Thursday, December 24

John Wilkinson, Pastor

“And 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” (Luke 2:7).

There are many iconic images in the story of the birth of Jesus. We have been focusing on hospitality, so the utter lack of hospitality here is striking. And yet—God finds a way. The Israelites wander for forty years—God finds a way. Mary and Joseph travel from place to place so that Mary can give birth—God finds a way.

I often like to think of those unnamed characters in the Bible. TV and movies depict some for us—the people who said “we have no room,” and the one who finally said something to the effect that “we have no room, but there’s a little place out back, where we shelter our animals. It’s better than nothing, I suppose.” God finds a way.

This Advent and Christmas is about many things. It is at least about hospitality. And it works in both directions.

God welcomes us in, from whatever our wanderings may be, physically, spiritually, emotionally. God welcomes us in and provides for us a place in God’s grace, room in God’s mercy, a manger in God’s hospitality.

And because God welcomes us in, we may do the same for and with others. That may mean people we will never meet on the other side of the globe in Kenya, or New Orleans, a child or family we support in one of our programs. It may mean a visitor to worship who we welcome (setting aside our tendencies not to do those kinds of things!). It may be re-connecting with someone we haven’t connected with in awhile. It may be a friend or family member with whom our relationship has been strained.

And it may be the extraordinarily good news that God’s hospitality welcomes you. “You are accepted,” Paul Tillich once preached. God finds a way, this Christmas story reminds us. God finds a way to welcome you and me and all of God’s children to a manger filed with grace and hope, hospitality and love.

My prayer is that whatever hospitality you receive and give on this holy night, and all the holy moments to follow, that it will be blessed by God. May the spirit for the Christ child welcome you home, and may your Christmas be blessed. Amen.