Thursday, December 26, 2013

Bethlehem Unwrapped and exposed...God, forgive us

Boxing Day in London...Christmas lights garland through the Picaddilly Arcade. Love is in the air!  Our happy conversation and light footsteps are arrested by an unusual sight in the courtyard of St James' Church.  But I am ahead of myself...

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie...

Christmas Day lies behind us.  Christ is born!  
Our reflections at church on Christmas morning remind us that Jesus of the 21st century is being born into a homeless family, an oppressed family, a poor family.  But let us not forget the families in Bethlehem, behind the wall.  Let us not forget 21st century Bethlehem completely, leaving it to fend for itself, abandoning its children to find a way in this dark world of sin on their own.  We have illuminated our festive celebrations with hope and light and joy; let us not forget turning our backs on their fears, darkness and despair.  

Today walking through London, enjoying the decorated arcades along Piccadilly, "Bethlehem Unwrapped" arrests us, interrupts our light conversation, and captures our attention.  This “ installation” by Justin Butler, Geof Thomspon, Dean Willars and Deborah Burton casts a long shadow over the St James' Church courtyard, usually a bustling marketplace. Stark, towering, imposing, boldly and brazenly interjecting Israel’s Separation Wall into the London landscape.  Mandela's words remind those who pause, "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."

We pause.  We look.  We read.

We have not seen the Separation Wall in Bethlehem except in photos.  I have seen the Berlin Wall -- I remember visiting Checkpoint Charlie in my youth, wondering what life on the other side would be like, the side where people were not so free as me.  We have seen the wall down the middle of the doctor's office in Melmoth, South Africa, in the time of apartheid, separating the waiting room for Black Zulus with its rough wooden benches and posters of snake bites from the waiting room for Whites with its soft couches and piles of magazines.  We have seen images of the wall being erected by our own people in the USA to keep out those who "threaten us" from the south. 

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Why are we so afraid of one another?  Someone has written "Wailing Wall" -- We hear God wailing with sadness behind it.  The spire of St James rises above the planks. Can we look high enough above our walls of separation?  Dare we hope that the one God of all creation can be loved in peace?  Dare we allow others to use the names they prefer, the images of their own creation, the stories of their own histories?     
 
Let us boldly proclaim one God – Elohim, Allah, Jehovah, Emmanuel.  God by any other name is still God, the mystery we can never fully know or understand, the power that has transformed our lives, the One that can turn hate into love and can teach us to channel power for good.  Is this so difficult?

No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.

May we remember, in the words of Abraham Lincoln (as written on the wall), "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

God, empower us to remember the futility of dividing walls and strengthen us to pull them down, using the timber and stones to build bridges.



















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