Two years ago, late December 2022, I visited Bethlehem for the Christmas season.
By coincidence, Over The Rhine-my favorite band for Christmas music then and now-seems particularly taken with the carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem." They have included it in all three of their Christmas albums: instrumentally in The Darkest Night of the Year and with expanded lyrics in two different ways in Snow Angels and Blood Oranges in the Snow.
When I listened to the albums again the following Christmas, I had an epiphany: the duo may have actually been to Bethlehem. Because their new lyrics resonated with me in a whole new way.
For the curious, a few months after my visit I wrote about my experiences in the Holy Land grappling with the region's complex political and religious past and present in one of my all-time favorite Anxious Bench posts.
In brief, Bethlehem is part of "Area A" in the West Bank, governed solely by the Palestinian Authority rather than by Israel, and separated from Israel-including Jerusalem-by a large concrete wall. There is limited mobility for its denizens. Meanwhile, when you enter Bethlehem there's a big red sign that says, "This road leads to Area 'A' under the Palestinian Authority. The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden, dangerous to your lives, and is against the Israeli law." In other words, Bethlehem embodies within itself the tensions, tenuous compromises, and stalemates of the area.
Over the Rhine's lyrics seem even more appropriate today: just over nine months after my visit, the region erupted into violence once again with the Hamas attacks in October 2023, and that violence remains over a year later.
Visiting Bethlehem is currently difficult, so I present this Christmas the expanded lyrics of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" accompanied by photographs I took two years ago. It seems fitting that Christ chose to be born in this town. As I concluded my original reflections on the trip:
For Christ Himself is our peace, who made both groups [Jews and Gentiles] into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall....reconciling them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. -Ephesians 2:14-16, NASU