Christmas 2022

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” — Luke 2:7

How does it feel when there is no room? I experienced it in church on Friday! I wanted to go to one of the cathedral’s services of lessons and carols. I got there too late. There were no seats and at the back was a large throng of people standing. I decided I couldn’t stand for an hour so I came home. There was no room for me. 

 

There was no room for them in the inn. Remember the emperor Augustus’ tyrannical census and the arduous journey for a pregnant teenager and her fiancée from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Joseph’s home town. It surely must have been obvious that Mary was with child and it seems to me that for a pregnant woman about to deliver a baby, surely there could have found some space inside an inn. 

Imagine the frustrated exhaustion, and maybe tears because there is simply nowhere to stay that is decent after an 80 mile plod. 

A man went into a hotel and asked for a room. He was told: “Sorry, Sir, we're all full. We just don't have any more rooms." The man said, "Well, let me ask you a question. If the President of the United States were to come in tonight and ask for a room, would you have one for him?" The clerk said, "Why, yes, we would." The man said, "Well, he's not coming, so I'll take that room."

I can't help but believe that if the inn-keeper of the last inn Joseph tried had considered Joseph and Mary's need a high enough priority, he could have somehow provided them a room. But we aren't given any details. We don't know what the inn-keeper was thinking, or what his situation was. All we know is that "there was no room for them in the inn."

But maybe this Christmas morning that’s the point. A God who comes rejected, ignored, driven into filth and poverty, a God who comes into a world that mostly today doesn’t reject him – it ignores him and gives him no room. He comes to those who need him most. Incarnation is inclusive: there is room for everyone in this story. The inn might be full, the partying world has its Christmas, and God’s presence is announced to those who society said back then, there is no room for you in our life. So smelly shepherds are the first to be told of the outpouring of love, a bit of heaven on earth. There is room for those we say we have no room for because we don’t want them near us. 

We’ve domesticated this story. But remember today this is all about God being with us and not just in the nice bits of life. There is room at the manger for those who need to know that they matter today. The lack of room for Jesus is an age-old problem. There still is severe overcrowding. People are overcrowded with news and information, our hearts are overcrowded with innumerable concerns, our schedules are overcrowded with things to do, there is room for us. There is room for everyone. 

Writing in the Yorkshire Post, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell says this:

I can’t stop thinking about those little boys from Birmingham who fell through the ice and died.And about their families. How hard this Christmas is going to be for them. And that policeman, who tried to save them, who I think might still be in hospital, recovering from hypothermia himself.

And I can’t stop thinking about those terrified, desperate refugees, exploited by wicked and unscrupulous people traffickers, getting into little boats on the northern coast of France to try to cross the channel into this country on bitterly cold nights crossing bitterly cold waters. Last week many had to be saved from those waters. And some drowned.

 

And these past few evenings, when I’ve taken the dog out for those last necessary things that dogs must do before bedtime, I stand in the cold and think about those who are going to be cold all through the night. Families huddled together in Kyiv or Mariupol. Anxious parents looking for children that won’t be coming home. Homeless people sleeping on the streets. Refugees in little boats.

 

Let us also remember those who are experiencing a different Christmas this year through bereavement. There is room for them here.

 

Let us also remember those who are facing hard choices this winter who maybe have spent too much trying to make this day perfect. There is room for them here. 

 If God is incarnate, and here, and everywhere, and at the heart of pain, all have to be included. For God has come down to get involved. We cannot be exclusive with this message. 

 

There was no room for them in the inn. There is room for him in us. 

 

And you know what, people might just need this story even if they won’t admit it. Like the shepherds, people are drawn into this thing which has taken place which the Lord has told us about. Dallowgill had to cancel their carol service last Sunday due to the ice. They rearranged it for last Thursday. 

 

Geoff Lobley rang me about three quarters of an hour before it was due to start and said “are you free?” As I was nearly there the car in front of me suddenly stopped and a lady got out and said to me “we are trying to find the chapel!” “Keep going!” I said. The chapel was full by 6.30. People had come from all over the place to sing carols and be in a place that matters to them – even if it’s once a year, as we shared the spirit moved and the wonder of the story was powerful – despite some very strange tunes to the carols they only sing in Dallowgill apparently!  Christmas is a good time for us to be open and attractive and to be invitational. There is room for even the once a year regular churchgoer! 

 

There was no room for them in the inn. There is room for him in us. 

 

And finally this Christmas Day, we have to find room for the Christ child ourselves. We have to be a church without walls. We have to be excited and motivated again because Jesus has come. 

We have to make a Christmas in our hearts. I went to the pet shop two days ago for cat supplies and the lady said to me “ I expect you are busy.” I love it when people say that to me this week because it implies I’m not busy at all for 51 weeks of the year. But it’s easy to be exhausted by Christmas and wish it over, but incarnation and joy are permanent. 

 

A learned minister, who quite fre­quently in his sermons used long words his congregation didn’t understand,  found on his pulpit one day a piece of paper containing the following words written by a steward: "minister, we want to see Jesus." 

 

The minister realised that this phrase contained a silent censure of his scholarly sermons in which there was no place for Christ. The words on this small piece of paper made him kneel with contrite spirit and ask God for the necessary knowledge to feed his congregation.. He returned to the pulpit clothed with new power, with a predominant preoccupation of proclaiming the unfathomable riches of Christ. His mes­sages became so powerful that the steward, interpreting the sentiment of the whole congregation, put another paper on the pulpit containing these words: "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord."

 

God found room in our world when baby Jesus was born in the Bethlehem stable. But God isn’t limited to one place and time. God wants to be born in our hearts too.

There is room in the Bethlehem stable for all of us and there is room in all of us for the stable. What might it look like for you to make room for God? 

 

Where is the room,
where is the house of Christmas?
Where shall we welcome Jesus,
where are the signs of home?

 

Let Christ have space,
place at the heart of living,
centre for birth’s new breathing,
cradle for hope and peace.

 

Let there be room,
room for the friend and stranger,
room without hurt or anger,
room for whoever come.

 

I pray today we have a blessed Christmas. Amidst the dinner, and listening to the King at 3pm (won’t that be strange?) and gift giving and receiving and parties and seeing what Danny Dyer’s fate is in Eastenders, let us make room for him who makes room for us. 

And next year when we emerge again to do church – let us make room for those for who he has come. Then Christmas really will have happened here. 

Cradled in a manger, meanly,
Laid the Son of Man His head;
Sleeping His first earthly slumber
Where the oxen had been fed.
Happy were those shepherds listening
To the holy angel’s word;
Happy they within that stable
Worshipping their infant Lord.

Happy all who hear the message
Of His coming from above;
Happier still who hail His coming,
And with praises greet His love.
Blessèd Savior, Christ most holy,
In a manger Thou didst rest;
Canst Thou stoop again, yet lower,
And abide within my breast?

Evil things are there before Thee;
In the heart, where they have fed,
Wilt Thou pitifully enter,
Son of Man, and lay Thy head?
Enter, then, O Christ most holy;
Make a Christmas in my heart;
Make a heaven of my manger:
It is heaven where Thou art.

And to those who never listened
To the message of Thy birth,
Who have winter, but no Christmas
Bringing them Thy peace on earth,
Send to these the joyful tidings;
By all people, in each home,
Be there heard the Christmas anthem;
Praise to God, the Christ has come!