Finally!
Christmas Eve is finally here!
I thought I would never make it!
I actually thought that sometime during the past few days some desparate shopper would drive me off the road. I mean, people are driving like maniacs out there. Of course, it is not as if traffic is always good in Atlanta, but you have to admit that it has been particularly bad for the past few days.
But we survived the traffic.
And we survived the shopping. I’ve never seen such long lines! I went to Barnes and Noble Bookstore the other day, stood in line, and by the time I got to the cash register I had finished reading the book.
OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not much!
And school programs! Preschools and day care centers have had their Christmas programs, usually with 100 terrified children, a dozen teachers, and a vast crowd of parents and grandparents, each looking at their children through their camera’s viewfinder.
And sending out cards, and mailing gifts, and --- well, all the other things!
And we survived it.
When we find the time to settle down and read what the Bible says about Christmas and the birth of Christ, we fondly remember all those wonderful characters of the story of the first Christmas. Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus, the wise men and shepherds, the angels.
One of my favorite ones is the Innkeeper.
But that is a character that is not actually in the Bible.
The Scripture simply says that Mary and Joseph had to stay in a stable because there was no room for them in the Inn.
For all we know, they might never have spoken to the innkeeper. Perhaps because of the crowds coming to Bethlehem for the census, it may have been common knowledge among the travelers that there was no need to even try to find a room at the Inn.
But we like to imagine in our minds that Mary and Joseph actually went to the Innkeeper and were rudely sent away. These poor travelers, one of them pregnant and ready to give birth any minute, are sent away by this rude, uncaring Innkeeper.
When churches have Living Nativities, or when Hollywood makes another movie about Jesus, we like to see this character portrayed as mean. A villain. Rude and nasty.
BUT -- I think that there is something about the Innkeeper we identify with.
Here is a man who has no room in his Inn for Christ.
Many of us have no room in our hearts for Christ.
How many of us come to church every week, but in this time of year when we ought to be experiencing the full spiritual presence of Christ, don’t feel anything spiritual at all. Here it is Christmas, we ought to be feeling the wonder of Christ’s birth, but we don’t. There is no room in our hearts for Christ.
Christ has been pushed out by all of the rush of the traffic, the press of shopping, the anxiety of end of the year exams and tests in school, the demands made upon us by having to visit, or having to receive visitors.
There is no room in our hearts for Christ.
On the other hand, there are many here who come infrequently to church because the stress of the whole year keeps Christ at arm’s length. There is always work to do, always other places to go, always some sporting event to attend on a Sunday.
And so there is no room for Christ in your heart. Christ is pushed aside so other things can take hold of our lives.
Now it is not that we are villains and evil people when this happens.
It just happens.
It’s like the Innkeeper.
Since the Bible doesn’t mention anything about him, we like to imagine that he is rude and nasty. “Go away. There’s no room for you here.”
But I suspect the real innkeeper was just doing his job. Just going through his life. He was probably apologetic. “Gee I’m sorry Ms Mary, but there’s no room for you. And it would be unfair for me to go and tell one of the guests who’s already here and settled in that they have to leave to make room for you and your child.”
The Innkeeper wasn’t being mean. He was just being faithful to all of the other guests in his inn. He was just being faithful to all of the other demands of his life.
So that in the final outcome, there just wasn’t room for the Christ child in his inn, or in his life.
And when we push Christ out of our lives, for many of us, it is not that we are intentionally deciding, “I want Christ out of our lives.”
It’s just that we have already allowed so many other things into our lives that there is simply no room left.
No room for Christ.
We’ve got things to do.
We’ve got work.
We’ve got shopping.
We’ve got tests and exams and homework.
We’ve got to go to the Florida Keys this weekend.
And next weekend we have to go to Colorado to go skiing.
We’ve got to fix up our boat.
We’ve got to – well, the list goes on.
Is that the way we want to live our lives?
It’s not that any of these things are bad. Because they’re not. They’re good things. I like going to the Keys for a weekend. I like going to Colorado – not to ski, but to enjoy the view from the safety of a rocking chair! I never liked exams and tests, but they were necessary. Had to study for them. I like to work. I enjoy my job.
But when we do all of these things in such a way that they consume all of the space in our hearts and lives, so that there is no room in our lives for Christ – that’s sad.
That’s tragic.
And I think that is why the Innkeeper captures our imagination in Living Nativities and books and stories about the birth of Christ.
Because he’s us.
There’s no room for the Christ child in the Inn.
And there’s no room for Christ in our lives.
But is this the way we want to live our lives?
Jesus came into this world and wants to come into our lives that we might have eternal life. Why would we possibly want to exclude Christ out of our lives when he comes to offer us eternal life?
St. Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy, (1 Tim 1:15), “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the worst.”
Go to any football game and you will see someone holding a sign that has the Scripture reference, John 3:16. How many of you have seen that in a football game – or maybe I should ask, how many of you have NOT seen that at a football game?
It may be the most familiar passage of the Bible.
In John 3:16, we read, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Christ came to give us eternal life. Don’t we want to have room for him in our hearts?
Christ came to give us peace. We have so little right now. Our world is at war with terrorists. Many of us have sons and daughters, friends and loved ones in Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere – putting themselves in danger for our safety and freedom.
And how peaceful can anyone feel at Christmas – shopping, rushing around, driving in traffic with maniacs all around, in-laws coming.
But if you are pushing Christ out of your life because you have so much shopping to do, so much rushing around, so much this and that on your list of things to do – then you are depriving yourself of the very peace that this season ought to provide.
Make room for Christ in your life, and you make room for peace.
Jesus said (John 14:27), “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Christ came to bring peace to our lives. Don’t we want to have room for him in our hearts?
Christ also came to give us life, so that we could experience it to the fullest. Jesus told us in John’s Gospel, (John 10:10), “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Christ came to give us abundant life, but in the busy-ness of life, we fill our time with so much, and yet we find at the end of the day that life we’ve led has been empty. It has lacked meaning and purpose.
Christ came to enable us to live life to the fullest. Don’t we want to have room for him in our hearts?
It is Christmas Eve. We finally made it. We survived all the crazy drivers. We survived the stress of the final exams or the pressures of work. We did all of our shopping – and if we didn’t, well, it’s too late so we might as well relax.
Now would be a good time to make sure that we make room in our lives for Christ.
Now would be a good time to make sure that whatever other clutter may exist on our daily schedules, we are able to make room for Christ in the weekly worship on Sunday mornings, in the time for prayer and Bible reading, in the time for service to others.
There is room for us in Christ’s hands.
Let’s make room for Christ in our lives.
Copyright 2004
W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved
For other sermon manuscripts, visit www.Pittendreigh.com
