All Paths Lead to Bethlehem

Almost every year for the Christmas Eve service I choose a story to read to the kids. I started this tradition almost forty years ago mostly because I remember as a child someone reading a story to us at that service. At the time I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old and our family was living in a small town in Eastern South Dakota. The church was an old country church with an entrance that was about ten steps up to the sanctuary and about eight steps down into the basement. The Sunday School program was held that Sunday and after the service we each received a bag with peanuts and hard candy along with an apple. But the highlight of the service was when the pastor or the Sunday school superintendent would have us sit on the altar steps and they would read a Christmas story to us. Most of the time it was just a reading from scripture but I remember that there were other stories read as well. 

Significance of Story

This year I will be reading a story called “All Paths Lead to Bethlehem.” The significance of this particular story is that it tells the biblical story with verses from the three gospel writers but then also traces the different traditions from around the world. We get to hear about Christians from Poland, Norway, Iceland and Russia who share the story we all love, but who also celebrate this season with their own unique traditions. So why is this significant? Through my eyes and ears and mind this year I am a bit concerned about what is being taught and propagated concerning the human family. I am even more concerned about how our children may hear the Christmas story. 

Good Will to ALL

From the first moment that I understood this story, I have always believed that God was coming into the world to bring salvation to everyone. Not just to my small-town world of Eastern South Dakota or my grown-up world of Eastern Minnesota, or even to my extended South American world in Brazil, but to the whole world. Jesus was born in Bethlehem to save all people. All people created in the image of God and who need His saving grace. This is where the story gets complicated these days. There is a part of the human family that believes that this story is an exclusionary story. Intended for just a few of God’s created children. That story has been gaining traction in many communities and I know that if I remain silent about that I am contributing to this version and, may I say, perversion of this gospel. So yes, I am trying to lay my cards on the table for anyone and everyone to see. I find that in my older age I am increasingly less likely to look the other way or remain silent. Peace on earth and good will to humankind is an admirable goal. I want that with all my heart but it cannot be achieved by labeling some as honorable and good while others are labeled as dirty and garbage. 

There Is No Other

There has been a long history of seeing some people as the “untouchables.” The gospel in response portrays Jesus as one who is constantly reaching out and touching us with the love of God. I pray that we can somehow learn to lay aside our fears of the “other” and open our hearts to the stranger and know that as we do, we are in fact reaching out to God. For in the “other” we come face to face with the image of our loving creator God. I love the manger: burly shepherds, smelly cattle “lowing,” curmudgeon inn keepers, lofty heads in the sky angels, a silent father and a pondering mother. Who writes this story? God does and we are all the better for it!

Enjoy this Christmas!

Pastor, Jeffrey P. Holter