Joyful and Triumphant
It was not the Christmas Eve we expected, but the Christmas Eve we got. We made our way from Jerusalem toward Bethlehem, but none of us - we, nor our fellow pilgrims - was really sure how.
We soon found out, grabbing a shared taxi headed towards what had been advertised as a "closed military area" due to the nighttime clashes in Beit Jala and Beit Sahour. The Israeli checkpoint on the main road was closed, and the road around the main road had been destroyed that morning, so we drove through an abandoned quarry.
Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, leads Christmas Eve worship.
After a grueling walk to Manger Square through the rain and crowds (and paying our cab driver's constantly escalating "tourist" fare - we could say something about the redemptive suffering that pilgrims need to undergo, but it wouldn't be true), we arrived to find the parade to the church already in progress, Boy Scouts and all.
The recently restored organ at Bethlehem’s Christmas Lutheran Church.
After a brief rest, we headed to Christmas Lutheran Church's trilingual service. It had the feel of a church on a snow day - not many people, and everyone had some kind of troublesome travel to get there - including the newly restored pipe organ. It had been held up in customs in Haifa until three days before the service (needing to be fully reinstalled), had been purring like a kitten until the transformer blew two hours earlier, and was now running off of the pastor's car battery. The grand old instrument began playing, and the congregation began singing: "O, come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, o come ye, o come ye, to Bethlehem" - never had those words had such meaning. It was difficult to hold back the tears of sheer joy.
Christmas Eve worship by candlelight at Bethlehem’s Christmas Lutheran Church.
It was a powerful service, a true moment of Pentecostal worship, where new words had been written for a familiar hymn:
O little town of Bethlehem, the organs still do play
Of Jesus in a manger and angels on the way;
Our music and our singing is louder than a gun,
And church bells in their ringing remind us we have won.
Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah leads Christmas Eve midnight Mass in Bethlehem, Palestine.
Later, we attended midnight mass at the Catholic Church. Patriarch Michel Sabbah addressed the crowd of dignitaries (including Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who arrived to much commotion) in French and Arabic, proclaiming that "God allowed us to end the year of the Jubilee with trials and sufferings. For all grace, for all trial, we thank God, because suffering is also a part of the grace of the Jubilee. It helps to purify us; it allows us to see better the face of God, to better claim our freedom, since we become able to see the face of God in that of our brothers and sisters, and in the face of those from whom we claim our freedom as well."
The sheer lack of attention and overwhelming crowds, while heartbreaking, felt a lot more authentic as a remembrance to that first Christmas. Those who arrived had come to bear witness to the Prince of Peace. And we were there, joyful and triumphant.