Luke 2.1-20, Isaiah 9.2-7
Last Saturday, I stood in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of the oldest churches in Christendom. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, founded it in the year 327. Directly below the altar is the cave that the church remembers as the birthplace of Jesus. Not a stable in the western sense of the word, but a place where animals were held during Jesus’ time and before. Bethlehem is a major player in the story we heard from the Gospel of Luke.
