CTS Friends,
There’s good news and bad news.
We are beginning a new church year. We are on the path to Bethlehem and the birth of our Savior. The joy and warmth of the Christmas season is close upon us. The search process is moving forward. We are receiving new members this month. All . . . good news.
There’s also good news that progress is being made on the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight goals the nations of the world have agreed on; progress because people care, work, contribute, sacrifice in order to achieve the goals. They are real heroes, though we will never know most of their names.
During the Christmas season, we meditate on God becoming human, on the birth of the baby Jesus, and the meaning of that event for our lives. We might also meditate on the fate of other infants, the “least of these.” The fourth MDG goal proposes to reduce the mortality rates of children under five to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990, when the goals were established, and 2015, the target date.
The good news on child mortality? The number of children in developing countries who died before they reached the age of five dropped from 100 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2008. Lives that would have been lost are now being saved.
And the bad news. Almost nine million children still die each year before they reach their fifth birthday. In sub-Saharan Africa, in 2008, one in seven children died before their fifth birthday. Of the 67 countries with high child mortality rates, only 10 are currently on track to meet the MDG target 2015.
Advent is about the coming of the Messiah, the good news of God, the bringer of salvation. So, what is the good news for those kids who don’t make their fifth birthday? And what does the word “salvation” mean in this context? I pretend to ask, but you already know my take on it.
One definition of salvation is “deliverance from destruction, from evil.” We are called by God to be the salvation army (lowercase), to save, insofar as humanly possible, those tiny bodies and minds from an untimely death. One way to get into the Advent and Christmas spirit, is to become educated and educate others about the MDGs, and to apply political pressure to ensure that our government does its part.
Blessings,
Pastor Hoehn
P.S. The other seven goals? Look them up and attend the adult forum.
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