This Advent – Stop The Donkeys

We’d like to invite you to think a bit harder this Christmas.

It seems to me that there’s a part of the story of Jesus’ birth that we seldom dwell on, and we’d like to help your community enter into it.

If you’re willing.

A few weeks ago I participated in a conversation that gave rise to the thought that when Herod ordered the mass killing of the boy’s under two Mary, Joseph and Jesus wouldn’t have been the only family who tried to escape the genocide. They couldn’t have been the only ones who got word and tried to get out of town as fast as they could, parents, mothers, fathers and children, many of them would have grabbed what they could and have tried to make it as far out of the reach of Herod as they could. The thought that there’d be this kind of event without such a response is ludicrous, what would you have done?

The image of a sea of donkeys, all carrying mothers with children came to mind, all of them escaping to Egypt or beyond… anywhere they could to escape this evil act. And I wondered how the leaders of Egypt would have reacted to such a surge of refugees, all seeking to escape an evil leader who was killing their children in a jealous fit of rage.

Would they have responded in a similar way to our political leaders who seem to have a unnatural fear of boats carrying asylum seekers onto our shore (remember this?)?

Or, would they have responded differently and opened their arms?

And if they responded similarly what would their political catch phrase be?

What about “Stop The Donkeys”?

And another question to throw into the mix, who are we in the story? Are we parents fleeing for the life of our children, are we the children, are we the soldiers following orders, are we community members who help sneak the children out of town and hide them from the evil that is seeking them out, or are we people of Egypt? And if we’re people in Egypt are we welcoming or refusing the acceptance of these families seeking our hospitality?

What we’ve created is a list of resources that we hope will grow over the coming weeks to help your congregations enter out of Advent and into Epiphany and to delve into this question. You’ll find that there is definitely a political lean here, but one that comes to us out of a biblical narrative that is at the heart of who we are as people of faith which tells us that after Jesus was born Herod ordered the killing of all the male children under two and that Mary and Joseph were warned to get out with the baby and escape to egypt where they lived for many years.

This idea is here for you to poach, steal, use, borrow…

And we’d love to invite you to add to the resources if you’re able, just shoot me an email.

Images:

Here are a few images that you can use over advent, have them pop up around the space and build some anticipation around the community, buy some stickers and put them on cars, capture people’s imagination. One worship idea is to create a sea of donkeys with messages of hospitality to those who seek our generosity and love, or perhaps your community would like to create a sea of donkeys outside your church and invite your community to write letters to our government? Imagine your local member’s face when they receive 100 donkeys in the post…

Let us know what you choose to do with the images…

No Donkeys Allowed: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
Stop The Donkeys 01: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
Stop The Donkeys 02: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
Age at MorePraxis has created his own image and sticker: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
Flight to Egypt by He Qi: Flight to Egypt

Narratives / Reflections:

Here are a couple of reflections to help you enter into the story of the flight to Egypt, once again feel free to use, rewrite, bounce off of or add to these if you’d like.