UPDATE  on Gaza Jan. 6, 2023:  David Cooley, a local member of Veterans for Peace in the Twin Cities wrote a commentary on Gaza on the Winter 2023 VFP Newsletter.  It speaks for itself: Vet for Peace comments on Gaza Winter 2023.

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All Blessings on this most most contradictory of days: Christmas.  Virtually everyone knows some version of the story of the birth of Jesus and for 1,700 years infinite observations, from sermons to commentaries have endeavored to bring meaning to the birth of the child in Bethlehem.

Apparently, the annual events in Bethlehem have been cancelled this Christmas.  This day we’ll participate by livestream at Basilica of St. Mary Minneapolis 9:30 a.m. CST.

This year, I’ve decided to share a few words about my singular visit to Bethlehem, Thursday Jan 12, 1996.  The photo below is from the nativity scene purchased at a Palestinian shop in Jerusalem on Jan. 14.  That story is in my post for December 10, 2023.  The second picture, at the Manger,  is from Grandma Bernard’s 1911 Bible.  I was there, in person in January, 1996 (more below). Here is a UNESCO article about the holy site.  This article includes much background information and 18 photographs.  The Bible text we read at the site when I was among the visitors was Luke 2:1-20.

Nativity 1996. Some of the 18 Olive Wood figurines, purchased in Jerusalem January, 1996.

Briefly, an afternoon in Bethlehem, Thursday Jan. 11, 1996:  Bethlehem is only six miles from Jerusalem.  I was there 6 years before construction of the Separation Barrier began in 2002.  The wiki article about Bethlehem is linked above.

Like so many other Biblical sites in the Holy Land, Church of the Nativity has a divided jurisdiction.  In its case, it is jointly administered by Greek Orthodox churches, the Custody of the Holy Land, and the Armenian church.

The Christian group I traveled with appeared to have a substantial number of  Orthodox from places like Pennsylvania.  As I witnessed personally, many of them were church choir members with wonderful singing voices.

We arrived at the Church of the Nativity coincident with an Orthodox funeral beginning in the upper church.  We watched from the side.  This was like a funeral you’d attend anywhere, with only the liturgical differences.  The deceased seemed to be an elder in a family.

The church itself is very ancient, and at the time of our visit there was some reconstruction/repair work in process.

The Manger site itself is below ground level, and we could approach the site.  (More on all of this can be seen in the UNESCO photos and text linked above).  This was a place of reverence, and closely supervised.  We were there only a short time.

In the town square, at the edge of which is the Church, was a very large banner supporting Yasser Arafat in an upcoming election.  It was the sole political indicator that I can recall seeing.

“The little town of Bethlehem” is larger than 2,000 years ago, but still a tiny place in comparison to nearby Jerusalem (perhaps 30,000 against about 900,000).

These days I wonder if there are many groups like the one I was part of who can come to Bethlehem.

There is more that I could offer, but leave this suffice for today.  All blessings.

POSTNOTE: In a couple of weeks, at this space, I’ll share some personal comments about how I see this time in history.  Check back.

COMMENTS:

from Brian: From a Colombian friend in Berlin–Merry Christmas!

from Michelle:

from Fred:  Thanks for this interesting memoir. We’ve made lots of journeys but never to Israel.

Closest we got was Constantinople another place, as you know, we a substantial place in both Christian and Moslem tradition.  Merry Christmas,

from Kathy:

from Carol:

Previous posts this month: 1st, 5th and 7th.

I have been thinking of how I can most constructively approach this distinctly unpeaceful season of peace.  What follows is a small attempt.  Sunday we were at a magnificent Christmas program at a large suburban church, St. Andrews Lutheran in Mahtomedi: “How Great Our Joy!”  There had to be at least 1,000 of us in attendance, for the first of two performances.  My mind wandered to a less pleasant scene in today’s Israel….

Earlier, Friday evening, daughter Lauri and two of the grandkids, Kelly and Lucy, came over to help decorate the Christmas tree – an annual tradition.  Saturday morning I noticed a bedraggled box by the television.

The box is very familiar to me.  It was delivered in early 1996 from Israel. It’s contents are 18 carved olive wood figures of a typical nativity scene.  I had purchased it in Jerusalem at a Palestinian shop which I think catered to Christian visitors to Israel.  A group of us had gone to the shop one evening.  The box, my purchase, was cleared for shipping by the Israel Postal Authority.

The set was expensive, and worth it.  Every year since,  the contents of the box are on display during the Christmas season.  Then it goes back into the same box till next year.

This year the box takes on particular significance to me: there is no peace in Israel; and no indication that sanity will return any time soon.  Hostilities are being ratcheted up, rather than tamped down.

Our trip to Israel in 1996 was about 11 days.  The January 11 itinerary included.Bethlehem, about 6 miles from Jerusalem. Among other visits was Yad Vashem. There was not yet a separation wall.  That was to come beginning in 2002.  The visit to the shop was after the visit to Bethlehem.

I have noted previously that 1996 was not a time of palpable tension in Israel, at least not felt by this visitor.  Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated by a radical Jew in Jerusalem a couple of months before we arrived, but there seemed general calm.  We were allowed into the Golden Dome on Temple Mount.

Fast forward. I am very discouraged by the events of the past months.  Nonetheless, I hang onto the tenuous thread of hope, though punishing a group for the sins of a few, what seems to be the case now, is not and has never been constructive.  It does not work.

Which brings me back to the box….

The Nativity set, 1996.

I wish us all peace.  That 1996 Nativity set, photo above, in a sense melds Muslim, Christian and Jewish in Israel in a cooperative way.  I think it was Palestinians who carved the pieces, and sold me the product; Israel Postal Authority delivered the product to me, a Christian, in the U.S.

Maybe the box and its contents are something of a metaphor for the not always pretty reality of our own lives.  Maybe, the external box reflects how we feel about the tattered state of our country and world, but may not reflect the reality of who we really are – the people in that church sanctuary on Sunday.

More than ever, that set reminds me that we are all in this together.

Whatever your belief of tradition, don’t give up.  Work for Peace.

COMMENTS:

from Sharon: I especially liked the sentence of the Palestinians carving, sent from israel and arriving to a Minnesota christian. I, too, have an olive wood nativity set. My brother, Dallas, was a tour guide in Israel back in l962 and purchased it for my parents. Through the years, Mary got lost. I  have taken one of the shepherds and placed her behind Baby Jesus in the manger. Great article today. Merry Christmas. We must keep the faith.

from Florence: Thanks, Dick. Without a doubt we’re challenged these days to remember that “Christianity” is just a small part of the faithful in a world that too often overlooks others, including animals (land and water) that are much larger to much smaller than we are, but are equally a part of creation.

Liz Cheney’s book, “Oath and Honor“, is out today, and my wife wanted a copy so it’s in the house.  We watched the interview with Rachel Maddow last night.  Liz self-identifies as a “conservative”, Rachel as a “liberal”, both on the left and right flanks of the population, but neither at the ideological extremes.

Rather than review the book, or the positions, which by now are well known to anyone wishing to learn what the “sides” feel, I’d like to briefly comment on what I was seeing and feeling at the time of the interview last night.

I start from what I think is a generally acknowledged public perspective.  Both are women, well known and respected. and thus subject to public attention and also to attack from opponents who consider them to be powerful

Liz Cheney, born 1966, is a lawyer, was a three-term Republican Congresswoman in leadership in the House of Representative, daughter of Dick Cheney, former vice-president of the United States.

Rachel Maddow, born 1973, is a graduate of Stanford, and has a PhD from Oxford, and over 20 year career in broadcasting.

The wiki links give a good description of both accomplished women.  They would self-describe as ideological opponents, at the same time, last night, they met as equals, and I was impressed.

What also strikes me is that both are powerful women actors in what were, in the older days, places where men dominated, and in many ways still dominate, though considerably more nervously.

I have noted for years the steady rise in conventional power of women, persons of color, and more recently youth.

When I graduated from college in 1961, I had not long before turned 21, the then-legal age to vote.  So I could not vote.  Then, 18 was selective service “Draft” age; 16 was the age for getting a drivers license, and possibly other threshold ages for various things.

Race of course, has been at minimum a source of quiet tension.

In organizations where both men and women were engaged, men were the designated leaders – it was not fought about, it was understood – an assumption.  On a number of occasions, on a personal level, I’ve had occasion to make lists of leaders, and the farther back one goes, the less likely one finds women as, for example, Presidents of even small organizations.

It’s hardly a mystery why women’s suffrage didn’t happen until almost 60 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today, the ceilings remain, and there is tension as youth, people of color and women push at the boundaries.  It is probably natural that people of my gender, race and age tend to push back.

But the change is happening and I for one am happy that it is.

POSTNOTE:  Thinking more about the above, we tend to be imprisoned by implanted attitudes that we learn as we grow up.  In the simplest view, there are the generalizations which cause us problems: women view the world differently than men and would do a better job of governing; young people don’t know as much as elders, and without supervision will screw things up; people of color, poor people, immigrants who look different, don’t speak our language, etc., are not as good as we are.   On and on.

In our culture, people who look like me are the ones who got their start “on third base”: being a white male has had its advantages.  As barriers continue to fall, restrictions of opportunities for others decrease, in all of the ways we notice.  That is very threatening to people who look like me.  In general, I think one the very long term, we will find that people are people regardless of all of the artificial barriers.

One of the insights from the Liz and Rachel conversation is a brilliant statement of the obvious.  Imprisoned within their bubbles, liberal and conservative, it was difficult, perhaps, to understand that they really are quite decent people, and maybe even can like each other as a person.  This is one thing we seem to have lost in our polarized political conversation.  Any cracks in the wall of division are welcome, in my opinion.