Reflections on Advent Part 17

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. 

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

 and shall call his name Immanuel.  Isaiah 7:14

Last night my husband reminded me as we passed a home with a decorative star poised over its chimney,  reminiscent of a star which Matthew includes in his telling of the Christmas story, that his gospel essentially begins and ends with the same theme.  God is with us.  It is not a new theme in the Bible.  Not at all.  After spending many months with Jesus Matthew wants to remind his readers that above all there is hope because God is with us.  

We first see this introduced as the angel shows up to calm Joseph's fears.  Think about what Jospeh must have been feeling: fear, confusion, betrayal, maybe even righteous indignation.  Don't we all share those feelings at one time or another?  The angel's message is pregnant (pun is intended) with what Joseph needs most.  He needs to know that God is near.  That he hasn't somehow incurred God's wrath.  That he isn't going into this thing called marriage with his pregnant fiancé alone.  Mary's pregnancy would have likely been the gossip of the day.  I'm sure he would have much preferred anonymity!  But God knows what's going on.  He even has a name picked out for Mary's baby.  He tells Joseph the name of the child should be Jesus which means Jehovah is Salvation.  Don't worry, Joseph, this is The Child who will save you...and everyone else!  

Matthew recognizes that this moment fulfills the sign that God gave to Ahaz roughly 700 years before the birth of Christ..."the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel."  (Isaiah 7:14)  He chooses to include it as an aside of sorts. He's the narrator who whispers, "Psst.  By the way..."  And like so many asides, it gives us vital information that changes and deepens our perspective.    Matthew's Jewish readers (for whom Matthew wrote his gospel) would have immediately recognized the name Immanuel.  It means "God with us."  God is near.  He is showing up in a baby!   Astonishing!  Breathtaking!!

This reminds me of the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem."  The final stanza of this beloved hymn reads:

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born to us today

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us

Our Lord Emmanuel

Christmas Carols - O Little Town Of Bethlehem Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

Abide with us, Immanuel.  Be born in us, Jesus.  This is the gospel!  This is the good news that everyone had been waiting for since God extended curse and promise together in Genesis 3.  "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.  (Genesis 3:15)  God has brought about the reconciling of the human race to His glorious throne!

As Matthew writes through his gospel, he shows us the remarkable way that Jesus the Man/Jesus God lived, breathed, interacted, taught, healed and related.  We see that Jesus is indeed, God with us.  He has endured hardship, including the incredible and humbling adversity of the cross perfectly.  He has become the propitiation, the payment, for every wrong thing we have ever done.  When we live in this good news we are able to fulfill the last words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19a, 20b

I am with you always.  ALWAYS!!!  I can hardly contain myself.  God is with me!  #bestgiftever

That is the merriest of anything Christmas imaginable!!!!

Reflections on Advent Part 16

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6

Hundreds of prophecies dot the Old Testament concerning Messiah.  George Frederic Handel made many of them famous by incorporating them into his well-known oratorio Messiah.  It is a compilation of messianic Scripture set to music.  We listened to the Christmas portion yesterday on our long drive from Central Pennsylvania to the western Chicago suburbs.  One of the most famous choruses from this beloved work for symphony and choir is #12: For Unto Us a Child is Born.  Its melismatic lines highlight one of Isaiah's numerous prophecies pertaining to, from Isaiah's perspective, the coming Messiah:  "to us a child is born, to us a son is given."  (Isaiah 9:6)

Much ado is made over the child that is born.  That's something we can put our hands on.  While the incarnation is a mystery that eludes us, the birth of a child is something we can experientially know something about.  But how about the son that is given?  This, perhaps, isn't so clear.  Could this be where we get the notion of gifts from?  Gifts are given.  

In a 2015 post on the RZIM Facebook page apologist Ravi Zacharias says, "In this season I think often of that extraordinary verse in Isaiah 9:6, 'For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given.' Let us be sure of what is being said here. The SON is not born; the Son eternally existed and is GIVEN. The CHILD is BORN and entered our time."  Whoa!  That's a distinction most of us have not made.  Zacharias continues, "God in that divine moment revealed Himself as He had never been revealed before, through His Son. That is what the Christmas message is all about."  Indeed John in his gospel account of Jesus' advent declares, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."  (John 1:14)  Jesus shows us God Himself as we have never seen Him before.  He is full of both grace and truth.  

My husband likes to tease (only because it's more than partly true) that he is grace and I am truth.  I can't deny it.  In the discipline of our children he almost always comes out smelling sweeter in the eyes of our children.  I have a deep, deep passion for truth.  That makes me passionate about justice as well, which isn't much fun from their perspective, I know.  I suppose it's been written into my DNA because that's what I experienced most as a child growing up.  It's only been in recent years that I have come to more fully experience and display grace in my life.  But consider what John has told us.  Jesus is FULL of BOTH truth and grace.  Isn't that the embodiment of perfection?  And this IS the son that is given.  He is perfect in truth.  He is perfect in grace.  In my mind, He is just the type of individual I want to hang out with!

Isaiah gives us a little more detail of what this perfect example of grace and truth looks like.  He calls this child "Wonderful Counselor."  Here is the realization of grace.  When I need comfort I want a wonderful counselor.  I want grace spoken into my days.  I need it.  Or else I will "should" myself to death!  Yet as a good counselor He gives us truth along with grace.  Perfectly!

Isaiah also says that this child is "Mighty God."  This is Warrior Jesus.  This baby that we worship come Christmas is actually a warrior king!  He embodies strength and power.  He is the One we want (and need!) when we feel we are backed into a corner and treated unfairly.  He is the One we need when the world seems to be against us.  In reality, He IS the One who has our backs!

Moving along, Isaiah calls this child, this son, "Everlasting Father."   Don't think of your earthly father here.  There is no end to His love!  He always wants what is best for us.  And like any loving earthly father He is willing to let us suffer some ugly consequences for us to have what is best.  Only unlike every earthly father, He KNOWS what is best!

And finally Isaiah calls this child "Prince of Peace."  When it comes to peace He is chief.  No one tops Him.  He is the only one able to bridge the gap that sin created between us and God.  Jesus pronounces to Thomas (and to us as well)  "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)  He never denies our sin, he just takes care of it.  Truth and grace.

This Christmas I need Jesus.  I need the Son who is given.  I need the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace.  How about you?

Reflections on Advent Part 15

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord 

appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the 

child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there 

until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, 

to destroy him.  Matthew 2:13

I've been looking for a reason to include the Grinch in this blog in a big way and I think I've found it.  You see, my youngest son has recently been the victim of a bully at school, a bully who also rides his bus. And when I think of bullies it's not a far stretch at all to think of the Grinch.  Perhaps Dr. Seuss had a bully in mind when he wrote the children's story How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Every Who Down in Whoville Liked Christmas a lot...

But the Grinch,Who lived just north of Whoville, Did NOT!

The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!

It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.

Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

But I think that the most likely reason of all,

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

We've all seen bullies whether we've been the brunt of one or not.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  They appear very heartless, just like the Grinch.  They prey on those who are vulnerable, which says a lot about them really.  They likely don't feel good about who they are.  They bully because it gives them a temporary feeling of superiority, which is what they suspect they lack.

Now I don't want to spend an entire blog ranting about bullies.  That in and of itself would be pointless.  But I do want you to consider for a moment that there is a bully who shows up even in the Christmas story.  (Wouldn't you know it!)  God knows about this antagonist.  It comes as no surprise to Him.  In fact, He warns the wise men to stay away from Jerusalem on their return trip to protect Jesus from said bully.  But I get ahead of myself.

When the magi arrive in Israel looking for the new Jewish king they head to Jerusalem.  Why wouldn't they?  It was the location of David's throne.  Makes sense, right?  Only there hasn't been a Jewish king in Israel for a very long time.  Instead there is a Roman appointed foreigner named Herod who has been given the title of king. When the foreign academics start questioning where this new king might be, Herod becomes highly troubled. He assembles as many temple gurus as he can to determine where this new king might be found.  After he updates the inquirers, he sends them off with a stern caveat to return so "that I too may come and worship him."  (Matthew 2:7b)  We know that Herod has no intention of worshiping Jesus because when the magi fail to return with news of King Jesus he slaughters hundreds of innocent male babies to ensure that no new king would try arise to take his or his son's place. (Matthew 2:16-18)  Herod was, in reality, acting out of fear, another common distinctive of so many bullies.  

So what are we to do with bullies?  Perhaps the better question would be, what did Jesus do with bullies?  He encountered them on numerous occasions.

Perhaps Jesus' best known sermon includes instruction on what to do with bullies.  "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."  (Matthew 5:43-44)  Paul reminds us also:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy 

or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does 

not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or 

resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, 

but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, 

believes all things, hopes all things, endures 

all things.  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Radical, right?  Yes, but doesn't Jesus call us to be different from the world around us?  He did tell His disciples that the world would know us by our love.  (John 13:35)  Love takes many forms.  It may be the best way to love the bullies in our lives is to just quietly pray for them.  That has certainly been true in our case.  Much, much prayer!

In Matthew 2 we see that God warns Joseph in a dream to take "the child and his mother" (Matthew 2:13) away from Israel because Herod wants to hurt the child.  In this case, Jesus avoids the bully.  Not a bad idea.  Paul also tells believers in Rome "if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."  (Romans 12:18)  Would the magi have avoided Jerusalem to begin with if they knew they were tipping the hand of a bully?  We have no way to know that.  But we know that God allowed it.  He shows up and shows us there's a way out.  Walk away.  We've repeatedly told our son to just walk away and ignore his abuser.  Unfortunately sometimes it's not so simple as to just avoid confrontation.

Sometimes, as is going to be the case for our son, you need some intervention.  In John chapter 8 we see the bullies thinking they are going to trick Jesus into joining their bullying. But He artfully sidesteps them.  He manages to intervene for the poor woman who has been humiliated by the bullies, scribes and Pharisees!  Yep.  Sometimes we even find bullies in churches!  Instead of condemning her along with these religious bullies, Jesus extends grace as only He can do, "Go...and sin no more."  (John 8:11)  Forgiveness!  Imagine her relief!  She needed Jesus.  He stood up for this vulnerable woman.  

But ultimately bullies need Jesus, too.  They need the humility by which He comes.  They need the love and grace He extends.  They need the forgiveness He offers.  Bullies may not take it, but if we are to be true followers of Jesus we need to extend the same forgiveness He extends.  Jesus prays to as He hangs, dying on a cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."  (Luke 23:34)  We are not above Jesus.  If He chooses to forgive, so must we. 

The Christmas story reminds us that bullies are going to show up.  Unfortunately, we have no control over this.  But we have much control over how we choose to respond.  Go in the humility of the manger.  Don't let the bullies in your life get the best of you.  Love them.  Forgive them.  Or, when necessary, just walk away and pray for them.  

Reflections on Advent Part 14

Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Luke 2:14

I have recently become aware of what I believe is a spiritual attack on my soul.  I say this because in my mind I know it is not true.  But there is a divide between my heart and my mind.  My heart is hearing the faintest of echoes, one that brings deep sorrow.  It is a lie that could consume me if I let it.  It is the lie that says I am not loved.  It is a recurring attack and is usually accompanied by thoughts such as "You're not enough," smart enough, or popular enough or pretty enough.  Name your poison.  You've heard it before, haven't you?  I think it's because we've all experienced rejection at one time or another.  Sounds like a pretty depressing Christmas, doesn't it?  But not so!  Because when I start feeling this way I know I have to fight.  I strap on the belt of truth and take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. (Ephesians 6:14, 17)  

Perhaps the most stunning aspect of the Christmas story was told by Jesus Himself as He tried to explain to Nicodemus how one can be with God.  He eventually speaks what is perhaps the most memorized verse in all of Christendom "for God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son." (John 3:16a)  God loved.  God gave.  We experience the start of this story with a baby lying in a manger.    And not just any manger, but the manger where the sacrificial lambs were laid!  This is not just any love, but rather sacrificial love!  It is the steadfast, covenant-keeping hesed of the Old Testament and agape of the New Testament.  The psalmist writes in Psalm 136:1:  "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for His steadfast love endures forever."  The phrase "for His steadfast love endures forever" is repeated 26 times.  "Why?" you might ask.  It is to show that absolutely everything God does is driven by His hesed, His steadfast, covenant-keeping love.  So when God gives us Jesus, Immanuel, He is doing so out of His hesed (or agape in the Greek) love for us.  Keep that in the forefront of your mind as we explore today's verse.

The message of the angel army (for that is literally what a "host" implies here) is God bringing peace to mankind with whom He is pleased.  (Luke 2:13-14)  Imagine the astonishment of the shepherds!  An army delivering a message of peace.   Seems a bit ironic, doesn't it.  It must have initially terrified those shepherds!  But once it sinks in, I think the message is pretty clear to them.  A baby has been given who is going to fight for peace.  Perhaps they, like so many others in the gospel accounts, including Jesus' own disciples, saw the coming of a great King who would literally fight for their physical freedom and peace, restoring the throne of David.  And He will.  But I don't believe that was the initial message God wanted them (or us!) to see.  This baby, this Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11) would fight to restore peace between God and mankind.  This is what Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John 3:16.  God loved.  God gave.  The fact that God chooses an angel army, I believe, shows how great this baby, this given Son really is.  He is the only one who is able, acting according to God's hesed, to bring God and man together again, not even an entire angel army can do that.

God's love shows up in this account in another way, as well.  The angels tell the shepherd that God is pleased with them.  In the Greek the word eudokia  "implies a gracious purpose, a good object being in view, with the idea of a resolve, showing the willingness with which the resolve is made." (Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament words)  Doesn't this speak love as well?  God freely gave.  God freely loved...with a gracious purpose intended for all mankind.  That purpose is to pour out His love in sacrifice for all of us, you and me included.  Paul tells the Galatians, "the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  Now that is a Christmas message I needed to hear today!

Reflections on Advent Part 13

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you 

good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David 

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  Luke 2:10-11

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and 
praising God for all they had heard and seen, 
as it had been told them.  Luke 2:20

I sometimes get a sense of weariness because of the circumstances and environment in which I reside.  I sometimes wonder how the shepherds were feeling before the angel appeared to them that lonely night.  Were they far enough away from the political upheavals of Jerusalem to be insulated from choke-hold decisions made by the government ruling over them?  Or were they caught in the bad news of the day on their way to deliver lambs to the temple?  Certainly they were aware of the oppression all around them, perhaps even caught in it.  Were they wondering if, perhaps, their jobs were pointless?  Were their lives pointless?

I have a suspicion that all too many of us choose to live as though ours are pointless lives.  The things we choose to engage with don't have any lasting impact on either our lives or the lives of those around us.  As a teenager I sang in a rather large youth group from Bethany Evangelical Free Church in La Crosse, WI called the Enthusiastics.  We sang more songs than I can remember.  There is a line in one of the songs we sang (I found out from a fellow conspirator that it was "Only One Life" by Merrill Dunlop), "...only what's done for Christ will last."  I won't ever forget that line, I believe.  Here's why.  It's not what others do for me which bring me great happiness and joy but rather the life that I give away for Christ.  

But in order to give anything away, I need to have something to give in the first place.  The angel has a message of substance, a weighty Substance that outweighs all other substance. The angel's message gives us a hope of place and purpose.  It brings meaning to an otherwise drab and dull existence.    The message to the shepherds that dark evening was that hope had come... a hope found in a Person!

The Jewish world with its proselytes had been waiting for this news!  Perhaps that's why the shepherds took off after this Savior with such haste and zeal.  What happened after they saw the Child?  Did they give up their profession for full time evangelistic ministry?  No.  They returned to their given profession, but with new heart passion, "glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them."  (Luke 2:20)   As they brought the Christ-child with them in their hearts, their occupation became a place of worship.

Where has God called you to be?  What do you do with your time?  Where do you spend your waking hours?  The answers themselves are of little consequence.  What brings meaning to the answers to these questions is how they reflect Jesus in our lives, how they worship the Christ-child, now King.  I don't know that I've seriously thought of a "secular" job as a place of worship.  Yet Paul, in his letter to the believers at Corinth says "Whatever (emphasis mine) you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men."  (1 Corinthians 3:23)  He follows that with "You are serving the Lord Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:24b)  And here's the kicker...just like the shepherds who returned to their fields with great joy yielding great worship, we can do the same.  An encounter with Jesus brings great joy, but if that joy is kept to ourselves it soon withers.  Worship brings it out into the open, ready for others to share.  This Christmas if you have found the joy that belongs only in Jesus, give it away.  Take the passion of it with you wherever you go and whatever you do.  Let it live in your heart year round.  May we respond as Ebenezer Scrooge, Charles Dickens "beloved" character from A Christmas Carol, responds after his encounter with the spirits:

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. 

Only, let's bring Christ front and center!!!

Reflections on Advent Part 12

O Holy Night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

- Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure

translation - John Sullivan Dwight

Today I am taking a slight departure from the heart of the Christmas story itself, although I most assuredly will return to it.  I find my inspiration from the world around me and what I am seeing in God's word.  A few days ago, as I was finishing some grocery shopping I was drawn to the people around me.  Some went about their business with a pleasant step, greeting friends they knew as they went.  Others looked worn and haggard.  There seemed to be few that fit the in-between.  As a musician, it is not uncommon for my mind to be drawn to song lyrics, and yesterday was no exception.  The words to "O Holy Night" washed over me as I watched the crowds surrounding me and I recalled the line "a thrill of hope the weary world rejoices."

Yesterday, for the most part,  I indeed felt as though I was watching a weary world, a world in need of hope.  And is it any wonder?  This week, as usual, the media has reported a copious amount of bad news: yet another school shooting, a fire raging near Santa Barbara that has destroyed over 700 homes with no real hope of containment any time soon, an increasingly volatile North Korea shooting off another missile in an effort to flex its arm.  I personally have heard of smaller, more personal tragedies as well:  a family's loss of a son and a brother unexpectedly, someone suffering from a brain aneurysm, another battling cancer.  Truly we understand the weary world in sin and error pining.  It is our life.

The world in the days of Mary and Joseph, shepherds in the field at night and magi from the east was waiting for relief.  Relief from oppression.  Relief from poverty.  Relief from tragedies in abundance.  (Not unlike what we know, only without twenty-hour news networks reporting every detail the moment they are able to grab it.)  They set their hope on Messiah, promised long ago.  But surely in those days they were feeling a sense of hopelessness, too.  It had been 400 long years since God had brought them word of relief.  Four hundred years!  To give us a little perspective, keep in mind that Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World only a bit over 500 years ago.  Perhaps they were tired of waiting.  Perhaps they had given up hope that a Savior would actually show up.  Perhaps they figured they were just as well off working things out on their own.

Since Jesus showed up on the scene in a lowly manger not a whole lot has changed except, of course, we have heard directly from God Himself.  And not only have we heard from Him, He has laid down His life for us!  Hope!!!  Yet our bodies groan.  I am not more aware of this than I am right at this moment...the older I get the more familiar with decay I am.  And I know I'm not alone!  Paul knew this, I'm sure, when he tells the believers in Rome:

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to 

us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when 

God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all 

creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 

the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children 

in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all 

creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up 

to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though 

we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, 

for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. 

We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will 

give us our full rights as his adopted children.  Romans 8:18-23 NLT

Some 2000 years later and we are still waiting.  Some of us are waiting to be freed from a pain-consumed body.  Some of us are waiting to be freed from a pain-decimated mind.  Some of us desire to be freed from the sinful desires that overwhelm us.  Some of us simply want to be freed from an overwhelming schedule that seems to control way too much of our time.  And we groan.  We live in the now and the not yet.  We have available to us salvation as a result of a baby born in a manger who came to die for our sins.  Yet we have not yet escaped a world ravaged by sin in general.

Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was not a particularly religious man when the parish priest in his small French town asked him to pen a poem for the annual Christmas Eve mass, nor was he afterward.  The popular carol was banned in European churches for almost two decades as a result.  But I believe de Roquemaure was divinely inspired when he wrote  "Cantique de Noel."  He recognized the sin-devastated human condition in lines such as  "till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth."  But he also recognized the worthiness of Christ and the uniqueness of His birth in the chorus:

Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine
Oh night divine

Join the chorus in worship, O soul!!  This Christmas recognize that although we groan under the weight of a world broken by sin, we have hope!  There is a reason to worship.  Don't hold back or only pretend.  Let your heart be inspired by the Singer of the song.  He is worthy of our best!

Reflections on Advent Part 11

...because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:7b

Yesterday my husband challenged me to blog about the inn keeper.  My first reaction was, "Innkeeper!  What on earth could I write about the inn keeper?"  But as usual my mind rose to the challenge and I began thinking.  What about the inn keeper?  What might he represent in the story?  I often find that God's word has multiple levels of understanding and meaning.  And I think it might be good to explore some of those understandings as long as I never stray from the whole of Scripture.  So here's where I landed.


When I was young all the elementary schools in my district came together for a festive and touching Christmas program.  I remember it well.  It took place in the high school gymnasium.  That alone set all of us twittering!  We would be placed on one whole side of the high school bleachers, a small stage of low scaffolding set for the story action, which wasn't much acting at all;  Mary and Joseph would take their seats next to the manager, a swaddled doll lovingly (that was the acting folks!) laid to rest there.  And then each grade would take their turn singing the Christmas carols selected for them to do.  It was the highlight of my year!

I've also born witness to the Christmas plays, usually done for a Christmas Eve service, where Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem looking for a place to stay, Mary painfully waddling, not because she was a good actor but because the two pillows stuffed under her robe continually slip!  They move from one establishment to another, painted sets composed of cardboard and scrap lumber, each time receiving an emphatic "No!"  Finally one weary  inn keeper points to a tiny stable behind his establishment and says, "You can stay in my stable."  Ah!  We have a hero!

But that's no where to be found in the Christmas account in Luke.  All we get is that Jesus was laid in a manger..."because there was no place for them in the inn."  (Luke 2:7b)  It made for some good (okay, so I stretch things a bit!) drama.  It has, however, wrongfully shaped my thinking regarding the Christmas story.  Yes, there was no room in the inn but there was a hero who made room.  And truly, I heard that message preached in days gone by.  "You need to make room for Jesus."  This concept flies in the face of the Gospel, however.  John's account of the advent of Jesus states, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." (John 1:11 NASB)  This verse is usually viewed as Jesus coming to Jews who didn't receive Him.  But what if it has a deeper meaning lying in the fact that Jesus came to humanity and humanity didn't receive Him?  

What if the inn keepers of Bethlehem represent the bulk of humanity that turn Jesus away because its perception of Him is that He cramps our style, or makes life inconvenient, or takes too much time, or, or, or... ? The list goes on and on and on.  

Let me rephrase that question in the positive:  what if the inn keepers represent our excuses for not receiving the Savior of the world into our lives?  Oooh.  That changes things a bit.  The Gift has been given.  The Bible gives clear, historical evidence of this fact.  Yet many world religions, while accepting Jesus as a historical figure, only go so far as to claim that Jesus was a good man.  "His own did not receive Him."  Or merely a prophet.  "His own did not receive Him."  Or only one son of God, but not necessarily a Savior.  "His own did not receive Him."  Or it's all pretty much the same, isn't it?  "His own did not receive Him."  I have personally heard every single one of those excuses.

If that's all there is to the story, it's a very sad one, indeed.  Where's the hope in that?  You see, the biggest reason to celebrate Christmas is because the greatest Gift ever given to mankind is the One who brings us hope.  Hope that there's more to life than what we can see, and what we can't see is better!  Hope that love overflows for each of us!  Hope that I am not the one responsible for the goodness (or I could get religious and say "righteousness") of my life. 

John brings hope to his gospel account by continuing:  

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, 

he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, 

not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, 

but of God.  John 1:12-13

When the inn keepers of Bethlehem shut the door on Joseph and Mary, they shut the door on hope.  But God left the door of hope open!   The gospel gives us a new rubric.  Believe.  Receive.  Become children of God.  Hope enters the equation.  Now that's something to celebrate!!!!!