Dear People of Bethlehem,
As we enter into this season of hopeful waiting and eager anticipation, our eyes turn towards the Bethlehem after which our congregation was named, and the well-worn story of Jesus’ birth. Advent has long been understood to be a season of preparation, a time to make room in our hearts and minds for the miraculous, preposterous, scandalous, wonderful notion that God would choose to enter into our midst, right smack dab in the middle of this messy, beautiful, crazy thing that we call being a human.
As a part of that preparation, while Alissa and I were visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, we decided to go and see the new movie “Journey to Bethlehem.” We had heard a few things about it, but quite honestly, we weren’t sure what to expect. Overall, it was really quite good! There were some excellent bits of humor sprinkled in here and there, like when the angel Gabriel started levitating towards Mary as he was about to tell her the big news, but banged his head on the door frame as he was entering the room. And the three wise men were absolutely fantastic, singing a song in which they referred to themselves as the three wise guys. Oh, did I forget to mention that it was a musical? Yep, it sure was! There was King Herod (played by Antonio Banderas) singing about how much he loves to be king, changing part of the Lord’s Prayer and singing “mine is the glory, mine is the power.” There’s a wonderfully choreographed dance fight scene that takes place inside Joseph’s head, where two versions of himself – one that believes Mary, and one that doesn’t – wrestle with one another to determine how he will respond to her pregnancy.
There were a few parts where the script let me down a little bit. There was no rendition of Mary’s Magnificat, the beautiful song that she sings in response to the angel Gabriel’s visit. You would have thought that a musical would have jumped on an opportunity like that! Additionally, when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, there was no mention of John leaping in her womb for joy at being in Mary and Jesus’ presence. During those parts, just like I have done during many film adaptations of pieces of literature, I grumbled to myself, “The book was better.” But as a whole, I really enjoyed the film! And I think what I liked the most about it was how it brought the story to life before our eyes. The biblical text often hurries past certain details that the movie did not, like how arduous a journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem on donkey would have been for a woman who was about to give birth.
Most of all, the movie emphasized the humanity inherent in the story. These characters that we have talked about for centuries, who have been elevated and held in such high regard, were at one point in history just regular people. People like you and me. People who had doubts, and fears, and dreams, and hopes, and faults, and insecurities. People who felt unworthy, and uncertain, and yet were still chosen by God for this miraculous task of helping God enter into our world in the most unlikely of ways, as a tiny infant, born to a couple of nobodies from the backwater town of Bethlehem. It’s a reminder, that we don’t need to be perfect to be involved in helping God’s purpose come to fruition in the world around us. God loves, accepts, and chooses us exactly as we are. Faults and all, strengths and all, human-ness and all. God chooses to act in the world through beautifully imperfect people, people like you and me. During this advent season, I invite you to contemplate and ponder in your heart (as Mary did) how it is that God is calling you to live, act, serve, speak, or give to those around you for the sake of proclaiming God’s good news.
Advent Blessings, Pastor Sam