Advent 2, Week of December 6, 2009—Luke

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler* of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight the paths of the Lord
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'” (Luke 3.1-6)

In the sixty-first year of the reign of the State of Israel, when Benjamin Netanyahu is Prime Minister of Israel and Nir Barkat is mayor of Jerusalem, and the Israeli Defense Forces rule over Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, during the Presidency of Mahmoud Abbas and the reign of HAMAS, the word of God comes to the people of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, living between Jerusalem and the wilderness that stretches down to the Jordan River.

And the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem go out into the whole region of Bethlehem and gather in the children, the elders, the sick, the refugees, the hopeless…urging them to “repent,” to turn from their hopelessness and desperation, and follow a new vision, a vision announced long ago by the prophet Isaiah.
"....the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

The people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem go out, saying to all the people, “We live under occupation. The state of Israel controls our travel, our roads, our businesses, and the Israeli army enforces the edicts. We cannot fly out of the airport in Tel Aviv; we cannot travel to the trade shows in Tel Aviv to purchase goods for our stores. Although we pay our taxes to the government of Israel, we cannot even drive within the West Bank, from Bethlehem to Hebron, on the ‘settlers only’ highway, but we must take poorly maintained back roads and sometimes drive around piles of rubble pushed onto the road by the soldiers’ bulldozers.

Photo: the settler road, walled off from the surrounding Palestinian lands, tunnels under the town of Beit Jala in the West Bank.

Then they say to the people of Bethlehem:

But the occupation does not define us; the occupation does not shape us and make us who we are; we will shape our own future. We will build a future for our children AS IF the occupation does not exist. We will build a school for our children, Muslim and Christian; and a Wellness Center for our tired and stressed-out people, weary from waiting for permits to travel or add a bedroom to our homes or repair our roof, weary from waiting in lines at checkpoints. We will build a senior center where our elders can find some peace and a place to share their stories and their wisdom. We will build a college where our young people can learn a profession and maintain our cultural identity—offering degrees in tourism, media and the arts. We will start a leadership circle, where our young people can learn skills and meet mentors who will enable them to be leaders in a future Palestinian state.”

Photo: waiting with the taxis, trucks loaded with supplies, buses and even ambulances at the checkpoint in Hebron.

Learn more about the gospel being proclaimed in Bethlehem through the building of schools and community gathering places: http://www.diyar-consortium.org/

As you shop for friends and family this Christmas, give a Christmas gift to the work of the people living in Bethlehem today: http://www.brightstarsbethlehem.org/

Gracious God, you exhort us to “make straight the paths of the Lord.” Help us to find ways to cry out in today’s wilderness of apathy and greed, hatred and ethnic superiority. Make us proclaimers of your “baptism of repentance.” Help us to turn from our despair and hopelessness and work together to make your world whole, in your holy land and in our own. Amen.