December 24, 2025 "No Room in the Guest Room"

Christmas Eve

Isaiah 9:2-7

Titus 2:11-14

Luke 2:1-20

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you from love born among us. Amen

Merry Christmas!

People love Christmas for many reasons

 but I suspect that underlying all of them

 is the comfort of familiarity.

The essentials of Christmas rarely change all that much,

 with Christmas you know what to expect each year,

 no surprises other than what is under the tree

 and for us who worship each Christmas eve

 this familiar pattern

always involves the Christmas story as Luke tells it.

 The decree from the Emperor

that all should be registered,

 Joseph traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem

 because he is from the house and family of David,

and with him his fiancée Mary

who is expecting a child and who gives birth while they are there

 and wraps her son in bands of cloth and lays him in a manger

 because there was no room for them in the….guest room,

yes you heard that right,

 there has been a change to the Christmas story,

my apologies to all in innkeepers of Christmas pageants yore

 but your roles will go un-reprised in the future.

For those of you who haven’t kept up with the latest

in modern biblical translation

 let me quickly bring you up to speed,

 basically there has been an update to the translation of the Bible

that most mainline denominations use,

the changes are based on the advances

in biblical scholarship over the last 30 years,

new manuscripts,

better understanding of what some of the original Greek and Hebrew meant

 things like that,

it doesn’t mean past translations were bad

 it just means we’ve learned more

and this version reflects that.

Many of the changes are very small

but even small changes

stick out in the beloved passages like the Christmas story.

 Now for those of you who are internally rolling your eyes

and wishing to point out to your neighbor or spouse

 who is quietly or not so quietly seething next to you,

 that the main points,

 the essentials haven’t changed,

you’re right,

 this is still the story of the baby born to Mary and Joseph,

 wrapped in cloth and laid in a manger

who is revealed as the Savior the Messiah, the Lord

 by a host of angels

 to some shepherds in the fields.

 A quibble over whether there wasn’t room for them

 in an inn or a guest room

really doesn’t make a big difference

in the grand scheme of things.

 But it does give us the opportunity

 to approach this very familiar story

 with fresh eyes and open hearts

wondering what new insights we might discover through this change

 and as I began to explore this

 I realized that the small detail actually did change my perception

 of how Jesus entered the world.

When I thought about it

 I realized that the image I held of that night long ago

was one that was rather isolated,

Mary and Joseph who had to travel away from home and the familiar,

in with the animals because Joseph forgot to make a reservation,

 Mary giving birth by herself

without the aid of other women

(what a terrifying experience that would be)

 and later their only visitors

 some shepherds sent by angels,

 the only ones who know what has happened

 and who Jesus is

 and as beautiful as we make it out,

 as holy,

it’s also a very lonely image.

And while a lot is left to the imagination in the scripture

 I realized that this quiet isolated image glosses over

 some of the details that we are given

that actually present quite a different picture

for one, the whole world is on the move for the census,

 there are a lot of people around,

the issue at the heart of Mary and Joseph’s housing struggles

is there are too many people rather than too few,

And the detail that they were traveling to Bethlehem

 because Joseph was a member the house of David

 is not just a nifty bit of trivia,

 it means they were traveling to be with Joseph’s family,

 they may not have met them before

 or been very close

but of course they would stay with family when they arrived,

that’s what everyone is doing in this census,

going back to their hometowns,

so by the time they get there

- being nine months pregnant tends to slow you down-

there’s so much family there

that the house is full to the bursting

and the only space that left was the lower level of the house

where the animals were brought in for the night

 which is how houses were constructed back then

stables weren’t outbuildings they were part of the house

Which means that Mary didn’t give birth alone

 but surrounded by an abundance of family,

maybe even too much family,

that Jesus came into the world

 not alone except for his parents

but surrounded by the chaos, connection, and love of family. 

I mean, it makes sense,

God has already made Jesus’ arrival a family project,

starting with the angelically announced pregnancy of Elizabeth,

 relative of Mary, 

who prepares the way for Mary with her son John

 who will prepare the way for Jesus,

Elizabeth to whom Mary races with the news of her pregnancy

 who affirms her as the mother of her Lord

crying “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

 Mary and her family knew who her baby was

long before she gave birth to him,

let alone before the shepherds came to visit,

the whole point of Jesus,

God’s Son, becoming human

was to make connections,

to narrow the gap between God and humans,

 as we’ll hear from the gospel of John a little later

 “the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

the Word,

the love of God incarnate in Jesus,

 comes to reveal God to people

 to reconnect that which has become disconnected,

God from humans,

people from other people,

especially those who are deliberately left out

‘Listen up Shepherds

we know you’re out in the fields

 so you probably won’t hear about this from anyone else

but this is good news for you too!’

say the angelic host

‘go, see for yourselves,

 you’re invited to join the celebration’

 and the shepherds go

 and share with others what they’ve heard,

they build relationships and are valued for more than their sheep

if even for a moment.

Of course it makes sense

that the embodiment of God’s love

 is born into love and connection

 and while he was born into a world

 where houses run out of space,

his mission is to bring the truth

 that there is space for everyone in God’s house,

 this is Jesus

 who will tell his disciples

 “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

Jesus who says and ‘I when I am lifted up will draw all people to myself.’

 This is what he has come to do,

 has started doing already at his birth,

drawing people and God closer together in love. 

This is what we celebrate tonight,

the chaotic, messy, holy arrival of God’s love in human form,

who draws us together,

 repairing connections,

bringing the outsiders in,

 preparing a place for everyone,

guest rooms enough for all. Amen