“Prepare Him Room”
Luke 2:1-20
The way God works is so magically beautiful, so humble, so unobtrusive.
God doesn’t force His way into this world just as God doesn’t force His way into our hearts.
Notice the humble surroundings of Jesus’ birth.
His parents are mere peasants; they go unnoticed by the throngs of other people heading home for the census.
And notice that just as the world had no real interest in Him, neither did whomever owned the inn in Bethlehem.
There is a story about a group of children who had been practicing for the Big Christmas Play for several weeks.
There was Mary and Joseph and the sheep and shepherds and there was a young boy named Timmy playing the grumpy old Inn Keeper.
Timmy was a nice kid who loved Jesus and other people, and he felt guilty playing the part of the person who tells Jesus’ parents that they can’t stay in the inn.
The pageant director had spent many practices trying to convince Timmy that this is just a play and when he tells Jesus’ parents that they can’t stay in the inn—Timmy is just playing a part.
Besides this, the director tells Timmy that the Bible doesn’t even mention an innkeeper.
It’s just something that has been taken for granted.
If there is an inn which has no room; there must have been an innkeeper there to tell them there was no room.
Timmy reluctantly agrees to play his part.
On the night of the play, everything is going as planned until Mary and Joseph knock on the Inn Keeper’s Door.
“Do you have a room we can stay in for the night?” the child playing Joseph asks Timmy the Inn Keeper.
Timmy replies, “There’s no room in this crummy inn, but you are welcome to come and stay at my house!”
This past Sunday evening some of us went Christmas Caroling.
One of the songs we sang at each stop was “Joy to the World.”
While singing it for, maybe, the fifth time in a row I had what some people might call a little “God Experience” as I sang the lyrics: “let every heart prepare him room.”
And the thought I had was that I need to prepare more room in my heart for Jesus.
I thought about the times when I squeeze Him out or try and ignore Him.
I thought about all the things I leave undone.
All the good I could be doing that I don’t seem to get to.
The worldly things I waste my time on.
The sinful things I allow into my mind, heart and life.
I thought about how I want to learn to love more.
I thought about how wonderful and good it was making me feel to be with this fun group of folks stopping by people’s homes to spread love and cheer.
And I thought, “Why don’t I give Jesus more room in my heart, more room in my life, more of my time?”
“Why do I allow myself to miss out on so much just because I am unwilling to give Jesus all the room rather than maybe a little here and there?”
Can you relate?
With the violence taking place daily around the world, the distractions of material things, stress, work, and sin…
…sometimes there’s not a lot of room left in my heart for Jesus.
Sometimes I even forget He is there.
And yet, Jesus is the answer to my life’s problems—to this world’s problems.
If I would only make more room for Jesus how much more good would I be able to get done?
If only I were to allow Jesus to have more of my heart, more of my will, more of my life and more of my time, how much more could I achieve for this community, for my family, for this world?
How much less pain would I have to bear on my own, how much less stress and unhappiness would I feel?
I want life and I want it to the full.
I want to love God and love neighbor not just some of the time or when it is easy or convenient—I want to love all of the time with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.
How about you?
The mother and father of our Lord were pushed out and rejected.
Even before he was born, our Lord was turned away.
The words “no room for you” followed Him throughout His life …
It just seems there was just no room
for Him anywhere.
It is the same in the lives of so many of us today.
Jesus keeps getting crowded out.
With all the festivities and all the busy-ness, He is often just an afterthought.
Instead of a place of honor at this time of the year, Christ is often shoved into a corner.
The amazing and beautiful thing to me is this: This same child came to find room for us.
Even though, time and time again, humanity told the Son of God we simply have no room for You, Jesus continues to tell us, “I have more than enough room for you.”
He is the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son.
And we are, of course, the wayward child He is waiting for to come home.
We are His treasure hidden in a field and the Pearl of Great Price, the lost sheep, the lost coin which, when God finds us, He throws a great big party.
That is how God loves you and me.
And because of that love I want to love Him back and I want to love those He loves, people like you, and people like the folks down the street, and the homeless man and woman on the corner and the lost teenager, the angry gang member—you name it!!!
Because that is living—that is really living!!!
That is making room for Jesus in our hearts.
A couple weeks ago in this sanctuary we sang the song, “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
It’s in our hymnal.
The author of that hymn was a follower of Christ who for many years volunteered at a shelter for women who were coming out of a life of prostitution.
Some of the women were only 12 years old.
“In the Bleak Midwinter,” pictures a Savior Who enters our world of suffering and brokenness.
And in light of Christ’s great power and love, the writer asks:
“What can I give him, poor as I am?”
This question weighed heavily on the women struggling to come out of a life of prostitution.
With their broken lives what could they possibly give to Jesus?
According to the hymn, there is one thing that all of us can give Jesus no matter who we are.
The author of the song wrote:
“If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man I would do my part,
What can I give Him,
Give my heart.”
That is the one thing Jesus wants—our hearts.
That is what saves us.
That is what bridges the gulf between us and God.
That is what gives us life and life to the full.
And that is what gives us the ability to love—unconditionally.
We are told that when the time came for Jesus to be born, Mary, “wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.”
What, if anything, is crowding up our lives so that we don’t have room for Jesus?
Is there anything more important than Jesus?
Is there anything more important than learning to love God and our neighbor as ourselves?
As Christ asked in the Gospel of Mark: “What good is it for a [person] to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Christmas is not a beautiful card with cattle lowing and snow softly blowing and the sweet baby Jesus all clean and dressed in royal clothes.
Christmas is REALITY.
When it came time for Jesus to be born, the world had no room for Him; He was unwanted, homeless even.
But to all who received Him, to all who believed in His name—like those tired old shepherds—He gave the right to become children of God.
Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a mother or father’s will, but born of God.
If you haven’t done so already…
…won’t you choose tonight, to give Jesus your heart?
Amen and Merry Christmas.
