|
Available Now |
 |
|
Organ music from Holy Trinity Cathedral,
played by
Eugene Lavery,
Assistant Organist |
|
Click here |
|
Rough Journey to Bethlehem
Article printed in NZ Herald 20th December 2006
The RtRev'd Richard Randerson, Dean and Assistant Bishop of Auckland
Military check-points severely restrict access to Bethlehem this Christmas, but the spirit of Bethlehem is all-pervasive.
“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie” are the opening words of the well known Christmas carol. The reality of Bethlehem at Christmas 2006 is far different. A huge territorial separation wall has reduced Bethlehem to an urban core, cut off from the other 70% of its land which comprises agricultural areas and water resources.
A system of cement walls, electric fences and check-points creates a prison-like environment for the people of Bethlehem. A huge drop-off in tourism has left hotels with a 2.5% occupancy rate in 2005, and unemployment in excess of 60%.
Difficulties in accessing Bethlehem are not new. Mary arrived there 2000 years ago, pregnant and riding on a donkey, husband Joseph walking by her side. The town was packed with citizens summoned there for a Roman census, the only place available for Mary to give birth to her baby being an animals’ barn behind an inn.
T S Eliot depicts a rough journey also for the wise men who followed a star to find the infant Jesus : “...the very dead of winter..... the camels sore-footed and refractory.... the villages dirty and charging high prices...” Astronomers have ruled out Halley’s comet as a candidate for the star, but point instead to a brilliant conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn at the time.
This week a contingent of four British church leaders are making their own pilgrimage to Bethlehem, access difficulties notwithstanding. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Moderator of the Free Churches David Coffey and Primate of the Armenian Church Nathan Hovhannisian will visit the Holy Land as modern-day pilgrims from 20-23 December, the focal point being prayer together at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The ancient spot recorded as the place of Jesus’ birth lies beneath this large church, access being by a steep flight of stairs.
Pilgrimages to Bethlehem, both ancient and modern, as well as to other holy places, reflect a timeless desire to find God in our midst. But what would be the signs of God we might look for? Oxford biology professor Richard Dawkins has just released a new book The God Delusion. Its 400 pages are restricted entirely to debunking the image of God as supernatural creator. In 1961 the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, reported no sign of God in his space odyssey.
Both professor and cosmonaut might be looking in the wrong place, for there are many other more contemporary images of God. The Bible talks of God in categories of spirit, light, life and love. Such images resonate with ancient Celtic understandings of God as life-giving spirit flowing through all Creation. The birth at Bethlehem focusses the divine love in the child Jesus, and in a life that was lived sacrificially in the service of others.
Such love has remained through the ages as the heart-beat of human community. Often overlaid with the evils of war, poverty and environmental abuse, it nonetheless seems to kick in again like a computer’s default position when all else fails. A Berlin wall is torn down; apartheid overthrown, people respond with compassion to a tsunami, a new awareness of climate change emerges.
Young people put their lives on the line travelling into dangerous situations abroad as medical workers, teachers, engineers, builders or agricultural workers focussing on crop-farming and clean water supplies. Closer to home the same spirit of care is found in fire-fighters and ambulance workers, police and armed service personnel, nurses and doctors who work long hours on crisis wards.
In Auckland, in the run-up to Christmas, schools, churches and community groups have once again been collecting presents to channel to homes in those parts of the city where Christmas is a reminder of how much many people don’t have, and how much other people do. Again the Auckland Anglican City Mission will provide on Christmas day a slap-up festive dinner with live entertainment for 2000 people with the assistance of 600 volunteers, and food and gifts provided by many more.
Love in our midst is a pervasive reality. The churches lay no exclusive claim. Rough though the journey might be, a pilgrimage to Bethlehem in this season reminds us of a universal love that finds expression in compassion for others, a thirst for justice and peace, and a generosity that costs us more than just discretionary expenditure.
|