A Christmas Plea from Palestine

Bethesda United Church of Christ

By Rev. Imad Haddad (December 22, 2023)

As Christians sing, “Silent night, Holy night,” we ask you to remember the nights in which the silence is shattered by the sounds of bombs, gunshots, and aircraft. The only silence our Muslim and Christian siblings in Gaza hear these days is the horrendous silence of death. There is nothing holy about the nights—and the days—in which human life is desecrated. The only holy sounds are the prayerful cries of broken hearts rising up to disturb the evil silence of death.

As we sing “Away in a Manger,” we ask you to think of those kids in Gaza whose only manger is a coffin, their crib a tomb under the rubble. The “stars in the sky” cannot “look down where [they] lay”, for the smoke of bombed and shattered houses obscures their view.

This Christmas, Christians celebrate the reading from Luke:

Then an angel of the Lord stood before [the shepherds], and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified (Luke 2:9f).

We ask you to think of those who are taking refuge in churches, mosques, schools, hospitals, shelters and, for many, in the open air. Their terror is not before “the glory of the Lord” shining round them—as that of the shepherds—but before the light of the explosions of repeated bombing. Terror and fear mark Christmas these days in Gaza.

As we sing, “Let every heart prepare him room,” we ask you to see the face of Jesus in every refugee in order to receive, serve, and protect them as we would for Jesus. Let us remember that Jesus was a refugee, too. His family was first forced to leave their home in Nazareth due to the orders of the Empire, then later forced to escape and take refuge in Egypt due to political tyranny. 

This Christmas, join us as we pray for all those who are afflicted in our world, and as we pray for justice and peace. We remember that Jesus was incarnate in our world during a situation that does not differ much from our own. The “Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14)” to bring justice and peace to a world that is torn apart. He dwelt among us to be with us, to be one of us, and to free us from the bonds of oppression. 

This is the message of hope that we give to the world as we go through these times of injustice, oppression, and ethnic cleansing: Jesus is with us, he is one of us, he chose to unite himself to us.

Christ is born… Halleluiah.

The savior is born… Halleluiah.

“Let earth receive her king.” Halleluiah!

The Rev. Imad Haddad is currently serving as pastor of Good Shepherds Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amman, Jordan.