A Voice Is Heard
Listen.May 3rd, 2009
Rev. Dr. Craig A. Wagner
Introduction
Although it’s been quite a few years since I watched the movie “Home Alone,” it came to my mind the other day. I remember the enjoyment of watching the young boy, left at home by his parents, deal with all sorts of scenarios including a burglary by two very inept burglars. Some of the events were very comical, and the entire movie was fun to watch. The reality of a situation where children are left alone, whether at home or some place else, is much more serious and sobering.
Perhaps what brought this home to me during the past week was all the emphasis upon the outbreak of swine flu in our country and around the world. Schools are being closed when a student is suspected of having the flu. Some are even closed just in case someone calls in with the flu! With the closing of schools, many parents are caught in a difficult dilemma, especially in our economic situation where both parents have to work in order to make ends meet. Does the child stay home alone or do we find a baby sitter or is there somewhere else that is safe and secure for the child? This brings the sobering reality to a child being home alone.
There are some families where a child comes home from school and enters an empty house day after day, the latchkey children, are growing in numbers in our society. There are inherent dangers to a child that is alone and if that is the case out of necessity, we pray that the child listens to the voice of the parents ringing in their ears concerning behavior and safety.
Today is Rachel’s Day. It is not simply about children being home alone, but it is about the plight of all children who are in difficult and fearful situations. We look to Jeremiah 31 for our initial focus on Rachel.
Rachel weeps
“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children.” Rachel is considered the matriarch of the Hebrew people and she is weeping inconsolably for her children. Ramah is about 5 miles north of Jerusalem in case you are oriented toward location and maps. Her weeping is mournful and cuts to the heart of a person because her children are lost, they are no more. Rachel is not comforted by others, but is in sorrow and mourning for the children. The children in this passage are the children of Israel who were taken into exile by the Babylonians. They were forced from their homeland into a strange and foreign place. There they had no security or safety; there they had no power; nor could they be settled. Everything familiar and safe was gone; no home, no homeland. Rachel’s weeping is the voice heard as it touches the hearts of her people.
But there is still hope. Eventually, the children will return to their own country and their fortunes will be restored. They shall come back, God promises.
We also hear about Rachel in the New Testament. We find her weeping inconsolably once again in Matthew 2. 16-18; this is the passage where King Herod, after he realized he had been tricked by the wise men flies into a rage and begins a killing spree. He had wanted the wise men to return to him once they had found the Christ, but the wise men were warned in a dream not to go back and relay the information. Herod, who was an extremely ruthless person, is so angered that he sends his troops into the villages where he ascertained the wise men had gone and kill every male child two years old and under. According to Matthew this would fulfill the prophet’s statement about Rachel weeping for her children.
However, in contradiction to the Jeremiah passage, there is no hope for return of the children slaughtered. The hope lies in the salvation of the world in Christ Jesus.
The plight of children tears our hearts. We read about the slaughter of the babies and we are repulsed. How could anyone do that; where is God in this suffering and heartache? Perhaps in Jeremiah we can understand a little because the people had turned from God; but babies?
Children are powerless and dependent upon others for their safety and well being and nourishments and love. Too often people abuse their relationship with children and the children suffer. They are often helpless and hopeless and powerless, unlike the “Home Alone” movies portray. On Rachel’s Day we join our voices and we weep with Rachel over the plight of too many children in our world today. As we weep, we turn to God who has shown us love, hope, life and salvation in Jesus. There is hope for all in difficulty through Christ our Lord.
Issues today
Around the world today, we find children that are suffering and struggling; hurting and being taken advantage of. There are children that are oppressed and enslaved and powerless. The issues and conditions of the world’s children are not much different than they were when Rachel wept.
We look in our own culture and we find children living in poverty, we find children and whole families that are homeless due to our economic situation and other factors. Children who do not have a chance or a voice in what happens to their parents and cannot reverse the fortunes of their life. There are children who suffer abuses; physical and emotional abuse from parents, other students at school and at the hands of strangers. Violence abounds in our schools and neighborhoods. Some children abuse alcohol and drugs. We find addiction afflicts many children today.
When we look into the eyes of these children we see a sense of fear and hopelessness. I have seen this fear in abused children and experienced that hopelessness in the eyes of the poor, adult and child in Haiti.
Are we weeping for these the ones suffering and hurting? Are we doing something to bring hope and safety? Our do we ignore the plight of our children; turn off the TV; and say “Thank God it’s not my child!” I pray that God forgives us, causes us to repent and to walk in the direction that brings the hope and the love and the safety of Jesus the Christ. May we hear the voices and share the pain and help bring peace into the brokenness of so many lives.
There is a short passage in the Letter to the Ephesians that helps in our relationship to our children and by extension to other children with whom we come in contact. The first part of the passage we use, actually, we overuse it. Children, obey your parents…Honor your father and your mother. Later one in the same passage it calls for father, parents to treat your children in such a way as to not make them angry; do not provoke them. The issue is one of mutual respect and love. We need to love and respect one another as well as children; ours and others.
And then from respect and love we move to action to help those children who are struggling and hurting and hopeless. We may not be able to do everything, but we can start doing something. We can begin by praying for children; especially those broken, abused, hurting and powerless and fearful.
We can study scripture to find out how we as Christians can relate to the problems. Get in your small groups and discuss the issues and be guided by scripture. We can be a welcoming place here at Christ Lutheran. We can be a safe place where children can share their hurts and struggles; where children can be treated with respect and love and feel the security of Jesus in this place. We can give financially so that poverty and hopelessness is decreased; through Lutheran World Relief, Compassionate Friends and other Christian groups we can begin to make a difference.
The Good Shepherd
In the midst of the weeping by Rachel and the struggles of children, we hear another voice that touches our hearts. It is not a voice of weeping or mourning or crying, it is the voice of our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Today is also Shepherd Sunday in our liturgical year, always the 4th Sunday of the Easter season. He is the one who knows his sheep. He hears their cries and responds. He is the one who will give his life for the sheep; no one else loves the sheep so much as to willingly sacrifice himself.
The good shepherd knows the sheep; he knows their voices and understands their struggles and hurts. He is with them in their pain and in their suffering.
Jesus brings the good news of life, of hope, of safety in him for all time and eternity. There may be struggles and difficulties; powerlessness, abuses, and suffering because of a humanity that has rejected God’s savior, but through it all God has not abandoned his people.
He is with us to bring us love and to help us love others and show others a more preferable way to live and to relate to both adults and children.
A family in Manhattan decided to leave the city. So they went west and purchased a ranch in Texas where they wanted to raise cattle. After they settled in, a friend from New York came to visit them. “Have you picked out a name for the ranch?” he asked. “Well,” exclaimed the husband, “I wanted to call the place the Bar-J, my wife wanted to call it Suzy Q, one of my sons wanted to name it, Flying-W, and the other son, Lazy Z.” We call it the Bar-J, Suzy-Q, Flying-W, Lazy Z ranch. The friend just scratched his head and the tour continued. After looking around the visitor asked, “Where are the cattle?” The rancher frowned, “Unfortunately, none of them survived the branding!”
Conclusion
As people of God, as part of his flock, our brand is the image of God printed upon our hearts. Our hearts and our lives tell others that we are part of that flock and we belong to the good shepherd who brings life, hope, salvation and peace into the lives of all his people; adults and children.
On Rachel’s Day a voice is heard. The voice we hear cuts through the weeping and speaks the word of new life, hope, love; of safety in Christ both now and forever. May that voice touch your heart and through you touch the child who needs to experience the love of Jesus and a life of meaning and hope. Amen.