December 24, 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I arrived in Tel Aviv for my sabbatical study in late May, it was still the middle of the night. I was given instructions to pick up a van shuttle outside the baggage claim area and tell the driver to take me to Tantur in Jerusalem. By the time I arrived, it was daybreak. I was the last passenger in the van and the driver dropped me off at the front gate. I walked up the hill dragging my one bag behind me. I didn\u2019t know until daybreak that where I will spend the next four weeks was just outside of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the first day of our program, our directors took the 29 of us up on the roof of Tantur to have a panoramic view of Jerusalem. Right in front of us, just across the street from the campus of Tantur was the Bethlehem wall. I saw a 25-foot concrete wall surrounding the Palestinian territory. I saw a sentry guard tower and barbed wire and this barrier that rings the city of Jesus\u2019 birth. Begun in 2002, the wall was built by the Israeli government to keep potential suicide bombers from entering Israel through Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israeli government and its supporters view the wall as necessary to their security and safety, while Palestinians and their supporters see it as a form of apartheid. Bottom line is that if the magi were trying to get to Bethlehem today, they\u2019d have to go through some serious security screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you approach the wall from the Israeli side, there\u2019s a large, colorful sign painted on it near one of the guard towers saying, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, \u201cPeace Be With You.\u201d Approach this same wall from the Palestinian side and you see darker images\u2014those of a snake curling its way down the wall toward the checkpoint, a picture of a dove of peace wearing a flak jacket and signs spray-painted in English and Arabic saying, \u201cGod will tear down this wall.\u201d I saw a skull and bone that says, \u201cThis is Israeli Occupation.\u201d The Bethlehem wall is a symbol of deep sadness and contrast for people on both sides, most of whom would rather simply live in peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wall\u2019s construction has left Bethlehem struggling economically. Unemployment is high and people often wait in lines hours long to be cleared to cross the barrier for jobs on the Israeli side. Every time I crossed easily as a westerner, I saw at least one Palestinian denied entry. People who have inherited cherished olive trees can\u2019t harvest them because the trees are now on the other side of the wall. It\u2019s a reminder that whenever walls are erected for whatever reason, suffering and a lack of hope soon follow for everyone involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
O Little Town of Bethlehem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When we read the Christmas story and when we sing, \u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem,\u201d this isn\u2019t what we picture. We love the Christmas-card image of a sleepy little town with open streets and gentle, rustic stables. The fact is that while there was no concrete wall around Bethlehem in the first century, there was no less stark a contrast between the poor of this little village and the powerful people in Jerusalem and, even more so, in Rome. The emperor, Augustus, ruled over the Mediterranean world and he called himself a man of peace. But his definition of maintaining peace was from military dominance and economic repression. He taxed those who were oppressed to fund his military forces and building projects. There was a wall between the rich and powerful and those who were poor and ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we miss when we only celebrate the Christmas story in a once-a-year celebration is the stark truth that Jesus was born on the wrong side of the wall. The emperor Augustus never heard about his birth, nor did the rich and powerful just up the road in Jerusalem. The angels didn\u2019t appear in Rome or in the temple in Jerusalem but they came to Bethlehem\u2014on that side of the wall. The angels appeared to the shepherds, the poorest of the poor, the lowest of the low, the insignificant and forgotten people of the empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peace on Earth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan that God was announcing through the angels was a plan of peace, but a peace radically different from that so often trumpeted by human empires. God\u2019s plan of \u201cpeace on earth\u201d would not come through the power and might of conquering armies and defeated enemies. It would not be a peace that meant prosperity for some and poverty for others. It was not a peace through victory, but peace through God\u2019s justice. This is shalom\u2014the Hebrew word for peace that really means: well-being, justice, good news for all the people. It\u2019s the peace that happens when God sits on the throne of the world and not emperor Caesar Augustus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This vision of peace is familiar to us on Christmas Eve. We like to sing of \u201cpeace\u201d on earth, along with the angels, but when the angels retreat into heaven we put away that vision for another year, leaving world peace to be the subject of politicians in the world or Hollywood celebrities doing their humanitarian best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe we feel this way because we live on the other side of the wall from Bethlehem. It was always easy for me to show my US passport and the security guard would wave me through. We live in a place where we can spend our money on recreation instead of wondering where our next meal is coming from. We have the luxury of looking at places like the Middle East, Darfur, and other locations around the world through our television screens instead of seeing war, genocide, injustice and poverty just outside our windows. When it gets to be too much, we can just change the channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O how much I pray to not forget the experiences in Jerusalem and Bethlehem that I received this past summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other Side of the Wall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us probably came here tonight expecting to hear a message about a smiling baby, gentle shepherds, adoring parents and lowing cattle, maybe some precious memories of childhood, or a sentimental story of Christmases past, maybe a little something to bless all the gift-buying that we\u2019ve done. After all, we\u2019re supposed to feel good at Christmas, right? The problem is that the story of Christmas isn\u2019t really at its core about any of those things. In very real terms, Luke and the other gospel writers want to take us through the gates of our own security and comfort to the other side of the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Christmas carols call us to \u201cCome ye, O come ye to Bethlehem\u201d and \u201cCome to Bethlehem and see.\u201d We have to go to Bethlehem to the other side of the wall where we can hear the songs of angels proclaiming that God is doing something about the real problems in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus may have left Bethlehem, but he lived his life fully on that side of the wall. The baby born in a manger, grew up preaching and embodying a message of the coming kingdom of God\u2014God\u2019s reign and rule on earth, a kingdom that would bring justice and well-being to the whole world. He healed the sick, touched the untouchable, called people to share their wealth, fed the hungry. He spent his time with outcasts, loved the unlovable, and washed the feet of his disciples like the lowliest servant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His mission and message drew fire from his enemies, whose version of comfort and security was threatened by his call for justice and grace. Rather than vanquish his enemies, he forgave them\u2014even as he was nailed to a Roman cross, the ultimate symbol of the empire\u2019s ability to kill and destroy. After his death, the empire walled him in a stone tomb and sealed the door shut. That\u2019s what emperors do to those who challenge the status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what the empire fails to realize is that Jesus breaks down walls\u2014walls of violence and injustice, walls that separate rich and poor, walls that define who\u2019s worthy and who\u2019s not, and walls of sin and death that separate us from knowing the love, peace and justice of God in this world. In Jesus, God showed that empires cannot and will not have the last word in this world. That word belongs to the true King, the one for whom angels sing\u2014the true Son of God, the one called \u201cWonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father\u201d and the true \u201cPrince of Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manger Set<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For me to have seen the Bethlehem wall this past summer means that I can\u2019t never only think about Bethlehem at Christmas again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pieces of the olive wood manger set that we had up here on Sunday were bought in the Bethlehem side of the wall. I heard that there\u2019s a wood carver in Bethlehem who has been carving a wall to go with his olive wood manger set. The 65-year old Palestinian carpenter said, \u201cI wanted to give the world an idea of how we live in the Holy Land. I was inspired by our own wall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hope of Christmas is that even in occupied Bethlehem, even behind the wall, there is hope. Every wall in the manger sets is removable. We hope and pray that the 20-foot high concrete wall surrounding the little town of Bethlehem can also be removable someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what Christmas is about: peace on earth\u2014a peace with no more walls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 24, 2008 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. When I arrived in Tel Aviv for my sabbatical study in late