I’ve written before about how a few sentences at the beginning of the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke form the basic birth narrative of Jesus and how tradition has enhanced those sentences with a lot of extraneous material that didn’t come from the Bible, but rather from traditions that grew up around the biblical story. It is fair, however, to assume that Bethlehem was crowded. However you interpret the word “inn,” we read that the birth didn’t take place there because there was no room and that the baby was laid in a manger after he was born.

It isn’t very crowded in Bethlehem this year. The manager of the Jacir Palace Hotel, Johnny Kattan, reports that the hotel is booked at about 50%. They are used to being over booked, around 110%, during the Christmas season. The number of tourists visiting Bethlehem in October and November were half the number of previous years.

The hotel stands about 100 yards from an Israeli military checkpoint that is the target of violent demonstrations. It isn’t uncommon for guests to step outside of the hotel to the smell of tear gas and burning tires. The aroma of “skunk water,” sprayed by Israeli soldiers to disperse rock-throwing crowds, often penetrates to the lobby of the hotel.

There has been a surge of violence since October. Eighteen Israelis have been killed by Palestinians using knives, automobiles and guns. 125 Palestinians have been shot dead. Four of the dead came from Bethlehem, including a 13-year-old boy, Abdel Rahman Obeidallah, who was killed by a bullet to the chest. Israeli officials have suggested that his killing was a mistake. Two of the bodies of the Bethlehem dead have not been returned. Israel says they will be celebrated as martyrs and refuses to release the bodies.

And it isn’t just the Israeli-Palestinian violence that is keeping the tourists away from Bethlehem. The Paris attacks, the tensions between Russia and Turkey, the crash of the Metrojet flight in the Sinai after a bomb went off killing all 224 passengers and crew — all of these violent events have reduced the desire of tourists to visit Bethlehem.

Most years they set off fireworks in Manger Square to celebrate the season. This year, there were no fireworks. The sounds are too similar to violent attacks. Instead the churches rang their bells. The pilgrimage from the Old City of Jerusalem to Bethlehem will proceed, but is expected to draw smaller crowds. There will be the traditional Christmas Eve Mass at the Church of the Nativity, built above the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born and visited by the shepherds.

The city of peace has no peace this year.

Israel continues to confiscate more and more land to complete the separation wall at Bethlehem’s perimeter. Construction has been approved for 891 additional units in Gilo, a Jewish settlement that abuts Bethlehem.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas in previous years, pilgrims waited in line for up to three hours for a moment of prayer at the Church of the Nativity. This week the tour guides simply lead their charges right up to the place of prayer. They urge them to take their time. There is no rush.

The pilgrims who do come pray for peace.

It is a place of miracles, but it seems that patience is required. Peace doesn’t seem near with all of the protests and the violent response to those protests.

I’ve never visited the Holy Land, though I’ve often dreamed of such a trip. It isn’t the threat of violence that deters me, however. I suspect that an American tourist is safer on a visit to Bethlehem than walking the streets of Chicago. The risks of travel are not bigger than the risks of staying home. I do not want, however, for a trip to the places of the Bible to be simply a tourist adventure - a display of wealth in a land of poverty. I would prefer, rather, an opportunity to get to know some of the people who live there, to sense who they are and how their lives proceed. Most of the options to travel to the Holy Land, however, don’t involve conversation with the people who live there. The way to travel in the region economically is to be a part of a group of similar tourists who eat, lodge and travel by the busload, visiting site after site on and organized itinerary. Such a trip doesn’t appeal to me and I don’t know how to plan the kind of trip I envision. So, for now, I have not yet figured out how to visit.

At this time of the year, however, my thoughts turn towards Bethlehem. I think of the couple who traveled there from their home so long ago. I think of the baby born in ordinary circumstances. I think of the shepherds who, amazed and dazzled by the visit of angels, made their way to see the child. I think of the mother who listened to the shepherds stories and kept them in her heart to ponder.

I live far from that place and I’ve never visited, but its story has become part of my story. I feel that my life is connected to the lives of those who live there, though a genealogist likely wouldn’t discover any common relatives.I dream of an end to the rock throwing and tear gas and snipers aiming their weapons at children. I dream of a day when a huge wall isn’t needed to separate those who have lived in the area for generations from the settlers. But I also read the news from that land. I know the stories of people whom I have never met well enough to know that Bethlehem, as was the case in the days of Roman occupation, is a difficult and dangerous place to live. Its story is still being played out in the lives of the present generation.

So we wait in Advent expectation every year. For God still has more Christmas blessing to bring to the people and the land.

Christmas is almost here, but not quite. We wait in that “not quite” and pray without pressure for as long as it takes.

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