O Little Town...

 

“O Little Town…”

 

Micah 5:2-5a
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, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

5:3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel.

5:4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;

5:5 and he shall be the one of peace.

 

 

Micah’s prophecy that the “one who is to rule Israel” would be born in Bethlehem is not too surprising. Since King David was born in Bethlehem, this wasn’t exactly a “Kreskin” moment. From one “great ruler” to another (the anticipated messiah), Bethlehem was a highly predictable launching point. Still, Bethlehem was a small, sleepy town on the West Bank of the great city of Jerusalem, and one not accustomed to such honors. The Micah text wants to make sure the reader doesn’t think he is talking about Bethlehem in the territory of Zebulon, so by adding the locator “of Ephratha, this was avoided. Bethlehem was a lesser suburb. Sheep were grazing on its slopes, hence the shepherds to whom the angels appeared, announcing the birth of Jesus. In that day, Bethlehem was sort of a backwater town. Remember that Mary and Joseph went there, according to the Bible, so Joseph could register for the census; they were certainly not sightseeing. And while they wound up in the horse cave, this would not have been much less spartan than Bethlehem’s inn, and more private, to boot. Jesus’ birth narrative reads much more like Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and family in the bowery in Camden Town than that of the royal family. When you think of it in that way, is it any wonder that so many wonderful, yet “non-biblical” Christmas stories have grown up around it? The story itself reads like something out of Dickens, or even one of those sappy Hallmark movies. But it is a story we tell (or read) every year, year after year, and like “A Christmas Carol,” it never grows old. In fact, I can say that for me, and probably for most of us, it grows sweeter and sweeter each year. This year—my first in retirement—I’m looking forward to “returning to my first love” with the Christmas story, as I can just revisit what it meant to listen to it, get lost in the wonder of it, and believe it in my heart, afresh and anew! I'm not in a panic about what I should preach about it in a Christmas Eve sermon.

 

Not to draw any parallels with Jesus, but I, too, was born in a small town—Oil City, Pennsylvania. We know of Bethlehem, because the Savior of the world was born there. Historically, those who know Oil City, do so because, basically, the oil industry was born there. It would not be a stretch to say that the energy industry was born in Oil City, as oil and its later distillation into gasoline, launched what grew into the wider energy industry, not just here, but throughout the world. For three years in the 1870s, Oil City was the home of the world Oil Exchange, which was the largest financial exchange market next to the New York Stock Exchange. It's hard to believe that my little home town was once a major financial center of the world, but even harder to believe is the story of nearby Pithole.

 

Pithole was an oil boom town that sprung up in 1865, after Colonel Edwin Drake successfully drilled for oil near Titusville, PA. Pithole grew to over 20,000 residents. At its peak, Pithole had at least 54 hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in Pennsylvania, a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world's first pipeline, as well as a “red light” district that rivelled that of the infamous Dodge City. In three years it had shrunk up to a fraction of its size and influence, as the oil boom waned, and in a little over ten years, it ceased to exist. A trip to “historic” Pithole today finds a visitor’s center, grown over land, and scattered metal fragments of what used to be drilling rigs and oil derricks. Most people have never heard of Pithole, and think you are kidding if you tell them about it. 

 

Oil City has had a little better luck, given that its story has been “marketed” by the town’s remnants over the years, leading to at least some recognition and notoriety. Unfortunately, it, too has declined markedly, in terms of its industry and population. When I was growing up there, Oil City had somewhere just South of 20,000 residents, had 47 major industries, and was a thriving, “All-American” third class city. Even in my lifetime, it was the national headquarters of both Pennzoil and Quaker State. However, as the oil industry moved to Texas, so did these companies. Oil City once had a large Pennzoil refinery, as well as a glass manufacturing plant that made most of the bottles for the Evenflo and R.T. French companies. These, along with many companies that grew up around the oil industry, are all gone, and Oil City’s population today is less than 9,000 people. Many of the majestic old homes that housed both barons and their wannabes are in disrepair or are already gone. Since I have family still living there, I make regular trips back to Oil City, and it saddens me to see that most of the things that made my early memories are gone now—pizza shops, five and dime stores, soda fountains, and downtown department stores. In a way, it seems like the little town I grew up in has been disrespected by the country it helped to forge. 

 

Bethlehem is kind of the Pithole or the Oil City of the biblical world. As Christians, we believe the Son of God was born into the world there. We venerate the rich Christmas Story recorded in the second chapter of Luke. We sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” with teary eyes as we return to the side of the Nativity. We preserve this precious memory in paintings, movies, and countless miniature creche scenes, and of course, in song. But what of the “real” Bethlehem? The birthplace of the Christ is basically a town in exile. It is still there on the West Bank of Jerusalem, but the political state of Israel controls, disrespects, and persecutes what is now a Palestinian city. Political Israel continues to usurp land and resources from the Palestinian people, squeezing them into smaller and smaller parcels in total violation of the agreements made after World War II, when the State of Israel was created out of Palestinian lands. Evangelical Christians and the U.S. government, believing they are supporting the Israel of the Bible, stand with political Israel in this, taking sides with them against the Palestinian people, and both believing and promoting the lie that the Palestinians are all terrorists. Many Americans and most Christians refuse to believe the facts about what political Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, and when factions of the Palestinians strike out at Israel after they bulldoze yet another of their housing complexes, cut off their water, or deny them access to Jerusalem, where most of the jobs are, the Palestinians are always portrayed as the “bad guys.” Doctors without Borders and other benevolent organizations like them tell us of the violent bombing attacks political Israel launches in retaliation for a rocket-propelled grenade falling in Israeli territory. These bombing raids are carried out against civilian targets like schools, hospitals, and residential neighborhoods—places where Palestinian citizens have been compressed into as their land is seized. There are many deaths, and even the news media, jaded by the false, political narratives fed them by Israel and its “blind” allies like the United States, refrain from reporting them.

 

Bethlehem is disrespected and rendered dangerous by political Israel’s continuous persecution, rationalized by them because it is in Palestinian territory. Little towns like Oil City and Pithole are what they are today because history has passed them by, sadly. But Bethlehem continues to be a town under siege today. The town where Jesus Christ was born, the “little town” we remember each year as we celebrate Jesus’ birth, is suffering at the hands of political Israel, as supported by people who call themselves Christians. 

 

In this Advent season, may part of our resolve be that we, as the church, and as Christ-followers, would engage in protests and boycotts against political Israel for their treatment of the Palestinian people, and say a prayer for Bethlehem, even as we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. After all, as a Galilean, Jesus was a Palestinian, himself. May we stand with the Palestinian people, many of whom are practicing Christians, in working for just resolutions to their conflict with political Israel. And may we help other Christian siblings come to realize that political Israel of our time is not the biblical Israel they believe they are called to support. When political Israel starts to act like the people of God, rather than as a God unto themselves, then they may regain the support of their "adoptive" family, the Christian people.

 

As a small town boy, myself, I will stand with the people of Palestine and Bethlehem. And I will think of them every time I sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem”! Amen.