WELCOME TO BETHLEHEM

I have grown accustomed to my American view of the birth of Christ.  Pictures of a magical star hovering above a stable while shepherd's tend their flocks in a quiet meadow were my idea of our saviors birth. Yet in the aftermath of the massacre in a Connecticut elementary school, our sons and daughters away at war, the homeless population increasing and unrest in our world, I began to look beyond the idyllic Christmas cards with their hollow words and trite greetings into something more to the point.

Bethlehem, 2000 years ago, was not a little peaceful town in the suburbs of Palestine. The world Jesus was born into was dominated by one military dictatorship, and a mad man (Herod the Great) was in command. The population was ethnically and economically diverse. You could not find much "comfort and joy," unless you were a high government official or rich and famous.  Jesus' parables were the breaking news of his day.

RACHEL WEEPS FOR HER CHILDREN WHO ARE NO MORE,  ABSENTEE LANDLORDS FORCE TENANT REVOLTS,  WOMAN BEGS JUSTICE FROM CORRUPT JUDGE,  DAY LABORERS WAIT FOR EMPLOYMENT, BEGGARS STARVING IN THE STREETS, SAMARITAN BEATEN AND LEFT TO DIE...debts and debtors, slavery, extortion, corruption.- Jesus walked the streets with the needy and suffering.

So what's my point?

Christmas will go on like always and for some like never before.  Lets stop playing Santa and give as Jesus gave....
To give consolation to those who mourn, to give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of tears, the expression of praise instead of a heavy, burdened spirit..(Isaiah 64:3).

                                                        WELCOME TO BETHLEHEM