Bethlehem Lutheran Christmas Church

This past Sunday we had a day free of class so we went down from Jerusalem to Bethlehem for church.  We attended the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church on a recommendation from a professor.  It was a complete joy to be there.  As someone who grew up Lutheran, there were many aspects of the service that were familiar to me, but the fact that the vast majority of it was in Arabic was quite unfamiliar.  Even through the church is Lutheran the service is in Arabic because that is the language of its people.  The church has about 200 members most of whom are Palestinians.  These people we living under Israeli occupation behind a 25 foot wall.  And they are Christians living among majority Muslims.  Nothing is easy for these Palestinian Christians.

(The inside of the church.)

(The dome of the church.  The Arabic reads "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill to men.")

(A stained glass window depicting the flight to Egypt by Mary and Joseph.  All the stained glass tell the Christmas story.)

The English bulletin that was provided told us that the stain glass with the flight to Egypt has been particularly powerful for this congregation because 2/3 of them are refuges themselves.  In 1948 during the Israeli War of Independence (the Palestinians call it the Nakba which means "the catastrophe") Israel forced around 750,000 Palestinians from their home into the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.  The Christians I worshiped with on Sunday are a part of those refugees.  Sometimes American Christians feel the need to support the Israeli occupation of Palestinians because they believe Israel is fighting Islam, but they often forget that we have bothers and Christians who are living in this land and struggling.  They are refuges in a harsh place; we must pray for and support them.

The service ended with the hymn "Christ of All Nations."  Singing it with Christian Palestinian Refuges who are my brothers and sisters was more powerful than words.

"O God of every nation,

of every race and land,
redeem the whole creation
with your almighty hand;
where hate and fear divide us
and bitter threats are hurled,
in love and mercy guide us
and heal our strife-torn world.

From search for wealth and power
and scorn of truth and right,
from trust in bombs that shower
destruction through the night,
from pride of race and nation
and blindness to your way,
deliver every nation,
eternal God, we pray.

Keep bright in us the vision
of days when war shall cease,
when hatred and division 
give way to love and peace,
till dawns the morning glorious
when truth and justice reign
and Christ shall rule victorious
o'er all the world's domain."