A Batlle Cry: Bethlehem - Micah 5:2-5a
What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Yes, I am talking about Christmas in a sermon
and it’s not even Thanksgiving. No, this
is the same old pastor that y’all have had for eleven years who doesn’t like
doing a lot of Christmas carols until Christmas Day. With that confusion over, let me ask again,
what is your favorite thing about Christmas?
The lights? The trees?
The candles? The scents of pine,
cedar, and a plethora of baked goods?
The presents? The decorations? The cantatas? The children’s programs?
The worship? The carols? The parades? The family gatherings? The movies? The stories? The legends? Have I hit on it
yet?
I love the lights—as a kid it was the
colored lights, now I just love the places lit up with all white lights. I’ve shared with y’all before that has been a
point of contention in our household over the years—at least until last year
when we found strands of lights that will actually alternate between white and
colored.
Many folks have their favorite
extra-Biblical Christmas stories and movies as well. For Anita it is Disney’s The Santa Clause, for Joshua it is The Polar Express, I grew up loving O’Henry’s Gift of the Magi, and then fell in love with the Muppets updating
it with Emmitt Otter’s Jug Band
Christmas. One story or legend that
I always marveled at, though, was the story of Flanders, Belgium in 1914. It is the World War I story of how, despite
the fact that all involved sides dismissal the request by Pope Benedict XV for
a Christmas cease-fire, an impromptu cease-fire erupted between the British and
Germans in the trenches in the area of Flanders—initiated by the German
soldiers who set up Christmas trees and began singing carols, and eventually
involved both groups of soldiers entering the “no-man’s land” to share the
rations and gifts each had received, sing together, bury their dead together,
and even have a game or two of football (soccer). The peace lasted for about a week, when by
New Year’s Day, commanders of both groups of soldiers gave orders to resume
hostilities or face court martial.[i]
I share all of this because Christmas
tends to be a time when we think of peace and serenity amongst a rare snowfall
with all the pretty lights and celebrations.
What we forget is that very often for many people, Christmas is a time
of fear, depression, loneliness, desertion, and violence…and despite the beauty
of the pageantry that surrounds Christmas, even in the church, that for those
of the Biblical Christmas story—Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, and
even Jesus, it is this darker side of Christmas that they would come closest to
identifying with—a world filled with pain, misery, rejection, and sin. It is, in fact, this world of darkness and
sin, that the birth of the one who would later say, “Do not think that I have
come to bring peace to earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword,”[ii]
was not God’s declaration of “Peace on Earth,” but God’s declaration of war—a
war between God and Satan over the future of Creation—a war that begins in the
manger and ends on the other side of Easter with the empty tomb. My brothers and sisters, it is this
declaration of war that I want us to examine from this Sunday until the arrival
of the wise men (not on Christmas Day—but at Epiphany in January) as we journey
through this series entitled “A War Cry,” examining each of the familiar parts
of the Christmas Story.
Today, let us begin, then, not with a
person, but with a place, as we examine God’s battle plan. It is the little
town of Bethlehem. When you think of Bethlehem what comes to mind? Small town? The Nativity? A dark night with
the star of Bethlehem shining overhead? Maybe we even recall that outside the
birthplace of Jesus, that it is also the birthplace of David. Anything
else? Do we know anything else about
this quaint little town? Is this
it? Are these the only times Bethlehem
is mentioned? Actually no. Looking closely at Bethlehem, we find that it
is far from being a sleepy little maternity ward for God’s chosen to be born.
In fact, as we turn to God’s Word, our
first encounter with Bethlehem is that of a birthplace, but also its exact opposite
as well:
“Then they journeyed from Bethel; and
when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and
she had hard labor. When she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her,
“Do not be afraid; for now you will have another son.” As her soul was
departing (for she died), she named him Ben-Oni, (Son of my sorrow); but his father called him Benjamin (son of my right hand). So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way
to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”[iii].
Our first Biblical encounter with Bethlehem is one not only associated with
childbirth, but with death connected to childbirth—it is a place of darkness,
death, grief…
Our next encounter with the town of
Bethlehem is just as dark. We encounter it in the book of Judges. Without going into all the detail of Judges
17-19, because a graphic description of what we encounter in those chapters
would earn this sermon an NC-17 rating. It involves idolatry, priestly
faithlessness, abandonment, betrayal, gang-rape, butchery, and death.
Bethlehem is also the hometown of
Naomi, her husband, and their sons. They
left Bethlehem searching for a more prosperous life. After the men took foreign
women to be their wives, all three men died. After their death, Naomi returned
to Bethlehem with her former daughter-in-law Ruth, and instructs those in
Bethlehem who knew her to no longer call her Naomi, but to call her Mara, which
means “bitter.” She found herself without any hope of a future because with no
husband and no sons, she had no hope of a future.
Even with the anointing of David in
his hometown of Bethlehem, we find it to be a place of discrimination—David,
being the youngest of all his brothers is completely disregarded when the
prophet announces that he desires to see all of Jesse’s sons. David’s young age
leaving him ignored.
So this little town of Bethlehem—this
place marked not only by the darkness of night, but also by the darkness of
death, sorrow, idolatry, violence, and even prejudice, is the place where God
sounds forth His war cry—in the cry of a newborn babe laid in a manger.
What does God’s selection of Bethlehem
mean to us? It means everything.
It means that where there is
prejudice—whether it is ageism, sexism, racism, classism, or any other “ism”
that those who walk in God’s creation have encountered—that God has entered
into that darkness and called for its defeat.
It means that where there is
violence—not just war, but instances of abuse, battery, rape, molestation,
torture, butchery—that God does not turn a blind eye, that God does not go
somewhere else, but that God enters into that very vile place and declares it
will not last.
It means that where idolatry is
found—anywhere that something other than God is being worshipped, whether we
are bowing down to wooden or golden idols, or the more common idols of today,
fame, fortune, pleasure, and anything else to which we give more of our time
and energy than we do to God—God enters in and reminds us that He is God and
everything else will fail us as surely as a golden calf melts under heat.
It means that where sorrow is
found—whether it is grief or depression or a sense of abandonment—that God
enters in and reminds us that we are not alone---that He is with us, Emmanuel
has come and we are never left alone.
In means that where death is found,
God chooses to enter that very place, and claims victory, so that Paul is able
to write, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your
sting?...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through Our Lord Jesus
Christ.”[iv]
My brothers and sisters, the fact that
God choose to enter into the darkness of Bethlehem and declare war means that
we do not have to fear or be ruled by or fear prejudice, violence, sorrow, or
grief, and that we are called to leave those idols behind that we may find
ourselves in the company of the One who has already won the war, that with the
empty tomb has given us reason celebrate His birth with the lights of the
season.
In the Name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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