Near Bethlehem Bible College, where I was teaching a year ago, the “separation wall” is thick with graffiti registering anger, frustration, and yearning. Almost daily I walked down Star Street in Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity to pray for justice and peace in a land with so much suffering. Visits to the manger inspired the following poem, which I wrote in December 2022. The poem takes inspiration from an early non-canonical collection of sayings of Jesus called the Gospel of Thomas. In the harsh light of war, the poem feels painfully prescient today.

Jesus said, “Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat.” Saying 102, Gospel of Thomas

Dog in the Manger

Dog in the manger on Christmas day
Bethlehem caught in political sway
Bigger guns in daily news
Color reds and blacks and blues
Pharisee woe, displacing oxen
Occupation, religious toxin

Walk down Star Street on Christmas morn
Christmas morn where Christ was born
Nighttime raids, dog in the manger
Rubber bullets, growing danger
Pharisee woe, displacing oxen
Occupation, religious toxin

Enter the church’s little door
Imperial mosaics on the floor
Conquest still on nearby hill
Destroying peace and all goodwill
Pharisee woe, and settlements
Shepherds grieve in low laments

Ka’ek! Ka’ek! a vendor cries
End the hatred, no more lies!
Brick oven at tremendous heat
Destroy every proud conceit!

Kneel at the place where Jesus lay
Pay attention, learn to pray
Heaven take that dog away
Hope in what the angels say
Peace on earth this holy day
Light of the world show the way

©2022  J. Nelson Kraybill 

Notes: Star Street by tradition is the street on which Mary and Joseph entered Bethlehem. The sub-floor of the Church of the Nativity has mosaics from the fourth-century basilica of Emperor Constantine. Today Israeli settlements, commanding hilltops, encroach on Bethlehem from several sides. Ka’ek is a traditional Palestinian bread produced daily in wood-fired brick ovens and sold on city streets by vendors who cry out the name.