Home > Sermons > December 24, 2006

WHY BETHLEHEM?

First Congregational Church of Evanston
December 24, 2006 (Advent IV)
Luke 2: 1-7, Micah 5:2-5a

Rev. Dr James E. Roghair, Interim Minister

Micah 5:2

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel...

Pondering Things

At the end of the story about the Shepherds visiting the baby Jesus in the Bethlehem stable – the one we will be reading tonight in the Christmas Eve services – it says that, “Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.” It is an unusual statement, have you ever thought about what it means? And what was Mary thinking about, anyway?

Was she wondering when the Shepherds would leave and let her get some rest? I will never forget the time I visited an old friend when her baby was only a few days old. And as I look back on it, I believe that we the visitors outstayed our welcome at the home. The mother was exhausted and not really ready for company.

But when we see the creche depicted – whether it is in paintings or sculpture or even in our Christmas pageants – there Mary sits, impeccably decked out in blue or white – sitting demurely or kneeling. Perhaps she pondering things in her heart. But those who are mothers might be quite skeptical of Mary being expected to be so well put together immediately after delivering her baby!

Mary was surely exhausted. The events of the delivery would have been enough to assure her exhaustion. But then there were the events of the several months preceding: The unexpected and unplanned pregnancy. The uncertainty of it all. And then the trip to Bethlehem and the uninviting make-shift arrangements. Then on top of all that, the commotion of the shepherds coming.

Why?

Surely as she drifted between wakefulness and sleep that comes with physical exhaustion, Mary would have had plenty of why’s to ask.

Of course there were more why-questions:

And after the shepherds left, Mary must have had one more fleeting question before she dozed off for sleep:

Of all the people God could have chosen to send this message about her son, why would God choose shepherds? And why Bethlehem?

Why Bethlehem?

Bethlehem and the shepherds seem to have been a part of God’s plan. The ancient prophet Micah had exclaimed that little Bethlehem would be the place God’s ruler would come from – acknowledging that Bethlehem is one of the small places.

Bethlehem – it’s name means the house of bread. It was on an important trade route. It was near a fertile valley where grain was grown – perhaps explaining its name. It was, also, the childhood home of King David. But only once in the Hebrew Scriptures is this House of Bread described as the City of David. That title was usually reserved for the city that David captured and made his headquarters, Jerusalem – 5 miles up the road.

But when God chooses to send to the Bread of Life, God chooses to send him to Bethlehem – one of those places of poverty that was always under the heels of some empire. In the time of the prophet Micah, it was the Assyrian Empire. In the days of Jesus’ birth it was the Roman empire. In our day Bethlehem is still in the gunsights of empire.

Not that long ago, the late Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority were holed in Ramallah near Bethlehem for months and under siege from the Israeli army– without electricity and without water. Perhaps you remember that Arafat, a Muslim, was accustomed to going to visit the Christian Shrine of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. But because of the siege Arafat couldn’t attend the event.

Things don’t seem to change in Bethlehem over the centuries. And yet the prophet Micah predicted long ago that God would send a great ruler into the poverty of Bethlehem. And that the great ruler would be a ruler of peace. So when the Christian Gospel writers began to tell the story of Jesus, they were sure to include the details about God’s gift in and through this poverty-filled village called Bethlehem.

The Incongruity Pondered

Perhaps, as Mary was pondering in her heart that night, she pondered the incongruity of it all. She had been visited by an angel. She had been told that she would be the Mother of a Savior. But she was nobody special – just a poor peasant girl. And she and her fiancé had been forced to travel from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem. Why? Because the empire needed to keep things orderly and count its subjects!

And why in Bethlehem didn’t God make things known to the important people of the community? The municipal authorities or the leading business leaders?

But no. It was shepherds the angels appeared to. Shepherds were poor – way down the social ladder. They found it difficult – actually impossible – to follow the Pharisees’ religious rules. They didn’t even try to be ritually correct. They were despised and considered to be like the Gentiles by the good people of the religious establishment. They couldn’t read, so they only knew about the prophecies second or third hand. They weren’t welcome in the Temple.

So Mary pondered : Why Shepherds? I don’t think that Mary questioned that the shepherds could see Angels. Nor would she question that the Angels had given them special news. Mary had seen an Angel, herself. But, just as many people surely found it hard to believe Mary’s angel story, many people would not believe the shepherd’s story, either. But Mary believed.

Why Shepherds?

As Mary pondered, surely she thought about how God was choosing those of low degree – the town of Bethlehem – people like herself – like her fiancé Joseph– like her cousin Elizabeth – now the shepherds – choosing these people to reveal Godself to the world.

The message was that Mary’s son would reign on the throne of David – that he would be called the Son of God. Surely Mary pondered: How could this be? What would life be like for her son? Would he really reestablish a royal kingdom? Or was this about something altogether different – as yet unrevealed? Surely Mary’s son would be as alien to the wealthy and powerful people of the city as these shepherds were.

- Why Bethlehem? Why shepherds?

God must have some incredibly new thing to say to the world.

What Would Happen?

Mary couldn’t foresee all that would happen – couldn’t imagine the opposition Jesus would face – how the Pharisees and the Roman government would team up because they both found her son so dangerous. She couldn’t imagine the pain and insult of the cross. Nor the wonder of the resurrection.

Mary was at the beginning of a great adventure – waiting to see what God would do next. She fell into exhausted sleep with the strangeness of God’s choices in her mind: How God had chosen the most sociologically unexpected folks – the most theologically inept folks to hear the Angel voices. And these things that Mary pondered are still a mystery for us – even today.

The Lesson of the Mystery

Perhaps we learn something about who God is from this story. William H. Willimon says: “You can tell a great deal about someone by whom that person visits.” And he goes on to tell this story: “ When Gandhi cameto England, he visited first the Manchester cotton mill workers, most of whom were unemployed. Many of these workers suffered terribly because of the textile boycott that Gandhi led in India. Gandhi had urged his followers not to wear clothes made in England and protest against English imperialism.

“Therefore, among the first people that Gandhi visited in England was not the Prime Minister, or at 10 Downing Street, but were the unemployed textile workers. Gandhi gave them his sympathy, he apologized for the harm that his movement had caused them, but tried to explain to them the basis of his movement and his rationale. All of this was most revealing for who Gandhi was and the work in which he was engaged. (Willimon in Pulpit Resource).”

And who among us will forget that Martin Luther King, an American follower of both Jesus and Gandhi, met his death in Memphis as he was there to support the garbage workers. By this time King was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a famous author and preacher. So, why did King jeopardize his own life in Memphis for the garbage workers?

Willimon reflects: “When God became incarnate in humanity, God did not come to those who were high and mighty. He came to the meek and lowly. He did not come to those who were in charge of things, but to those who were oppressed by those who were in charge of things.

“Now what does that tell [us] about God?” (Pulpit Resource)

God of the Poor

God is the God of the poverty stricken. God is the God of the refugees and the unemployed. God is known is to be found in the lands of the world that are suffering starvation and exploitation. Unfortunately you and I don’t know much about what it is like to be the poverty class of the world. Compared to the majority of people in the world, you and I are the well-off. We are more likely to sit with Herod or with Caesar Augustus than we are to sit with Mary in the Stable.

So let us pray that during this season, we may even glimpse the God who comes to Bethlehem – who comes to a peasant girl – who comes to Shepherds. Let us pray that God grant us the opportunity to be on the right side of God’s work in the world.

That we too may see the King in the Manger – not because we are worthy – but because God has given us the privilege to be among the poor to whom God has revealed Godself.

Amen.

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008