Pastors Blog

The Feast of Epiphany, celebrated the twelfth day after Christmas, is in part about the New Year's youngest murder victim, Ja'Shawn Powell, the two-year-old boy whose body was found January 4 in an athletic bag on Jackson Avenue in New Orleans.

The king cakes we are enjoying in this season have a hidden baby inside because Joseph and Mary hid the infant Jesus from the evil King. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod was jealous of the baby and sought to destroy him. Thus unfolds the slaughter of the innocents when King Herod murdered all baby boys in Bethlehem who were two years old or younger.

The two greatest figures in the Bible, Jesus and Moses, were both protected by their parents from kings who tried to kill them. These parents believed deeply that their baby boys were very special and important people. They risked their own lives to save them.

We are not as far from Herod's day as we want to think. The killing of babies continues in our world. It is an indication of our own moral bankruptcy, our failure to acknowledge the value of the little ones among us. When life gets hard it is just too easy to view the little children as threats to our own well-being and set them aside.

Infants have been the targets of violence in every age and every culture on earth. I have stood in the ruins of Aztec and Incan temples where hundreds of little skulls were found. Religious authorities have sacrificed children along with political authorities. It is a scourge upon the planet, our treatment of the children.

Any culture may begin to view the children as an unnecessary burden or an economic threat. Infanticide is historically one method of birth control and sex selection. Worldwide, infant girls are more likely to be left on the ice to freeze or thrown in the river to drown or suffocated with wet cloths over their faces or grass stuffed in their mouths. These practices are so common that they give birth to a specialized vocabulary-"decimate," to kill one out of ten children; mabiki, to pull plants from a garden; and "baby water," the bucket of water used to drown newborns.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims have always taught that killing infants is a sin. Roman law elevated infanticide to a capital offense in 374 C.E. Despite religious and legal sanctions, the practice of infanticide continued throughout history and right up to the present. Largely now through abortion and the abandonment of newborns, Americans and others around the planet eliminate the inconvenience and economic burden of new mouths to feed.

The hidden baby in the king cake is a message from Mary and Joseph to each of us. Every little life has infinite worth and should be protected. God gives life. It is not our prerogative to take it.

Herod killed three of his own sons among many others. With his heart hardened toward his own offspring, it takes no imagination to see him wielding his political influence against innocent children.

Communities may develop attitudes and practices that marginalize children whose basic needs compete for limited tax dollars. Schools become dilapidated while more "adult" facilities become pristine. Playgrounds take a backseat to golf courses. Day care facilities limp along without strong support as health spas and social clubs sparkle and shine. Every culture and community publishes its assessment of the value of children through such facilities.

The median age of our population is older in post-Katrina New Orleans. Many of our young families fled the flood and never returned. Let's resist the temptation, as adults who have already reared our children, to forget or marginalize the little ones among us. The children who live here are "our" kids, not "their" kids. Each little life possesses incalculable value.

The children among us will always make do, usually without protest, when we redirect our time and money to more adult activities and facilities. Children do not usually show up at city council meetings or church business sessions.

Part of restoring the mental, emotional, and physical health of our community is making the little ones our highest priority. Sometimes the children in a community become invisible to its power-brokers-like that baby hidden in the tasty pastry. Let Ja'Shawn's murder be a wake up call to us all. Mary and Joseph took the right course. They adjusted their lives so that their child would flourish.