It's my favourite carol:
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.
Shepherds still watch their sheep in the fields just outside of Bethlehem. The city boasts around 22,000 people today. It was far smaller and less significant centuries ago, when the Hebrew patriarch Jacob buried his beloved Rachel near there. Much later, Naomi and Ruth, two other well-known Bible women, also called the area home.
Ruth married a local crop farmer named Boaz. The couple became the great-grandparents of a bold young shepherd boy named David: harp player, giant slayer, future king of Israel, a nation long darkened by its own rebellion against God's laws. During the mighty Davidic dynasty, tiny Bethlehem became a strategic fortified city.
But David's line ran out. Israel's erratic jags in and out of faith continued. The kingdom divided and little Bethlehem faded into insignificance - except for the promises.
Early prophets had made statements about that little hiccup on the map, the town still known as the City of David. A great ruler would be born there, a member of David's royal line. A shepherd to lead God's people, in God's strength, from stubborn rebellion to hope and peace.
"And the government will be on his shoulders," the prophecy said. To a nation oppressed by its enemies, that last bit was especially welcome. (Times haven't changed much, have they? Like Israel, humanity in general persists in believing that personal freedom, peace and happiness are bi-products of optimal circumstances. That once we placate the hunger, fix the system, replace the infrastructure, even out the inequity, haul home a bigger toy, pile the gifts higher, all will be well.)
Fast forward the centuries to the dot on the timeline where B.C. flips over to A.D. Like the rest of the nation of Israel, Bethlehem, a wisp of its former self, chafes to escape the grip of Roman authority. In obedience to a government census call, an unmarried, very pregnant teenager and her fiancé, a direct descendant of David, make their way into town. Their names? Mary and Joseph.
You know the rest of the story. Angels announced it to shepherds first: "Glad tidings! Great joy! Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a SaviorChrist the Lord!"
Prophecy fulfilled through the wails of an infant. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God.
Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. And ever since, the Bethlehem child, the Good Shepherd, has demonstrated that God keeps his promises and that joy and peace flow not from fixed circumstances, but from fixed hearts.
"O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in. Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!"
