Rediscovering Christmas 4.0
The Gift of Hospitality
Luke 2:1-7
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
The legend of Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th Century…
Christmas has religious meaning.
Christmas has political meaning.
vs. 1 - Caesar Augustus - what we know about him
This passage opens with ultimate political power and ends with a peasant girl and a helpless baby.
Observations that bother me
-Inn keeper?
-No one gave room for a woman in labor?
Two theories
-Honor and shame culture - pessimistic
-Hospitality culture - optimistic
Jesus comes into the world in incredibly humble circumstances - doesn’t impose his will.
You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo.
For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs-to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish.
It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice.
He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
-CS Lewis - The Screwtape Letters
He can only woo…
Jesus comes to our world giving us the opportunity to be hospitable to him.
Hospitality toward God.
Hospitality toward others.
Hebrews 13:1-2 - Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Matthew 25:34-40
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Christ in his most distressing disguises.
-Mother Teresa
Who are you making room for?
We thought You'd come with a crown of gold
A string of pearls and a cashmere robe
We thought You'd clinch an iron fist
And rain like fire on the politics
But without a sword, no armored guard
But common born in mother's arms
The government now rests upon
The shoulders of this Baby Son
Have you no room inside your heart
The inn is full, the out is dark
But upon profane shines sacred sun
Not ashamed to be one of us
But without a sword, no armored guard
But common born in mother's arms
The government now rests upon
The shoulders of this Baby Son
Gloria, Allelu
Christ the Lord
We've longed for You
Gloria, Allelu
Christ the Lord
We've longed for You
-John Mark McMillan, Baby Son
Communion
Group Discussion Questions:
Warm-up / Icebreaker
Digging into Scripture
Read Luke 1:5-25
Theological Reflections
Connecting to Communion