It’s like finding a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking. We come to the fourth day of Christmas and it is the day of The Holy Innocents, Martyrs. The Gospel story is about the murder of the innocent children of Bethlehem. What a downer.

Probably the saddest Christmas song is the Coventry Carol. It begins sounding like a lullaby, maybe for the infant Jesus.

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.

But it takes a terrible turn.

Herod the king, in his raging,
Chargèd he hath this day
His men of might in his own sight
All young children to slay.

And then the sad, sad final verse that mourns for the lost children who will never be comforted by a lullaby.

That woe is me, poor child, for thee
And ever mourn and may
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay.”

In the midst of our joyful celebration comes this terrible reminder of innocent suffering. Good enters the world and it is met with anger, fear, jealousy, hatred, and violence.

Innocents still suffer. Almost a third of the children in Marion county live in poverty; around 1,800 are homeless. They get a little help at Christmas time, but what happens the rest of the year? Fortunately there are agencies like Lutheran World Relief and Interfaith Emergency Services, but they depend on our support.

We can’t help the Holy Innocents that died in Bethlehem. We can help the innocents who live among us today.

Read Matthew 2:16-18 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

Matthew 2:16-18  When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”