Pastor encounters Bethlehem in facets of his life
Editor’s note- this article was originally published December 23, 2015.
Who among us have neither heard nor sung, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” a 19th-century hymn?
One of the lines in the older carol, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” – expressed in Latin as Adeste Fidelis – exhorts Christians to “Come ye, O come ye, to Beh-eth-le-hem,” with an extra syllable added to elongate and emphasize the place name in the cadence of a processional.
And the reggae “Mary’s Boy Child” begins, “Long time ago in Beth-lee-hem, so the Holy Bible say…”
No matter how it’s pronounced, other carols and songs also mention what’s also known as the City of David. In many homes, a creche or two or more are front and center and as important as the Christmas tree.
According to the biblical Gospel of Luke, the first Christmas took place in Bethlehem, where Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth and where Mary gave birth to a son.
The life of one local man is intertwined with Bethlehem in many ways.
Not only has the Rev. Peter Asplin visited Bethlehem in the Holy Land, but he serves as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Scenery Hill, North Bethlehem Township, where he was ordained eight years ago.
Asplin was a student in his final year at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, in 2006 when he went with classmates to the Palestinian West Bank, where the central attraction is the grotto Church of the Nativity, about five miles south of Jerusalem, and Asplin recalled his visit nearly a decade ago just before this Christmas.
Because of political strife, “they weren’t having very many visitors,” Asplin said. “The people of Bethlehem and other communities we visited were very excited to see a group of folks from the states come through.”
While the arrangement under or around the Christmas tree is likely to be a wooden stable, the Church of the Nativity is anything but.
Asplin told of his visit to the fortress-like structure before Christmas that year, but “It’s always Christmas in Bethlehem,” he said. “There was a tiny door. We bent to get in, at least some of the taller guys in the group. I think I did.”
You don’t enter a stable, but a cave.
Descending steps, the first thing he saw was an icon of Mary and baby Jesus, a vivid picture reflecting Orthodox Christianity, which, along with Armenian Christians and Roman Catholics, share responsibility for the church.
Caves are dark, and even though the Church of the Nativity is wired for electricity, “there were still oil lamps everywhere,” Asplin said. “They were excavating mosaics from the floors.
“We waited in line. It was a very dark space. We love our lights here. There were no windows and no stained glass in the actual Church of the Nativity. We took our turn in the dimness. Each of us took our time kneeling before the spot.” Metallic ornamentation known as the Star of Bethlehem marks the floor of the church.
Although parts of the church “are gilded and covered with beauty now, that wasn’t the case 2,000 years ago,” Asplin said. Artisans in the area have fashioned a beautiful creche, and he recalls seeing impressively statuary.
Tradition going back to the fourth century commemorates the location as the birthplace of Jesus. Helen, mother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who decreed religious tolerance of Christians, is credited with identifying it.
“It’s not a scientific statement, but it’s been a special place for 1,500 years, 1,800 years,” Asplin said.
Lest Protestants feel left out of the shrine, Asplin pointed out that he saw across from the Church of the Nativity a sanctuary known as Christmas Lutheran Church, which is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, one of several established by German and English missionaries in the mid-19th century.
“They always have a lighted Christmas tree on top of the (Lutheran) church,” Asplin said.