Welcoming Christ - Christmas Day Sermon Luke 2, 1-20

I love Nativity plays which tell the story of the coming of Jesus. Most years, stories reach the media of occasions when things go wrong. I can never forget the occasion when at a school I was working in, our dress rehearsal went dramatically wrong when one of the shepherds decided to show his bum to the audience. Sometimes, the disasters become memorable such as the boy who played the innkeeper whilst nursing jealousy to the boy who had beat him to the rather more prestigious role of Joseph. When on the night of the performance, Joseph and Mary knocked on the door of the inn asking for shelter, he told Mary, “Ok. You can come in.” Having rewritten the script, he then told Joseph in no uncertain terms where he could go.

Aagh, the innkeeper. Along with Herod who often gets left out of our Nativitys, he shares the role of pantomime villain. But wait a moment! Whilst Herod is all too real in the account to be found in Matthew’s Gospel and indeed in historical accounts, the innkeeper is nowhere to be found. He is but a creative invention.

The traditional view that comes over in our Nativity plays is that the innkeeper is a man who tells Mary and Joseph that there is no room at the inn, leaving them to effectively squat in a stable. This morning, in the interests of being true to Scripture as well as finding inspiration in the true Biblical story, I want to challenge that traditional interpretation.

The Palestine that Jesus was born into, had a culture that took hospitality seriously. In Bethlehem, one would expect that hospitality to be available to Joseph and Mary. Sure they were ninety miles away from their hometown of Nazareth but the registration ordered by Rome meant that Joseph was back in the town where his roots lay. Furthermore, Mary was not without connections in the area. After all, it was to this area that she had travelled some months earlier to see her relative Elizabeth whose husband Zachariah as a priest was himself well connected.

Yet tradition tells us that they were turned away at the inn. And yet I think the tradition is unbiblical. For not only is the tradition in conflict with what we kno of Palestinian society but the language doesn’t fit. The word used for “inn” here in the Greek text is “kataluma” which can mean inn but can also mean a guest room, attached to the house or built on the roof, which is how it is understood in its only other mention in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus is making preparations for a guest room in which to share the Last Supper with his friends. Furthermore, in the only occasion in which there is mention of a commercial inn in Luke’s Gospel, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke uses a different Greek word.

So assuming that there was no room in the guest room attached to the house in which Jesus was born, how was Jesus born? Well, the probability is that he was born in a one room house which was normal for peasants. Such houses would have 80% of the room on a raised terrace on which the family cooks, eats and lives whilst at the lower level is the place where the animals would spend the night. The tradition of the time would be for a manger to be built into the floor at the higher level so that a hungry cow or donkey could reach into it if necessary for food. Such a place is in accordance with the nature of the site of the Church of Nativity which is the traditional site of the birth of Jesus.

And if this is so, do not the words of the Christmas carol ring true?

“Ox and ass before him bow,
For he is in the manger now!
Christ is born to save,
Christ is born to save.”

Jesus being born into a loving yet humble home, makes access so much easier for shepherds used to being turned away. Its essential decency enables them to leave, praising God in a way that a stable would not have done.

So at Christmas, we rejoice that Jesus has come in a way that enables even outsiders to gain access to him. We rejoice in the love and care that surrounded him.

And if a peasant householder at a busy time could make the sacrifices which enabled Jesus to be welcomed into our world, does not Bethlehem become an example to us with a challenge to make space for the Christ child even amidst the bustle of our lives.

For we have the advantage of hindsight. Unlike those relatives we know the significance of Jesus as the one who in Betjeman’s poem is;

“The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a child on earth for me!”

At Christmas, we celebrate the coming of the One who from the very beginning was available for those who were so often kept at the margins. Unlike the example of the fictional innkeeper, there are no bouncers keeping people at a distance. For he has come for all, even lowly shepherds and those from other lands - so much for the false image of God as a quintessential English gentleman!

Welcomed in love 2000 years ago, may we welcome him with love today, even as our joy turns to uninhibited partying!

Preached at Bideford Methodist Church on Christmas Day 2006