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I have a confession to make. I sometimes get a toothache around Christmas Eve. It's the saccharin. Too much sugar in the manger.

Our imaginations and need for a good story have created a charming and radical Christmas tale. We see things how we want to see them - a warm, tidy manger. Animals, but not too many animals. A doting husband and rested, beautiful fair skinned new mother. A babe, plump, eager to meet the world. Freshly showered shepherds. Wipe your feet at the door. I smell talcum powder and a hint of clove.

And then there are the magi, standing at the manger. How did that happen? That's not how it happened! I've been known to hide the magi or kings when I come across them in crèche displays. Put them in another part of the room. They are enroute. It takes awhile to find Bethlehem. It takes about 2 years. At least wait until Epiphany, January 6.

Ah...historical exegesis, examining scripture from an historical perspective, has forever altered my Christmas, especially the Christmas carols and nativity scenes. The story as we tell it, didn't happen. The gospel writers needed certain things to jive with Jewish scripture and prophecies. There was neither a census nor crowd in Bethlehem at that time. Angels and shepherds did not gather 'round a baby that was recognized to be Jesus, the new king. The virgin birth has long been controversial. And, Herod may have died before Jesus was born.

You may feel like my sister exclaiming, "Stop! Don't tell me any more. It's like hearing that there is no Santa Claus. Even if it's true, don't tell me." Okay. But let's not overly sanitize Christmas and more importantly, sanitize the real flesh of our faith. Christian faith continues throughout the generations because it rises up and out of our daily broken and mended lives.

Do you want to hear a real bah-humbug? Probably not. I hate this part of the story. It's the part that follows the Magi visiting Jesus, (when he was about two). We don't tell this story much. We edit the text. Let's infer horror but not go there. If the birth of Jesus story, as written in the Bible, is an embellished version, maybe Herod's rage is also fabricated. If Herod was dead, it most certainly didn't happen at his command. But, for the sake of the story and the point of the story, let's name Herod as the perpetrator of a terrible sin. When he learns that the magi have tricked him and are not returning to Jerusalem, he is furious. The baby king must be killed. Who and where is this child?

Herod orders all the boy babies in Bethlehem, age 2 and under, to be murdered. A scorched earth policy, common among angry, fearful people. There are paintings of this massacre that are horrific. Babies literally being torn from their mother's arms. Knowing about something and seeing it are very different experiences. I take some solace in the historical fact that these killings did not include the thousands of children that I once believed. Given the small size of Bethlehem and the nomadic countryside, it most likely meant killing 6-20 baby and toddler boys. A tragedy still. A tragedy that had played out in our prior religious history and in our lives yet today.

Catholics and Anglicans celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents December 28. The babies are considered the first martyrs, dying because of Christ. The feast came into practice around the sixth century. It was occasion to curse the evil of Herod and all unjust rulers as well as to lament the loss of innocent children. A practice that I had never heard of until preparing for this sermon was serving baby food as part of a meal on December 28. For those, disturbingly in my mind, in need of a crude reminder of the event, pudding with red sauce is served. The dish is symbolic of a child's flesh and blood. Christianity has some difficult traditions, scripture and history to stomach. It's all part of our human whole.

So here we are, a day after Christmas, still kneeling at the manger and Sandy preaches about murdered babies. It isn't my idea of a sequel. I would like there to be less blood and violence in the script. I could go for less sugar and more brocolli. You know, something healthy but still tasty. But, reality is sometimes quite bitter tasting. It is the real world into which Christ came. The real world of love, compassion, greed, anger, hospitality, and war. Jesus wasn't born in a manger but he was born. He did come as a baby and grew up to be a man. He was indeed Emmanuel, God with us, God speaking in a messy glorious world. It's the point of the Christmas story that I cherish.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is occasion to strengthen our resolve to be advocates for children. It is a time to confront the horrible fact that innocent children continue to die. Christmas Eve's sequel is played out over and over throughout the world. We weep for children, their parents and families terrorized by violence. Wars whose bombs, mortars and mines cut short lives and destroy communities; boyfriends and husbands whose anger and illness murder their women, sometimes pregnant women; poverty and despair that hold vigil while children starve; and the wake of AIDS which leaves orphans without caregivers. I cannot hold the grief these realities represent. It is too great. I cannot comprehend the worlds those left behind must face. I fear those who walk away untouched.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is not only a time to lament, wail and swear. It is a time to act on our love for children. Many of you volunteer in the political process. You are engaged with changing or implementing policy that creates safer, healthier, and more just scenarios for infants, children and youth. Some of you support people and programs that minister to pregnant women and those trying to not become pregnant. Some of you have adopted children that needed forever families. Many of you work and volunteer in classrooms, day care centers, and church settings. All of you adults are invested in some way with the life or lives of children. I challenge each of us to find ways to expand our advocacy for children. The need is great.

Someone said something to the effect that it is in how we treat the most vulnerable in our society that we measure the true values of our society. I find that to be a profound theological statement. Isn't that why God put Jesus in our midst? Aren’t the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus all about inviting the "least of these" to the table? Into the classroom? Onto the playground? And inside our hearts?

The sequel to Christmas Eve is more violence and bloodshed. It is also communities being transformed by the extravagant welcome of Jesus. The sequel continues the pattern of the least likely and most shunned becoming the hero or chosen one. Christmas Eve's sequel is a light entering the darkness which no darkness can extinguish.

Today and everyday, thank God for children. If you happen to have some at your house, anoint their foreheads with a kiss.

Amen.