Bethlehem

This morming we went to worship at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Mitri Raheb is the pastor and he is an incredible man. He wrote one of the books we read, Bethlehem Besieged, and it was my favorite. I recommend it!! Anyway, we worshiped at his church this morning. It was a very meaningful service for me. The worship service was conducted in Arabic, English, and German. There was a Lutheran bishop with a group of pastors from Germany, a group from Minneapolis, and our group from Louisville in addition to the congregation that worships there. Listening to all those voices singing, saying the Apostle's Creed, and praying the Lord's Prayer in three different languages was an overwhelming experience. I thought it would be hard to top that worship service but then when we went to the Church of the Nativity, we got to experience the Armenian Christmas procession. Today is Armenian Christmas Eve and they had the Armenian patriarch participating in worship today.

Today's worship experiences reminded me that we all worship the Risen Christ, albeit in different ways. As Mitri Raheb reminded us last night, we need to not worry so much about how our worship is different but how much we follow the Risen Christ. Let us follow in his footsteps so that we can transform the world.

Diana Moore