Canon Rich Simpson -- 21st Century Congregations

21st Century Congregations

December 2023

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

The words to the hymn quoted above were written by Philips Brooks, who served as Bishop of Massachusetts when the entire Commonwealth was still one diocese. He was, in short, one of our bishops…

That little town of Bethlehem has been much on my mind of late. We had to cancel an April pilgrimage to the Holy Land and my heart is still breaking. The Washington Post recently reported that Christmas Is Cancelled this year in Bethlehem because of the conflict in Gaza. A friend of mine, who runs a small souvenir shop across from St. George’s College in East Jerusalem posted a video recently on Facebook, a video taken at the Church of the Nativity. There wasn’t a soul to be seen in a place that is usually overrun by pilgrims. Whether or not you’ve ever travelled to the Holy Land, that old church may be familiar to you. I took this picture on one of the many times I’ve been there and want you to see it if you don’t already know it, as a kind of “icon” for this reflection.

We know that Jesus wasn’t born in this Church building, of course. But it is nevertheless the oldest church in the land of the Holy One – groundbreaking reportedly happened in 326 and it was completed in 565. It was chosen because tradition had it in the third century that this was the site where Jesus was born, in a cave – and so it was built on top of that site. Even if that can’t be verified what that means is that pilgrims have been coming here for two thousand years to pray and to remember our dear savior’s birth.

Those who have traveled there know that it is an ordeal to get there these days since it is on the West Bank and behind a separation wall that looks like this:

So this year, Christmas is cancelled in Bethlehem. No one is coming. There is, ironically, plenty of room in the inn.

Advent is always filled with some measure of “looking back” to the birth of Jesus in first-century Palestine, on the edges of the Roman empire. In our worst moments we may succumb to nostalgia for a simpler time, the innocence of childhood perhaps. But in truth, the birth of Jesus took place in a world sadly not so different from ours. In those days, when a decree went out from the emperor, the world was a hot mess.

But Advent is also about the present and the future. It’s about paying attention to the world we live in – a world that can feel very frightening, a world that seems to be coming apart at the seams. I hope that as we sing in Advent and then again on Christmas Eve that we’ll find room in our hearts to pray for all of those suffering this day, today, in both Israel and Palestine: Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. If Jesus loved all the little children of the world (and he did!) then those who seek to follow him are called (with God’s help) to do the same.

Advent’s future tense, and the readings for this season, are all about cultivating imagination to see the potential of this world as “otherwise.” We see war and violence, yet still we keep the dream of peace on earth alive. We see the degradation of God’s beloved and the slaughter of innocents, yet we speak of good will for all people. We hear the drumbeat of war, yet we keep listening for the songs of the angels who sing joy to the world.

I was on the Mass Pike (where I spend a lot of time!) when Rosalyn Carter’s funeral was playing on CNN, and I listened in to hear the choir singing “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me…” Mrs. Carter and her husband have lived that prayer. It’s not easy. It’s a close cousin to the prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: Lord, make us instruments of thy peace…

As we enter into this Advent season, I invite you to remember the wisdom of these two prayers. Most of us in this diocese can join in praying for peace in Bethlehem (and Jerusalem and Gaza) and for the celebrations to be joyful next year. But we live in the meantime, in a time when those celebrations are cancelled. The current reality reminds us of our work to not be passive pray-ers wishing that elected leaders will figure this all out. Rather, it is to allow our prayers for peace on earth and good will to all to take hold in our own lives, in our own homes and neighborhoods and congregations. So that peace on earth really does begin with us. It begins with reconciliation in families that are divided. It begins at our vestry meetings across this diocese and in the towns and cities where we live.

The hopes and fears of all the years meet in Jesus the Christ – and we who follow him and claim his as Lord are called to let peace begin with us.

Rich+

The Rev. Dr. Richard M. Simpson

Canon to the Ordinary

The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts

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