Small stage, huge play!

Phillips Brooks, rector of Church of the Holy Trinity¹, in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square, wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem" more than 100 years ago. He was inspired to write the lyrics one evening while visiting the Holy Land and viewing Bethlehem from a distant hilltop. Brooks originally thought that the song would be sung by a children’s choir at Holy Trinity, but it quickly caught on among people of all ages.

Micah’s prophecy defined Bethlehem as "little": "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." (Micah 5:2) We Americans are "big" people. Small things are most frequently viewed as "anemic" or "ill," something needing a remedy. We tend to tolerate small more than embrace little with respect for its intrinsic value.

But, we are inconsistent. We are drawn to babies and are willing to make foolish looking faces and strange sounds in order to get an infant to smile. Model railroads are an irresistible attraction for others. Miniatures are big business. But the footprint of "big box" stores trample small businesses to death. Mom and Pop merchants roll up their awnings and sell the last remnants of inventory as the heavy tromp of the big boxes smash the remaining life of village downtowns into shards of memories.

Consider Bethlehem. It is no small wonder that Bethlehem survived at all. Bethlehem was one of twelve towns inherited by Zebulon’s family when the Promised Land was divvied up. Eleven other surrounding towns included Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron and Idalah. (Joshua 19:15). "Bethlehem" ends the list. Bethlehem almost looks like an afterthought. It doesn’t seem like there ever was a real estate boom. But the town survived!

Ibzan, hardly a household word, one of the judges of Israel hailed from Bethlehem. He may have gathered more ink in the Jerusalem papers if he had plied his craft in a major market. His claim to fame was that he fathered 60 children and ruled Israel for seven years. None of the kids married in the tribe. Poor Bethlehem! Chamber of commerce members had to be frustrated.

There is a story in Judges 19 about a young Levite, a native of Bethlehem, who went house-hunting. He found lodging with Micah, not the prophet, but a man who made shrines to gods from his mother’s silver. It is unclear to me if the story of a Bethlehem Levite in chapter 19 is the same. But the poor fellow got caught up an event reminiscent of Sodom and Gomorrah. Apparently Bethlehem’s stigma followed her youth, even when they left home!

Small town economies are fragile. A famine came into the area. People were hungry! Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons and daughters-in-law left Bethlehem for Moab in search of food. People still do that. They move from place to place in search of work. Hunger drove the family from tiny Bethlehem. The rest of the story is in the Book of Ruth. The story of Ebimelech’s family is too important to the salvation story to overlook. When reviewing it, remember, the plot includes a small village and her citizens.

But even the most depressed of villages may experience a change of fortunes. Tourism is big there nowadays! Good things began to happen. David was anointed King of Israel in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16), one of the first positive events the Bethlehem Historical Society was able to record. It was followed by the account of David’s mighty men who risked their lives to fetch a flask of water from Bethlehem’s well. Some entrepreneur ought to start bottling "Agua Beth!" I may share my idea with Restoration Hardware! They are into stuff like that. There is a dollar to be made!

I think the storyline of Bethlehem has potential for some mini-series. Philistines occupied the town for a while during one of the many skirmishes with Israel. The cemetery at the edge of town has some notorious people, and heroes, buried there. The townspeople were patriotic too. When Ezra was enlisting workers to rebuild the walls and Temple in Jerusalem, Bethlehemites responded.

There is much more to Bethlehem’s story. But, the one event that changed the little village forever was the one Phillips Brooks had in mind when he wrote the Christmas Carol. Micah’s prediction came to pass and from that tiny epicenter of salvation the Savior of the whole world was carried in Mary’s arms into the center stage of history. The events of the night Pastor Brooks memorialized changed the world’s calendars. Note "BC: before Christ," and "AD: anno Domini" or, "year of our Lord," is a watershed of history, one greater than any other. Those who belittle things deemed too small ought to remember that Bethlehem’s stage was small, but the play was huge!