Wilmot First Presbyterian Church

Scripture: Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:18

Bethlehem

The city of David, Bethlehem, isn’t shown in our Nativity Scenes, but it is a part of the Christmas story.  It paid an unimaginable price.

Do parents in small towns love their children less?  It’s a ridiculous question because we know the answer.  Of course they don’t but, they may often feel more free to let them run and play out of sight (but not out of mind).  A small town seems safer because people all know one another.  A small town seems quieter.  Adolescents in small towns may sit around and complain that there’s “nothing to do” and many of us small town parents like it that way because what may seem exciting to a child is usually trouble.

Bethlehem was a small town and 2000 years later we sing about “how still we see thee lie.”  The name conjures up for me the image of a place where everyone knew everyone else and days blurred into one another because each and every one seemed much the same as the day before, and the day to come.

The census of Rome was big news.  No longer did residents need to rehash the same stale news each day at the gate or at the well, now there was news brought by travelers from places so far away they seemed like different worlds.  The biggest news, however, really was news from a different world.  Angels told shepherds, and shepherds told people, and people practiced one-upping each other telling stories of when they first heard it and how they know the brother of the cousin of one of the shepherds.  I’m sure some people reported how they too thought they saw something in the sky that night up over the hill…  By the time Magi arrived everyone they met had a story of how they were personally present at the delivery.

Bethlehem would not for long be a sleepy little hamlet a few miles from the capital, Jerusalem.  Now they were on the map!  Now they were making the news.  Now they had to watch their children a little more closely because tourists were in town and strangers would be aware of their existence; strangers including Herod.  Now they would learn that while God’s grace is limitless, the cruelty of humanity, or in this case one particular human, is nearly as inexhaustible.  While a great light shined on a quiet little town, a great evil awaited them in the jealous hatred of Herod’s heart. 

Do parents in small towns love their children less? 

At some point after the visit of the Magi, this curious family that had put them on the map packed up and left for somewhere.  Perhaps it seemed like things were returning to the same day, every day routine?  What was to befall them shortly is difficult to read, much less imagine, and how impossible it must have been to experience for that community.

What lies still in Bethlehem is the town, paralyzed in their grief for the stillness of the children struck down in the street, or in their bed, or in the arms of their terrified family by Herod’s men.  O, little town of Bethlehem!  An angel had warned Joseph to flee.  Were the other parents in town left to face evil unwarned?  As it turns out, however, God’s innocent child would also be put to death, just not right away.  The families of Bethlehem lost a child, so did God.  What kind of God would consider such suffering part of the plan and share in it willingly?  Is God that bad, or is God that good?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we do not understand your ways.  We praise you for grace in the midst of the evil we inflict upon one another, and rest in the promise that you work in all things for the good for those who love you.  Help us love better and trust more.  In the name of Your Holy Child, AMEN

Activity: Spend 5 minutes every day this week praying for the community and those who are growing up here.