CHRISTMAS...the VERY NEXT DAY

Had we the chance,m we would have rushed
        to Bethlehem
                   to see this thing that had come to pass.

Had we been a day later,
          we would have found the manger empty
                   and the family departed.

We would have learned that they fled to Egypt,
    warned that the baby was endangered,
    sought be the establishment of the day
         that understood how his very life
             threatened the way things are.

We would have paused at the empty stall
    and pondered how this baby
          from the very beginning was under threat.

The powers understood that his grace threatened all our
     coercions;
they understood that his truth challenged all our lies;
they understood that his power to heal
     nullified our many pathologies;
they understood that his power to forgive
     vetoed the power of guilt and
         the drama of debt among us.

From day one they pursued him,
      and schemed and conspired
      until finally...on a gray Friday...
              they got him!

No wonder the family fled, in order to give him time
          for his life.

We could still pause at the empty barn---
    and ponder that all our babies are under threat, all the
           vulnerable who stand at risk
              before predators,
    our babies who face the slow erosion of consumerism,
    our babies who face the reach of sexual exploitation,
    our babies who face the call of war,
          placed as they say, "in harm's way,"
    our babies, elsewhere in the world,
          who know of cold steel against soft arms
          and distended bellies from lack of food;
     our babies everywhere who are caught in the fearful display
          of ruthless adult power.

We ponder how peculiar this baby in Bethlehem is,
          summoned to save the world,
                     and yet
we know, how like every child, this one also was at risk.
       The manger is empty a day later'''
           the father warned in a dream.
Our world is so at risk, and yet we seek after and wait for
          this child named "Emmanuel."
      Come be with us, you who are called "God with us."

Walter Brueggemann-Prayers for a Privileged People