status quo?

Friday, January 11^th, Matthew 2: ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: ⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”  The one seen as a threat to the status quo of Herod and all of Jerusalem is to be born in Bethlehem, the backwoods little town outside of Jerusalem.  Today it is surrounded by a prison wall thirty feet high, with guard towers and armed guards.  Today, the power of the status quo in Jerusalem remains intact and the public is let in to see this birth of Jesus spot only when it is good economics for the status quo of Jerusalem.  How could they do that you ask?  With money and support from you and I is the answer.  The construction of the prison wall around the birth place of the savior was paid for with U.S. dollars.  On the inside of the wall is a graffiti sign that says, “American dollars, Israeli Apartheid.”   Two thousand years later, we are still on the side of Herod.