Sermon for Holy Innocents Day, 28.12.2025
St Peter’s Church, Wellington
Bishop Richard Randerson
Hard on the heels of Christmas with the images of a baby born in a manger, angel voices and shepherds in the fields comes this gruesome story of how King Herod of Judaea, a client king of Rome, ordered the slaughter of every male child two years old and under in Bethlehem and the vicinity (Matthew 2.13-18 – text at end). Herod had been visited by wise men from the East (Epiphany) seeking a new-born king and in order to protect his own power he had ordered the mass killing of a whole cohort of male infants. But his plan was thwarted, Mary and Joseph having been warned in a dream to escape with the baby Jesus to Egypt.
The story is a paradigm of how in every age there are those who abuse their power to further their self-interest, be it personal power or greed, national, racial, gender or religious, as a result of which innocent people suffer or die. It is not difficult to see it in the world today.
Looking first at our readings we hear the words of Jeremiah (31.15-20, text at end) of “a voice was heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children who are no more”. Jeremiah prophesied in Judah from 650-570BCE and thus saw the exile of its citizens to Babylon when King Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem in 587. Jeremiah prophesied their return, he himself being exiled to Egypt.
Ramah: a town in the territory of Benjamin, North of Jerusalem.
Rachel married Jacob (19C BCE) and had two sons, Benjamin and Joseph.
Rachel’s lament sees an elision of time (1300 years) as she weeps over the children of Israel in exile in Babylon “who are no more”. Her lament is a symbol of national grief.
King Herod of Judaea was aclient king of Rome who expanded the second temple originally built by Jews returning from exile (538BCE).
Today we see the same abuse of power where innocents are either deliberately targeted or become collateral damage. We see it in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, New Zealand, Australia, USA and many other countries.
The perpetrators are presidents, prime ministers, leaders of factional groups or individuals who may suffer delusions that they are serving some greater good. But also there are those who are complicit with the evil by their silence or tacit consent.
The Holy Innocents are those who suffer and to them the Gospel of Jesus promises hope and healing even although such hope may seem in vain. Yet the assurance of God’s presence (we are never alone) gives strength to see faith maintained in the worst of situations. They are holy because they are cherished and blessed by a loving God to whom every life is precious.
Closer to home we can see abuse of power in institutions, governments, corporations and the Church where power or ideology conceals corruption and wrongdoing or suppresses the wellbeing of others. Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the environment or other aspects of the key foundations of the nation are put at risk. How often do we keep silent out of self-protection to cover something it would be uncomfortable to acknowledge?
Shifting the paradigm there are also other holy innocents – those who devote themselves to the wellbeing of others at great personal cost or even laying down their lives. There are saints and martyrs in every age like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jnr or Tarore, the young Maori girl from the Waikato who was killed by a warring tribe. She had under her pillow a copy of the Gospel of Luke which the warriors read and were converted by its message of forgiveness.
There are young people (and older) who risk everything to help others, many working in dangerous situations abroad. There are those who give sacrificially of time, talents and substance in the service of others. We should think also of whistle-blowers in corporate settings and those who speak an uncomfortable word on a truth that needs to be said. These too are holy innocents when they suffer for doing what is right. It is a vocation to which God calls us all, each according to our situation.
Ultimately Christ is the Cosmic Holy Innocent, the one who dies on the Cross at the hands of those who wished to protect their own power. Innocent and feeling alone he cries My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But through his death Jesus brings life and courage to people in every age and place.
So to conclude, Holy Innocents Day speaks to us of self-seeking and self-protecting power that takes its toll in the lives of countless innocents. And it summons us to a different paradigm in which Jesus calls us to be disciples of the Truth and agents of God’s love for all even at cost to ourselves.
In Matthew 16.25 we read: Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.
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Today’s readings
Matthew 2.13-18
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.
16 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. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “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.”
Jeremiah 31. 15-20
15 Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
16 Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
says the Lord:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
17 there is hope for your future, says the Lord:
your children shall come back to their own country.
18 Indeed, I heard Ephraim pleading:
“You disciplined me, and I took the discipline;
I was like an untrained calf.
Bring me back; let me come back,
for you are the Lord my God.
19 For after I had turned away I repented,
and after I was discovered, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was dismayed
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he the child in whom I delight?
As often as I speak against him,
I still remember him.
Therefore I am deeply moved for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
says the Lord. (ends)
