Sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Professor David Jasper

The feast of the Holy Innocents, coming so soon after the celebration of the birth of Christ with all its peace and joy, is a dark reminder of the realities of our world. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, typically, Herod’s murder of the children of Bethlehem is set in the context of the Hebrew Bible, looking back to Jeremiah 31: 15 and the lament of Rachel in Ramah as her descendants were taken off to captivity in Babylon, to be seen no more. There are also disturbing recollections of Pharoah’s treatment of Moses and the children of Israel in Exodus 1: 11, while in the New Testament echoes again are heard in the book of Revelation 12.

And such echoes continue to the present time. In the narrative of the Gospel this is seen as a story of escape and how, warned by an angel in a dream, Joseph takes his wife and the infant Jesus to sanctuary in Egypt – again in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. But the ghastly episode of the murder of the children remains, told in one brief verse, like a dryly told newspaper report that has found only a small column in the middle pages, and easily missed in the celebration of the larger story.

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, 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).

And that is it. Nothing more is said, nothing of the blood and the ensuing misery of parents and families, until we are told that Herod later dies – no mention of the years that have passed. There is plenty of time for us to return to the remaining mince pies and another glass of wine. Happy Christmas.

But here we are reminded that in the midst of our joy at the birth of Jesus Christ, the world remains a dark place awaiting salvation, and Herod still stalks the corridors of power – for that is what it is all about: power and eliminating, without moral compunction, anything that threatens worldly power. Herod is still present on the border between Mexico and the United States where children are separated from the families and kept in detention centres. They are innocents who have no idea what is happening. Herod still haunts the refugee camps of Syria, where the innocents still suffer and are denied life and freedom – by governments including our own. And in Westminster, Herod holds the pens of those whose signatures condemn immigrant children their rights as they seek safety in our land, as Jesus and his family sought safety in Egypt of old.

And what are we, the Church, the Body of Christ in our world today and in this place, doing about the Herod of today? Are we content to say that there is nothing, after all, that we can do, and go back to our Christmas celebrations? Have we heard here the voice of bishop or synod at the very least speaking out for the innocents who are still slaughtered and oppressed? And there are always things we can do – for we do have voices and we have the means to write and hold people to account.

Last Sunday when I celebrated the Eucharist in St. Aidan’s I wore a white chasuble – to celebrate, of course, the glorious nativity of the Christ child. In the Roman Catholic Church many will have worn red vestments for red is the colour of martyrs – and the Holy Innocents are remembered as proto-martyrs of the Christian Church, who died while Jesus was preserved by angels. I pray that the angels in heaven now care for those almost forgotten infants, and that we, the Church today and its leaders, have the courage to remember them and their descendants now, and do all we can to relieve them and their suffering.