Theological Truth: The Love of God is constantly seeking embodiment. Will we make room?
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”
You’ve probably heard about the overly generous and compassionate innkeeper who wrecked the Christmas Pageant by deviating from the script and gleefully responding to Mary and Joseph’s request for lodging by saying, “Sure! Come on in!” Wisdom from the mouths of babes! Yes! There’s always room! It’s a lesson that I’m constantly learning– a lesson more essential than ever.
I have a saying which has now become a joke in our household. When Shannon comes home from Costco or the farmer’s market with overflowing bags of provisions, my automatic, fear-based response is, “Where are we going to put all that!?” I should know by now that she’ll find room. The thumping sound of a Mason jar slamming into a dish towel no longer startles me. I know that’s just Shannon fitting more crackers in a quart jar than it could possibly hold. She knows there’s always more room.
We know it too. Like when a hotel elevator appears full, but good-natured and generous people make room for fellow travelers. I’ve witnessed it in my parent’s hospitality where there was always room for one more around their table. Or when the church pews appear full until people squeeze together and suddenly, anxious souls in the aisle are relieved to find places offered to them. The birth of Jesus, the Word made flesh, reminds us to trust that in the abundance of God’s love, there’s always room, there’s always enough. Good news of great joy for all people…if we allow it room in our hearts!
Making room for God has always been the key to our wellbeing. Adam and Eve, after overreaching for that forbidden fruit, being naked and afraid, avoid making room for God in their lives. The prophets constantly warn God’s people of the dangers of barring God from their hearts and ignoring the needs of the poor. On the other hand, consider the miracles that occur when we do trust that there’s enough. Abraham and Sarah receive God’s promise and entertain angels unaware. The widow of Zarephath doesn’t run out of oil and flour despite making room for Elijah. There’s room enough for the five thousand (plus women and children) hungering for Jesus’ words as well as supper, to eat their fill despite starting with only a few loaves and fishes.
The coming of the Messiah requires making room. Zechariah and his long-barren wife Elizabeth make room in their lives for a baby (John the Baptist) after the angel Gabriel makes his first annunciation in Luke’s gospel. Then Gabriel appears to the young, unwed Mary, whose faithful courage makes space in her life and body for the Word to be made flesh in her for us. Writer Amy Cook points out how Elizabeth (already six months into her own miraculous pregnancy) also makes space for Mary when she visits to share her astonishing news. “Elizabeth generously puts her own good news second.” After making room for Mary’s news, she is filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaims what we still pray as the “Hail Mary,” and prompting Mary’s response which we still sing: My soul magnifies the Lord! My spirit rejoices in God my savior. Good things happen when we make room for God and one another!
Luke tells us that there was no room for the holy family in the Bethlehem inn, yet somehow or someone led Joseph and Mary to shelter. And while greeting cards jokingly depict Mary asking Joseph if maybe he should have either made reservations or asked for directions, I imagine them reminding one another, “God has provided so much so far. He won’t stop now. There will be room. There’s always enough to go around.”
There’s still more! The shepherds, tending their flocks by night, who are not accustomed to being the first to receive good news of great joy for all people, also make room in their hearts to receive this improbable Divine intervention. They make room in their schedule to go and see this thing that the Lord has made known to them. The kingdom comes when we make room for it. The light of God’s love spreads when we risk lighting our candle. Sometimes we just need reminders…
Newborn babies provide such a reminder. Even when unexpected or unplanned, the birth of a child reminds us that we have more room than we realize: in our hearts, in our homes, in our budgets, in our lives. In the tiny perfection of infants, we glimpse the possibility of new life, more life. Relationships expand. Children become parents. Mothers become grandmothers. Tough guys weep. We remember how interconnected and interdependent we are…and how much better off we all are when we accept and act on this reality. Babies remind us of the joy that comes from making room in our hearts for life and love.
How much more compelling and convincing then, when that infant we gaze upon is Love’s pure light? The miracle of God’s love enfleshed like us, with us, and for us breaks open our closed and crowded hearts. Christ’s birth, lowly and in a manger, proves once more that the Almighty, the ‘hound of heaven,’ relentlessly, recklessly, seeks room in our hearts, in our lives, and in the world. The Incarnation gives us an annual invitation to open the doors of our heart, to hear the angel’s calling, to surrender to God’s abundant love, to sing with the ages, “who would not love thee, loving us so dearly?” So….
Be open to this impossible Love. Be transformed by it. Be hopeful because of it. But most importantly, be examples of it by making room in your hearts for the other; by opening our lives to those in need and those different from us; by trusting that there is enough for us all: enough food, enough security, enough acceptance, enough mercy, enough forgiveness, enough love. Good news indeed…for all people! There’s room for all. There’s plenty enough to go around. Merry Christmas!
