Jumping the Queue

Tony? Or Bill? Hold on. Tony? Or Malcolm? Wait a minute. Malcolm? Or Bill? (Or Donald? Or Hillary?)

He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

What child? What’s her name? Where’s he from? What’s she worth to us?

They did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

In a week clustered and encrusted with jostling politicians, Jesus’ actions and words have many of us tripping over those we barely notice. We have become accustomed to these small political coups d’état and our eye is drawn away from where it needs to be.

And so, we stumble.

A young mum federal politician had the considerable inconvenience of her three-month-old daughter confirmed to her by one of the Pharisees administrators keeping order in our national Parliament. (“We have grown-up things to do here. Can you keep her out of our way.”)

The inconvenience inherent in Jesus’ words is that if we are looking for the Messiah, little Olivia is the one to whom we need to turn.

How can we make sense of power in our world? Welcome a small child. How can we understand the action of God in the world? Welcome a child. This is where we welcome Jesus.

It makes no sense. We know where the power lies – with the Assads, the Putins, the monarchs and the politicians. Until the image of a small child, napalm-blistered, running from hell, confirms the turning of the war in Vietnam. Until a tiny, lifeless child is lifted from the ocean’s embrace and the world confesses its complicity. Until a child is born in Bethlehem, confounding power and confronting its misuse, displaying the presence of God.

Until the child of God offers everything in powerlessness to those who assume power is wealth, or might, or violence, and defeats death by rising to life. Until we understand that we are in the business of a God who risks life for us; who offers life and doesn’t control it, who saves life and doesn’t threaten it.

Welcome the least, as God has and does, and see the face of Christ.

Grace and peace to each of you in this journey we walk together.