I've never seen one of the most important stories of Advent acted out. The slaughter of the Innocents; the Revenge of the Jealous King; Deliberate Destruction; Zealousness gone wild. That was King Herod's response to hearing about question asked by the magi, the astrologers from Persia. Startling. Dangerous. Seductive. Deadly.
The other response was like the opposite side of a coin. The Great Indifference; Shrugged aside Possibilities; Deadened Curiosity; Orthodoxy Gone to Seed.
How could the scholars of the Scriptures, the scribes, have the knowledge that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, only eight miles away, and
not have their curiosity piqued when Persian magi arrived? Hadn't they been expecting the Messiah to be born? Didn't they know the Scripture passages by heart? Why the indifference to the arrival of the "King of the Jews"? Indifferent. Please don't disturb our studies; we're busy.
Fast Forward to today. A German reporter states that ISIL is determined to kill every person in western lands who believes in democracy, and he calls this new wave of terror, "worse than a nuclear bomb", having witnessed first hand the death of men, rape of women and girls and enslavement of innocents. Startling. Dangerous. Seductive. Deadly.
Fast forward even faster. A billion people wish vaguely for "world peace", yet when the "Prince of Peace is born", or his ways of non-violent peace making and reconciliation are commemorated on one particular day, the best the world can hope for is Black Friday, Boxing Day and all the special sales that go with the season. Indifferent. Please don't disturb us; we're too busy today.
"For this reason the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the Devil". I call that "D" day.
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