From Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor from Bethlehem. Reposted from social media (Dec 19, 2025).

Today I had the chance to visit Christmas Lutheran Church, where I served for more than ten years—eight of them as the main pastor. Returning to a place that shaped so much of my life and ministry is never an easy experience. It carries memory, prayer and appreciation.

Under the faithful and courageous leadership of my dear friend Rev. Ashraf Tannous, the church made a deliberate and meaningful decision: to keep Christ in the Rubble—but to place it under the Christmas tree. This old-new crib spoke to me again.

The rubble remains. The broken stones are still there. The Christ child still lies among the rubble, reminding us that God chose not safety, not power, not palaces—but vulnerability and solidarity with the crushed of the earth. And yet now, rising from that rubble, stands a tree – a living tree.

For me, this is a profoundly Palestinian image—and a profoundly Christian one.

Continue reading “Defiance in the Face of Death” →

By Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, a liturgy of lament, Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church Bethlehem, Saturday December 23rd, 2023. Originally posted to the church’s social media page.

We are angry…

We are broken…

This should have been a time of joy; instead, we are mourning. We are fearful.

20,000 killed. Thousands under the rubble still. Close to 9,000 children killed in the most brutal ways. Day after day after day. 1.9 million displaced! Hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed. Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. A genocide.

The world is watching; Churches are watching. Gazans are sending live images of their own execution. Maybe the world cares? But it goes on…

We are asking, could this be our fate in Bethlehem? In Ramallah? In Jenin? Is this our destiny too?

Continue reading “This is Where Jesus is Found” →