WHERE BETHLEHEM LIES

 Have mercy on us Lord,

And hear our solemn prayer.

We come to hear your living word;

It saves us from despair. 

These are the words of the hymn we sang this Sunday.  As we sang, I hoped that God's Word would save us from despair.  There is much to despair of these days. 

For so long we've been thinking of the Ukranians.  We have no trouble sorting good from evil in that war.  Now we have something more complex.  People switch from anger to grief and back again.  There are no simple answers, maybe no realistic answers at all. As we await Advent and the countdown to Christ's birth, we cannot help but grieve.  Not only for the Israelis killed wantonly on Oct 7, but also for Gazan children killed randomly today. 

Bethlehem lies less than 10 miles south of the city of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is only 62 miles from Gaza.  We will be singing carols about the little town of Bethlehem but the disconnect between Christ's birth there and the advanced warfare of today sickens the heart. Tensions between the Palestinians and Israel date back decades, but tensions is not the word to use anymore.  On October 7th over 1,200 Jews of all ages were butchered.  Over 240 were taken hostage.  Since that date over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children.  The number grows daily.  Some premature babies who need medical care are surviving evacuation, some are not. What is left behind is rubble.  Pictures from Ukraine and from Gaza look the same. 

I am not an ethicist or a historian, but I expect they have no more or better answers than the rest of us.  "Thoughts and prayers" has become a platitude.  Politicians use it after mass shootings as the rest of us wait for the next one.   

With the Holy Land a war zone, I wonder if anyone else feels like it will take extra effort this year to picture a baby born on a silent night in Bethlehem. 

One thing that we can hope for is that as the days march on to Christmas, the Lord will enter our minds and hearts and help us bear the sinful world in which we live. That has happened before.  We've had wars before.  We can ask the Almighty to be with the innocents--in their death shrouds, in hiding or held hostage, or digging through the wreckage--whether they pray to God, Jehovah or Allah. Mired in the world, we have often been lifted up to find gratitude and praise.  

I don't know what to expect.  But let us hope together for God's mercy and his Word to save us from despair.  

Old Mission Santa Ines, CA 1804
A Place to Pray