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Making Room
One of the things I’ve liked to joke about with some of my
friends is what to ask Jesus first when I get to heaven. I think one of the top questions would be if
I could see the book of Acts as a movie.
Jesus would point to a cloud and the story would begin from a to z! It has always been a fascinating thing for me
to think about, Luke was actually both a disciple and fellow traveler with St.
Paul. Neither were eyewitnesses BUT God
used both St. Paul, Luke and the other apostles during their time to speak the
Truth of the story of GRACE—The Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were a different kind of
eyewitness.
There was something about today’s Gospel that struck
me. It was nothing obvious to say the
least. But it was beginning to wonder
about the deeper meaning of the latter half of verse 7: “7And she gave
birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a
manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Why was there no place in the inn? What does this really mean on all levels of
understanding? What was God saying to
St. Luke’s heart to relay this message as well as what could Luke be reflecting
personally on top or woven into this statement?
Within the first letter of
John, we are given a partial answer: “12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God
lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we
know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.14And we have
seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the
world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for
us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in
them.”
Seen may be one factor, felt
the other—this is the Holy Spirit tied deeply to both the inspiration of scripture
as well as saying something deeply about humanity. There may have been no place in the inn but
what if Luke was being Ironic? The irony
of God’s incarnation—enfleshing himself with our humanity—fully human AND fully
divine… cast out into the cold night, his earthly mother and father. The Doors CLOSED!
Have we heard deeply the
reality as Titus says IS the manifestation of GRACE—HOPE: Christ Jesus? There’s a fine line we stumble upon: “11For the GRACE
of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, 12training us to
renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives
that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, 13while we wait
for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Christ indeed was born and
came into our world, our reality and he’s never LEFT. This is the problem for us spiritually. Have we closed the doors to the Inn road of
our hearts to KNOW deeply that living into a lifestyle of GRACE is Christ Jesus
working in, with and through our lives as the Holy Spirit, as the spark to the
New Life within us?
When I was studying the story
and history of Luke the Evangelist earlier on in seminary, I wondered if his
outstretched desires to evangelize the Gentile world he and St. Paul wandered
through hid some sense of lamenting or concern for the state of what
hospitality means spiritually? The
battle had changed somewhat with more wide-spread persecutions taking place
every where he and Paul were to tread.
St. Paul’s conversion revealed a gnosis of new and profound understanding
of the meaning of Jesus. Luke was an
artist in more ways than one. The Word
came through him in elaborate speeches, landscapes painted with both history
and multi-colored personality.
Immanuel is God WITH us. On that same note, Immanuel is Christ WITHIN
us. When the inn of our hearts are truthfully
opened by Faith which has been greatly justified by GRACE—we know and there IS
room! The future soundtrack of Handel’s
Messiah or the foretelling from the Prophet Isaiah SINGS to our opening room: “6For a child has
been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he
is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Indeed he is wonderful,
mighty, everlasting and his peace counsels, consoles our souls. This past week, I was reaching out an
empathetic ear to a woman who I noticed was crying in the back of the room of
our group Bible study. She was weeping
ever so quietly but the sadness and weight upon her showed in her face. She told me that her house mate was
desparately ill and refused to go have his diabetes checked or go to the
doctor. She was beside herself in grief.
After some time of talking
and prayer, I shared my prayer cross and taught her a repeating prayer to use
the cross to help calm her spirit. The
following week, I brought her a cross of her own to pray with daily and keep on
her wherever she goes. She was so
grateful. She also seemed to be at peace
in many ways then from the last time I saw her.
She did experience the calming presence of how both the Word and her
prayer cross near to her held a healing power she just could not understand or
explain.
For her as well as many of those who believe, the mystery
of God WITH us becomes truthfully revealed.
Everyone has a different experience of God WITH them, WITHIN them—this is
the Christian Journey. St. Luke’s
beautiful novella of the wandering discipleship journey, he, Paul and others
underwent in the book of Acts was his revelation of God’s Divine work in his
life. When he had written the Gospel,
the irony he may have expressed in saying there was no room for Mary, Joseph
and Jesus at the inn was to spark a New beginning.
A New beginning—the Advent of the Kingdom of God: “7Beloved, let us
love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God
and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is
love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent
his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is
love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
GRACE is a complex mystery of
God. It is a manifestation, gift and a
way of life. The door needs to be wide
open and we must welcome the Christ child into our hearts as the New Life
given. “For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The
mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. 14He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous
for good deeds.”
AMEN
Christmas Eve; The
Nativity of Our Lord; December 24th, 2013; Year A; SOLA & RCL
Lectionary;
Psalm 110:1-4; 1
John 4:7-16; Titus 2:11-14; Isaiah 9:2-7 & Luke 2:1-20 Nicole
Collins
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