Birthplace buildings

Just home from Bethlehem 3 December 2010

What a day!

How simple does a visit to Bethlehem sound – well however you imagine it it's not simple.

We started the day today with a visit to an archeological site called Tell Tekoa. It's the ancient village of Tekoa – home of the prophet Amos – there are also two other Tekoa's – a settlement and an old Palestinean village by the same name. The keeping of names has allowed the archeologists to find ancient places as the names if not the stories have often stayed in the villages. So Tekoa looks out over a fertile valley and is covered in fields of olive trees – the Israeli's are less likely to take the land if it's under cultivation. The site we visited is a cave surrounded by potshards – you need to go down into the cave in the side of the hill. Once in there were learned the story – for the cave is a place where people have lived for many many years – in fact it was common for people to have caves to come to in the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The cave we visited had two parts – one part for the animals including a limestone watering trough or manger – and one part for the humans together with the smoke markings on the roof and the vent for cooking under. This was the sort of place where Jesus was born – the Eastern church has always had icons showing Jesus born in a cave – it was pretty amazing standing down in this cave and imagining the cry of a newborn baby.

Of course the church being the church ever since Constantine has a much more spectacular building for commemorating the actual supposed birth cave. It is in the church of the Nativity on Manger Square in Bethlehem. We somehow managed to avoid the crowds and were able to descend together into the grotto which marks the spot. The incense of the eastern church perfumed the visit – there is a star on the floor where pilgrim come and kneel down and touch…like thousands of others through the 2000 years since – I knelt and touched. This church has always been a church since Helena, Constantines mother decided there should be one here around 285CE. It remains today a place of worship for the local Christians – in fact the Armenians were holding a service in the chapel during our visit.

The altar over the grotto is resplendent with gold and silver and icons – so different to a humble cave – I do wonder what God might really think of all the fuss choosing as God did to come as a baby when visiting! Anyway it was something special to stand in the grotto and sing together o little town of Bethlehem.

The song perhaps more poignant for the current situation here – it isn't quiet or still or peaceful at all. It is surrounded by walls that towers 8metres over the houses and cut through fields and families. We visited part of the wall near Rachel's tomb which has cut through the suburbs of Bethlehem – in one place surrounding a house on three sides. The humanity of the people is expressed in the graffiti that now covers the wall – and is added to regularly – we saw some designes added in 2010. Like all graffiti some is crude, some clever, some the work of lovesick teenagers and some poignant in its message – especially where they have compared it to the wall in Berlin. Again pictures can't capture the offense of it fully.

We ended the day waiting at a checkpoint – the advent theme of waiting takes on richer meaning here where It isn't just desires or presents that are being waited for but peace and justice.