A few weeks ago I read an interesting article about Christmas movies. The article stated that (and probably comes as no surprise) Christmas movies have darker themes than a few decades ago. The switch began in the early 80’s. Many movies have themes of depression and suicide and other dark themes. Redemption is typically not the theme of the movie as it was in the early days of Hollywood. I’m sure most of us can relate to movies such as “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Sound of Music,” and other typical Christmas movies. What makes these movies resonate with us is that a character who had some serious issues is redeemed – George Bailey is on the brink of suicide and through the hand of God is saved realizing that what was important was not the money but the friends and the fact that he had helped so many people over the years. He always looked after others before himself. One of the other things that the movies have done is to deconstruct or reconstruct Christmas – What do I mean? This is really no different then what has happened in politics of the past several decades. We are told that the Constitution means something different now than when it was written. For example, The First Amendment which guarantees freedom of religion has slowly been turned around to mean freedom from religion. The original meaning has been reconstructed or deconstructed. The same thing has happened with Christmas over the years. We are well aware of the political correctness that has infected Christmas over the past few decades. As example, instead of Santa Clause being a wonderful benevolent character that can do little wrong or has saint-like character, to someone who is no better than anyone else; to see Santa Clause portrayed at a alcoholic or womanizer is not beyond the script writers. I love the part in “Miracle on 34th Street” where Kris Kringle insists on having the drunken Santa Clause removed from the float, because he is not worthy of being a representative of Mr. Kringle. So where am I going with all of this?
This morning we want to look at the story of the innkeeper and I would love to point you to the scripture where the innkeeper is mentioned, but there isn’t any scripture. What has happened over the last two thousand years is that we have added or taken facts and drawn them to logical conclusions. Sometimes we have it right and other times, we have not.
The story of the innkeeper comes from this solitary verse in Luke 2:7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Here’s where things get tricky. I have heard it said that Bethlehem was small and insignificant and therefore wouldn’t have had an inn. There are reports that archeologist have not found any evidence of an inn in Bethlehem. Although there is a church located on the very spot the stable supposedly was located. But these are all educated guesses. What does the Bible say? According to that scripture we just read, it says there was no room in the inn. This is where we typically take the facts and add to them. In fact, by the time we get done today, we are going to take another perspective on the innkeeper. If we go back to the Greek, we will find the word used here is katalyma. What other scripture can we go to for help? Let’s go to Luke 22:11. It’s the story of Jesus telling his disciples how to prepare for the Passover feast. 11 say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ The word that is used here for guest room is the same word used in Luke 2:7 – katalyma – or guest room. Let me give you one more little piece of information to help this all come together. In a typical house in Israel in those days, especially if they were more wealthy would have a guest room for people to stay, sort of like a bed and breakfast. This would be above the main floor (hence, the upper room for the Passover and the upper room where the disciples were overcome with the Holy Spirit. At one end of the house and on a lower level would be a place where they would keep the animals – there would be a feeding trough there as well. Animals are a source of heat and heat rises and therefore the animals acted as sort of a built in furnace. It’s very possible that Jesus was born in a manger (which is consistent with scripture) in someone’s house because there was no room in the guest room. One of the things I love about this is that it really doesn’t change any of the miraculous parts of the story and it still fulfills the prophecies concerning Jesus. Some of you will now accuse me of deconstructing Christmas or the nativity story. That is not my purpose, but to get you to think how much of what we think the nativity story is really is oral tradition and not scripture. What are some others? The three wise men, the wise men and shepherds at the manger at the same time, the stable, Mary riding to Bethlehem on a donkey. The things that are not scripture, I hold to lightly, but facts of scripture I hold onto tightly.
So, what do we do with the innkeeper, well for the sake of today’s sermon, we are going to keep him or as we are going to explore (maybe her) in the story. What do you think was going through her mind?
No Room
So let’s explore this a little – let’s take a look at this fictional innkeeper and see if we can discover something for the very first time
If we search the scripture, where else do we find an innkeeper? We find reference to an innkeeper in Joshua 2: 1 Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them, “Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.” So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night.
A footnote in the New International Version suggests that in addition to Rahab being a prostitute, she may have also been running a food and lodging establishment. When I studied further, it was interesting to see all the various reactions to that. I think some of you can see where I’m about to go with this. Part of the reasoning for this is to make you think. If indeed there was an inn in Bethlehem, it’s very possible it was run by a woman and if it was run by a woman or a man, it could have had a seedy (to put it mildly) reputation. So let’s take a few steps back and see how scandalous the nativity story could be…We have an woman, who happens to be pregnant (with the son of God), engaged to be married to Joseph, who had every right to publicly disgrace here by having her stoned. Instead, he still takes the woman to be his wife and they go to Bethlehem and end up at a seedy motel run by a prostitute. How’s that for scandal? And yet part of this story is recorded in the scriptures for us. Now that I’ve got you thinking—I want you to hang on to what I’ve presented so far and think about those after dinner today, because here’s what I really want you to think about and what I really want to challenge you with this morning.
It’s very possible that this innkeeper was so busy – cleaning rooms, making the food and taking care of everyone in the inn that she completely missed the story. Here was Jesus – Emmanuel – God with us – God in the flesh – the Savior of the world and yet she was so busy that she missed the event completely. Sound familiar – there are those today who are so busy getting ready for Christmas – getting ready for company – making the menus – taking care of all the little details – going shopping for Christmas presents – doing all the stuff that make Christmas, Christmas – and yet miss the real deal – that God came to earth as a baby – God became flesh and moved into our neighborhood – God took on the form of a human – became obedient – even to death on a cross – he shed his blood for our sins – his body was broken for us – he was killed for our sake – he was buried, but then he rose again on the third day – he ascended to heaven to prepare a place for His bride (the church) and he is coming back again for His church! Hallelujah! DON’T MISS THE ARRIVAL OF JESUS because you are too busy. That’s the first point.
Second – if we listen to the word’s of that song – the innkeeper was only willing to give the young couple a room if they could provide her with something – She says, “I don’t have any room here unless you can save me?” Wow! What a powerful thought. Just think if she would have realized the King of kings, the Savior of the world was to be born in her inn? What would have changed?
This innkeeper probably wondered what she could do. Could she do anything of any significance for this couple? Her inn was full – she was busy taking care of business. Didn’t Mary and Joseph know that? What was this couples problem? I’m sure she thought these questions, even if she didn’t ask them aloud. What could have been done differently? Proverbs 21:13 suggests 13 Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need. I realize that this is not a thanksgiving sermon per se, but do we realize how much we have been blessed by God? I love that someone said the Advent Service Project Calendar that we are doing is helping them realize how blessed we really are. Some will say, there are poor all around us and yes, you are right. In fact, just this week, I received several calls from people needing food. As more and more people end up unemployed here in Martinsville, I know the calls will increase. The poor are crying out. Are we listening to them?
I really felt the God is calling us to work in this area – that’s why we have done several Christmas oriented service projects – God has blessed us and we need to bless others with some of what God has blessed us.
While Pam and I were window-shopping this week, I heard a contemporized carol in the store – toward the end of the song, I heard a little girl recite this line: Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. So often we think living the life that God has called us to live simply means following all the right rules from God’s Word – or how the church wants us to behave – I love James because he pulls no punches – James makes it very clear that those who are pure in the sight of God, take care of those who are less fortunate – this is something that Pam and I have tried to model in our own life – it is something that we have tried to teach our children – is it something that we’ve got all figured out – I wish – we still have much growing to do in this area – we need to care for those who are less fortunate – maybe they are homeless – maybe they are in a nursing home – or a rehab center – maybe they are in jail – maybe they come to our church every week – maybe they are one of the people who call us asking for money – maybe they are in the military – maybe they are far away in another land – maybe they are one of the millions of AIDS orphans in Africa – maybe they are…the point is they are really all around us. This is real kingdom building. I really wish I could help everyone – I wish we had those kinds of resources. James makes it clear and we also need to take care of the second part of that verse – we need to keep our lives clean. Jesus said, “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and the second commandment is like it – to love your neighbor as yourself.
Are you too busy to help those in need around you? This morning I encourage you to take a look around you. Stop and smell the roses and see that there are those that need you to be Jesus’ hands and feet, because it’s very possible that no one else will – you may very well be the only Jesus they ever see? Is there room in your heart to be compassionate today?
