Breaking Herod

Written By Carl Gladstone

THE INVITATION:

We invite you to gather with friends and people you trust. Spend some time together to help each other make it through life. Be courageous in sharing, compassionate in responding, and creative in your resilience together for the good of all.

CHECK IN:

  1. How is going?

  2. How can we help?

  3. Who else do we need to think and pray about today?

CONSIDER THIS:

In the middle of Jesus’ nativity story (Matthew 2) there is a tyrant. Herod is threatened by the news of a baby bringing a realm to oppose his own. In response he orders the killing of “all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under.” But that is just the way with tyrants. When they have the power, they will use it in terrible ways for their own benefit.

DISCUSS:

  1. The song “Breaking Herod” talks about two people, Rep. John Lewis (US Congress, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), and Rev. Terry Gladstone (a United Methodist Deacon in Michigan who worked for conflict resilience in churches). The song describes their combined power to fight back against injustice and division. Who are two people you wish could have worked together to make the world a better place?

  2. In the story the Wise Men from the East are warned in a dream to avoid Herod on the way home. When have you been saved from danger by a warning - either miraculous or mundane?

  3. Tyranny doesn’t give up it’s power on it’s own. Only people power can wrestle that power back. What movements of people in the past give you hope for our own future free of tyranny?

  4. Are there times when you’ve held onto power for your own benefit? Think about it quietly. If brave and vulnerable, share about that with others.

SENDING:

MMXVII is an album by Producer Carl Thomas Gladstone benefitting Immigration, Law & Justice in light of another US government crackdown on vulnerable populations in our communities. Check it out, share it with friends, and, if you can, purchase the album to stand up to tyranny today!

Get the full album and support Immigration, Law & Justice - Michigan HERE.

Carl Gladstone
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The Dead Sect