Revd Lis Mullen, Minister, Carver United Reformed Church, Windermere
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Ancient Bethlehem used to be a modest walled town,
an oasis at the edge of a wilderness that stretches to the Dead Sea.
The entire ancient town is now contained within the walls of the Church of the Nativity.
Bethlehem grew over the centuries,
prospering as a city of pilgrimage
and, since Thomas Cook’s package tours started in the 19th Century,
it’s also prospered as a modern holiday destination.
It was once a thriving, open city:
it is now sealed behind a wall,
imprisoning the 170,000 Christian and Muslim citizens,
while annexing their forests, farmlands and fresh-water springs to the Jewish settlements.
Bethlehem began life as a walled citadel, and will end as a prison town
and yet, as you drive out through the gate you can see the message written in huge letters by the Israeli tourist board:
‘Peace be upon you.’
Oh wake up baby Jesus and look around at your birthplace.
The town is shrinking, – the land is even smaller than it was at your birth.
Has it refused development and progress?
Or is it because it is surrounded by an 8 metre-high wall and watchtowers, with 78 physical obstacles and checkpoints
and 18 settlements on confiscated land all around the Bethlehem area.
Herod was frightened of you then, baby Jesus
and he’s frightened of you now.
You are besieged.
Your Grotto has been changed to a ghetto.
But you always refused to be contained.
Death could not contain you and we know that resurrection is inevitable.
No wall, no checkpoints, no watch towers or settlements,
no terrorism can ever stop you from transforming people’s lives and minds and hearts.
O morning stars together proclaim the holy birth
Forgive us, Baby Jesus,
but you aren’t going to be receiving presents this time,
for the Magi aren’t going to be able to come into Bethlehem from the East.
The star seems to have lost its sense of direction!
We need you to be our star, shining brightly for all people,
guiding and navigating us and all who live in your land
through these dark and troubled times.
And the shepherds, Jesus, they won’t be in the fields with their sheep….
For they’ve lost all their pastures and the shepherds are under curfew.
We are so sorry.
But the angels can fly.
They can fly over the wall to bring good tidings of great joy.
Most folk say there is no good news to share any more,
but maybe the angels will come!
Maybe more and more angels will come to see you and then fly back over the wall to proclaim the news to all the world.
Maybe they won’t let the wall, the checkpoints, or the danger stop them from telling the world the good news of your birth
and the sad news about Bethlehem.
Oh, baby Jesus, how we need more angels to light up the sky with their music and singing.
How the whole world needs to hear them
for it is colluding with your imprisonment by its silence.
Oh, and another apology, baby Jesus.
Your family won’t be able to make it to Egypt I’m afraid.
The Rafah border is closed and other roads are sealed.
You might be able to travel on the condition that you never come back.
But oh Lord, you must come back!
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given
The Romans were bullies and sticklers for records.
We know that you had to travel so far south before you were born so they could register all the people in their provinces.
It must have been an ordeal for Mary.
And terrifying for Joseph.
And still you are bullied, and parents terrified for their little ones.
That journey would take at least 4 times longer now,
if it would be possible at all.
You would most likely have been born at one of the scores of checkpoints Mary and Joseph would have had to negotiate.
So many babies are born at these places.
And their chances of survival aren’t very high.
At least you had a stable, Lord.
You were lucky, in some ways.
I know you were homeless for a while,
but there are so many homeless people now….on the move from one terror or another.
Oh baby Jesus, I know you can see it and that you cry for us.
How you must continue to hunger for the milk of human kindness!
And another thing, baby Jesus, Herod wanted to kill you
and babies were torn from their families by his soldiers in the name of security.
The children of Bethlehem continue to be brutalised by the soldiers and the prison they find themselves in.
They are traumatised and terrified and they need your touch to heal them, your love to bring them assurance and your smile to bring them peace.
This is a world of sin, baby Jesus, and they need your blessing.
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray
You went to Jerusalem to teach and preach, but you wouldn’t be able to go now, not even to the Via Dolorosa.
But you may be lucky, for there are no olive trees left in the orchards,
or if there are, they are out of bounds.
The trees have been confiscated or uprooted so there is no wood for making you a cross.
But then, that is your cross, isn’t it, Jesus?
The fact that the people cannot harvest their olives
nor make things with the wood
strips them of their livelihood and tortures their economy.
You are dying again on the cross of poverty and terror.
So how can we celebrate Christmas this year, baby Jesus,
knowing how it is in the place where you were born?
That we leave you lying there alone and unvisited,
with no angels making their proclamation to the world?
But we know too, don’t we,
that Herod’s reign of terror came to an end,
that the Roman empire crumbled.
We know that evil systems come and go and that there will be change.
For no-one can ignore the resurrection……..
And so we know that broken lives will be rebuilt,
that you will once again bring peace, healing and consolation.
And even if there is no room in the inn,
or you cannot get in to Bethlehem at all this time,
there is room for you in our lives.
O come to us, baby Jesus and abide with us, our Lord, Immanuel.
Adapted from Zoughbi Zoughbi – Palestinian Christian and peacemaker from Bethlehem – November 2006
