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First of all, I want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas! This is my 7th Christmas at Incarnate Word and I cherish this holiday as a time to see and pray with so many of you! I pray that this is your best Christmas yet and you each experience profound peace and joy within yourself and with your loved ones!
I heard a sweet story about an unscripted moment that happened at a grade-school Christmas play. We’ve all been in the audience for these festive performances which never fail to make us smile because of their unpredictable and precious nature. In this case, there was a second-grader named Wally who inadvertently stole the show. Wally was one of those big second-graders, having been held back a year before kindergarten and also having a late-summer birthday. This delayed entry into school was all for the better because Wally was never going to be an academic superstar; his gifts lie elsewhere. Wally was blessed with a big heart, endless optimism, helpful, with a ready smile, a natural defender of the underdog, and well-liked by his classmates. His parents encouraged him to audition for the annual Christmas play. Wally wanted to be a shepherd but he was given the role of the innkeeper. The director reasoned that Wally’s size would lend extra force to the innkeeper’s refusal of lodging to Joseph. During rehearsals, Wally was instructed to be firm with St. Joseph. When the play opened, no one was more caught up in the action than Wally. When Joseph knocked on the door of the inn, Wally was ready. He flung the door open and asked with a big scowl, “What do you want?” “We seek lodging,” Joseph replied. “Seek it somewhere else,” said Wally in a firm voice: “There’s no room in the inn.” “Please, good innkeeper,” Joseph pleaded, “this is my wife, Mary. She is about to have a baby and is very tired. She needs a place to rest.” There was a long pause as Wally looked down at Mary. A teacher whispered Wally’s next line: “No! Be gone!” Wally remained silent. Mary and Joseph turned and slowly began to move away. Seeing this, Wally’s true self got the better of him. Tears welled up in his eyes and he called out, “Don’t go! You can have my room.”
This little story is light-hearted and sweet but it hints at something deeper within ourselves. Most of us in church know what it is like to be comfortable at home and to hear a knock on the front door or have the phone ring at the worse possible moment. When this happens, many of us contend with that dilemma: do I avoid answering or do I go the extra mile and engage with the person on the other end? Many times, for a whole host of reasons; we tell others there is no more room at the inn and we ask that person to go somewhere else.
But our homes and phones are not the only things we guard carefully. So too our hearts and our time. When we look across the horizon of salvation history, recorded in Sacred Scripture and secular history, we notice how often people, indeed entire cultures, closed the doors of their hearts to the message of love and peace God desired to share. Again and again, God knocked on the doors of the human heart, first at the dawn of creation with Adam and Eve then through his prophets, angels, judges, and kings. And as many times as our God offered his incredible offer of divine forgiveness and peace, we responded by either ignoring his invitation or going back on our promise to be faithful. We replied, in no uncertain terms, there is no room at the inn, go somewhere else! But in his never-ending goodness, God never gave up on us! And that is what we celebrate today. That in the fulness of time, God would send his only-begotten Son, born of a virgin in a manger, amidst farm animals, visited by kings and shepherds. Here, in this little baby, was the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Wonder-Counselor, the Prince of Peace. He is the Word-Made-Flesh, who has come to earth to invite us to let him in so he might share his peace, mercy, and love.
Today Christ is seeking a place to stay, wondering if we will make room for him. Someone beautifully wrote, “Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem – but all in vain until He is born in me.” Each of us knows, in some way, we have refused to open that door due to sin, fear, or selfishness. As we gather here to celebrate again the birth of Jesus, we should ask ourselves what it is that causes us to close the doors of our heart to the Christ-child. Is it a lack of faith that God will provide all that I need, even if it is not all I want? Is it because I have deep-rooted addiction to some sin I don’t want to give up? Do I resist the invitation to pray each day, filling that time instead with activity or mindless screen time? Am I so attached to an unhealthy relationship that I fear life without it? Am I unwilling to set aside my greed, lust, anger, bitterness, fear, or shame which barricades the door of my heart from welcoming the many gifts Jesus desires to share with me?
Today Christ knocks on the door of every human heart not as a threatening judge, not as a fierce warrior, not as an impersonal god. He comes to us as a gentle and innocent baby, reflecting the infinite love and mercy of the God who never stops seeking to win our hearts. Make room to embrace the Incarnate Word and experience his freedom which liberates us from the slavery of sin. May Jesus always find a home in our hearts, minds, and homes! Today our savior is born, come let us adore him.
