Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

Greetings,

Guess what? I got tickets to go to the midnight mass at the Nativity Church in Bethlehem! So on Christmas Eve I'll be going to two services now, first a 7:00 service at a Syrian Catholic church, which is in Aramaic, Jesus' first language; and then the midnight mass at the Nativity Church. I'm very curious what it will be like; I don't want to expect too much of a "spiritual" experience, but I think certainly as a cultural experience it will be fabulous. =) (In past years, I heard that the main attraction people would come for is to see Yasser Arafat--"Come celebrate the birth of Jesus, AND see Yasser Arafat!!" -- but obviously this year things are a little different.)

This Sunday we were singing some Christmas hymns, and I realized that every time I sing about Bethlehem or the birth of Jesus, it really touches me, knowing the place and loving the people here. We sang "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem," and there's a line that says "Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by." It made me think of just the night before when I was walking home from the checkpoint, looking up at the beautiful stars, on this cold, silent, beautiful winter night. (Who knows if Jesus was born in winter--he probably wasn't--but the imagery of God coming to us into the darkness and cold, first with the light of a little star, then growing to become a blazing sun of resurrection glory, is very apt.) I also particularly appreciated the words of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel":

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
Who mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice, rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel
...
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease
And be Thyself our Prince of Peace

I'm growing to love the people of Israel more as I spend time here. So it really tugged on me to hear the first verse talking about the captivity of Israel--her sin--and the glorious news of Jesus' coming to save and set free. Oh, may it be known here!

I was talking to a guy I met in Jerusalem from Brazil and then the US who's going to be in the Israeli army in just a couple weeks. (He said, "It'll be the greatest job in the world! Just think about it--fighting in God's Army!") It was hard for me in certain ways to talk to him knowing the pain many of my friends have suffered under the Israeli army, but we had an interesting conversation nonetheless. At the end, he said, "Well, you and I probably agree on one thing--this mess isn't going to be sorted out until the Messiah comes. When he comes, he'll make things right." And I thought, "Oh, may the Messiah come in your heart, my dear, lost boy! You're not going to shoot your way to heaven; it's by the wounds of this very Messiah that we are healed."

I know that the hearts of people in this land will not be bound together by anything but the love of Jesus. But it's so hard for people to see that when "The Church" has failed in such monstrous ways to show and exhibit that love. So, as always, my only hope is that God would reveal Himself through the Holy Spirit, and Himself be our Prince of Peace.

Anybody who's reading this, I just have one request: If you know any Arab or Jewish people, please love them. There's already enough pain and struggle for both people groups for us to add onto it with our own stupid prejudices. The more I look at this conflict, the more I think that a huge part of its roots lies in the terrible mistreatment of both Jews and Arabs by the "Christian West," of which I and most of you are a part. So we have a crucial (literally) role to play. May the joyous, self-giving love of the cross be the only thing we give to them, and to everyone else in our midst. Veni, Emmanuel, et dona nobis caritatem tuam.

Pax in Christo,

Seth