There was lots of room at the inn. Lots of warm snuggly beds, and food and drink enough for everybody. On that night in Bethlehem a real welcome could have been rolled out for Mary and Joseph and a safe place found for her to have her baby. Instead we are told they were rejected and found a place to have the baby among the animals.

So now we all know what God is like. God chooses to be born to a poor unmarried teenager, and arrives in this world to be placed in a manger used for feeding cattle. God is making a point he is alongside the poor, the rejected the despised and the forsaken.

The Christmas message for all of us is that God cares for those people who might feel that nobody does. So if we want to be followers of Jesus, then we have to do the same. If we care for those who are in need, it is as if we are doing for Jesus himself.

Post Communion Sentence

God our Father, whose Word has come among us in the Holy Child of Bethlehem: may the light of faith illumine our hearts and shine in our words and deeds; through him who is Christ the Lord.
 

Commentary

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

We read this story of the birth of Jesus time after time and year after year and still we discover new truths about our God and our faith. Take this simple statement, ‘because there was no room for them in the inn.’ In one sense it is just a descriptive note, but in another sense it is penetrative comment upon the fact that when Jesus was born nobody made room. There was loads of room in the inn at Bethlehem on the famous night. There were many other people who could have spent the night in the cave or the stable, or wherever it was that Jesus was born. We would expect that a mother about to give birth would take a high priority over most other people. But the point is that nobody would make room. Mary was just not important enough to make people loose their room and go to the inconvenience. You can imagine the comments directed towards the young pregnant teenager, ‘it’s her own fault’, ‘she’s brought it on herself,’ and ‘we all have to take responsibility for our own actions.’ She was just another example of the undeserving poor. Would we have behaved any differently?
 

How do we react when we hear of the plight of the other Mary’s of this world. The story challenges each one of us to be different. This year we have as our church appeal the work of Mildmay. This is a charity which helps victims of Aids related diseases from London to Africa. The Christmas challenge to us all is that we have to make room for those in need. Jesus takes his place alongside the rejected and the despised, the weak and the vulnerable. That is the message of the Christmas story, are we prepared to do the same?
 

This year in the Advent course we looked at the nativity stories and we asked ‘are they true?’ We saw that on one level people have raised all sorts of questions as to whether pieces of the nativity events really happened. The truth is that we will never know the exact historical details and we do have to be careful about filling in the gaps with our own ideas - something which perhaps the church has done with the added information about Mary and the Magi. But whatever misgivings we might have about the nativity stories, the truth of the message which they convey should never be in doubt. As Christians these stories are true for us and they remain as a challenge to us for all time.
 

Children need to be told that we have a Saviour who was God made flesh, who chose to be born in the muck of the stable not the comfort of a royal palace. The Christmas story is a message that Jesus is involved in our ordinary lives and it is also a challenge to each one of us that we have to make room.
 

In our reading we also read the story of the shepherds. We tend to think of shepherds as decent country sorts, looking after sheep. But these were not valued members of the community. They were unclean in terms of their way of life and also spiritually. They were not able to keep the Jewish laws and they were despised and looked down upon. Yet the nativity stories, tell us that these were the people who were told about Jesus first! You might not believe in flying angels with wings, but what you cannot get away from is the fact that, right from the start, the stories of Jesus show that God goes out of his way to invite the very ones which society disapproves of. God has a special place for the waifs and strays, God cares most for those we do not make room for. We are told that the angels told the shepherds, the angels are messengers of God, the point is that God spoke directly to the hearts of ordinary folk, with no religious or community prestige. Luke knew that God did that when Jesus was born and he wanted the reader of his Gospel to know that this was how God operated. Luke knew that you didn’t have to be rich and famous, his Gospel was full of this teaching that everybody mattered. So today we have to be God’s angels. To us the task is given to proclaim the message of the birth of Jesus in word and deed. The uncomfortable truth is that Jesus has told us that we have an opportunity to do that every day of our lives. When we care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, those without the necessities of life, the sick. We care for Jesus. When we show kindness to those in need, or those whom society overlooks or despises. We show kindness to Jesus. The message of Bethlehem and the first Christmas is just as important today as it ever was, the big question is ‘what will be our response?’ Charles Royden

Out of all the:
beautiful houses
Well-to-do families
Professionals in Bethlehem
Families of the Pharisees
Beautiful girls in Judea
Richest cities in the world
Jesus was born
In a cattle shed
To a poor, insignificant but obedient family
To a carpenter named Joseph
And a young woman, Mary
In Bethlehem

May your Holy Spirit enable us to realise that your birth indicates that our mission involves working with the:
Marginalised
Destitute
Forgotten
Aids victims
Widows and orphans
And untouchables
Whatever we do to the least of his brethren .....
Goodwin Zainga


 

Meditation

O God, it is easy to love the whole world, but hard to love the person one works next to;
O God it is easy to campaign for world peace, but hard to contribute to the peace within my own home; O God it is easy to be fascinated with some new truth, and miss you in the thing I have known so long; O God, it is easy to share my home and possessions with people I like. Teach me how to be generous towards others. Enable me today to say something that will make a difference to the discouraged, to the inexperienced, to the despairing. Let no selfish concern with my own affairs put me off from any today. For your love’s sake. Rita Snowden.
 

Hymns

1. God rest 103

2. Christmas Bells and Come and Join the Celebration

3. See him lying 118

4. O little town 113

5. Good Christians all rejoice 104

6. O come all ye faithful 110
    

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead