkown and the unloved.  Draw our attention to the places you long to be so that we may watch for your coming. 


[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/movies/enders-game-with-harrison-ford-and-asa-butterfield.html?_r=0  (Manohlia Dargis, film review, (NY Time 11-1-13)

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