Text: …And a little child shall lead them.
Isaiah 11:6

INTRODUCTION

During the Advent-Christmas season, our series of sermons will focus on “Sensing God’s Presence” through the five human senses which are ingrained in all of us - taste, smell, hearing, sight and touch.

As Christians, we embrace the “theology of incarnation,” believing that God became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14) through the birth of a baby named Jesus. We know that’s what Christmas is all about, and yet, none of us is immune to the distractions which lie ahead and can cause us to miss the real reason for this holy season.

So let us resolve, right now and right here, not to allow that to happen this year. Instead, let’s open our hearts and minds, our eyes and ears, our arms and hands to feel and see and hear and touch the presence of God and the love and life of Jesus Christ. And this morning, as we prepare to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, let us open our mouths to praise Him and to taste this bread for the wilderness and wine for the journey as we make our way toward Bethlehem.

Back in 1996, when Barbara and I and a group from Atlanta and Princeton went there, to Bethlehem, I became aware, as never before, just how much that little town means to Jews and Christians. In Hebrew, the name Bethlehem means “house of bread,” and its prominence in the Old Testament largely rests on its associations with King David. Bethlehem was his home and the place where he was anointed King by Samuel. And it was also, according to the prophet Micah (chapter 5:2), the town from which the Messiah would come. (From the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “Bethlehem,” pages 394-395)

In the New Testament, the gospel authors Matthew (chapter 2), Luke (2) and John (7) record that Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus. Six years ago, our group made the same journey from Nazareth through the Judean wilderness sixty miles south to Bethlehem as Mary and Joseph did long, long ago. And there in a grotto, a cave below where the Church of the Holy Nativity now stands, we found a shrine with a silver star that bears the Latin inscription: “Hic de Maria Virgine Jesus Christus Natus est” - Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.

So for both Jews and Christians, Bethlehem is a “house of bread” from which our faith traditions have been fed down through the centuries of time.

But in the Hebrew language, there is another translation for Bethlehem - “house of fighting” - reminiscent of the slaughter of all the infant male children by King Herod when the wise men told him that the King of the Jews would be born there (Matthew 2:1-18). And that translation - “house of fighting” - is sadly, painfully, tragically evident in that town today.

Dateline Friday, November 22: “Israeli troops rolled into Bethlehem early today, reoccupying it after a suicide bomber from the West Bank town blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing 11 passengers and wounding dozens, including many schoolchildren … An Israeli armored vehicle in Manger Square blocked the entrance to the Church of the Nativity…to prevent Palestinian gunmen from taking refuge there…(as they did last April) setting off a thirty-day siege…Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo…blamed Israel for the violence but called on Palestinian factions to stop targeting Israeli civilians…(while) denunciations of the suicide attack came from the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.” (From an article “Israelis Move Into Bethlehem,” Friday, November 22, 2002, USA Today, by Lee Keath)

If you were to visit there today, which I wouldn’t recommend, you would find that the anger is deep, the fear is pervasive, the vengeance is destructive and the taste in the mouths of both Israelis and Palestinians is bitter. And yet, most of them, together with the rest of the world, continue to hope and pray that someday things will be better.

It was that same hope and prayer which the prophet Micah lifted up long ago: But you, O Bethlehem…of Judah…from you…shall come forth One who is to be ruler in Israel…And He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the Lord (Micah 5:2, 4). And Isaiah echoed that prophecy, declaring to all who would listen: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended and her iniquity is pardoned. A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord…and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed’…(So) lift up your voice with strength…lift it up and fear not: Say to the cities of Judah ‘Behold the Lord God comes with might…He will feed His flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs in His arms…and gently lead those that are with young’ (Isaiah 40: selected verses).

You see, what Isaiah foretold was a radical transformation from the old way of revenge and retaliation to a new way of living in peace and reconciliation. The bitter taste of grief and pain would become sweet in the mouths of the people again, as the Shepherd came to feed them with everything they needed.

As Christians, we believe that the Shepherd has come and His name is Jesus. This morning, as we begin another Advent season, He calls you and me to let go of all those things that hold us back or drag us down and taste bitter in our lives, and let Him lead us into the joy and the peace and the promise of Christmas.

That’s what the Presbyterian author Ann Weems was trying to say when she wrote this brief poem entitled “Yesterday’s Pain”:

  “Some of us walk into Advent
   Tethered to our unresolved yesterdays
    The pain still stabbing
    The hurt still throbbing.
  It’s not that we don’t know better;
   it’s just that we can’t stand up anymore by ourselves.
  (Lord) on the way to Bethlehem,
   will You give us a hand?”
(Poem by Ann Weems, from her book “Kneeling in Bethlehem,” The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1980, page 14)

Wasn’t that how Isaiah envisioned the peaceable kingdom when he said long ago that A little child shall lead them? I saw it happen last week as Barbara and I spent Thanksgiving with good friends at their farm in the country. Three generations of that family were gathered together and the center of attention was a little child, less than a year old, named Janie.

When she smiled, we smiled too. As she stretched out her hands, each one of us wanted to hold her in our arms. When her grandmother fed Janie cereal, we all started to think about dinner. And as she went up for a nap after a long afternoon, most of us realized that was exactly what we wanted to do!

It reminded me of another family gathering. A little four-year-old boy was holding his baby sister as his uncle asked the boy, “Can she talk yet”? He shook his head and said “No, she’s getting her teeth, but the words just haven’t come in yet.

Well, it was a wonderful day in the country on Thanksgiving. And later that night, back in Atlanta, as I sat down to write the conclusion of this sermon, I realized old Isaiah was onto something when he said that A little child shall lead them. If only we could embrace the joy and wonder of our children, looking at the world around us with expectant and hopeful eyes, reaching out to touch others as sisters and brothers in God’s extended family on earth, and tasting all of the good things which from our birth bring love and peace and sheer delight into our lives.

CONCLUSION

Christian friends: as we begin this Advent season, that’s what we want, that’s what we need, that is what we are looking for. And here at this table, we can find Bread for the Wilderness and Wine for the Journey, which will lead us to that stable in Bethlehem where the Christ Child was born.

O taste and see that the Lord is good, and His love is everlasting!
(Psalm 34)

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.