Sermon on Luke 2:1-20

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

If you, like me, have a hard time not hearing the Christmas story in Linus’s voice from the Charlie Brown Christmas special, you might have noticed that in place of “because there was no room for them in the inn,” as the King James Version has it, the version we read tonight has the words “guest room.”

It can be unsettling having words changed in a story as beloved as this, but let me tell you what difference that word choice makes.

The Christmas pageants of our childhood maximized the drama—Mary and Joseph’s weary and solitary journey to Bethlehem, their frantic search for a room for rent, only to finally be shown to a stable, where we see Mary and Joseph bowing reverently to already-born baby Jesus lying in a wooden manger.

There are beautiful themes in that version of the story about the hardships Mary and Joseph overcame, the change of heart of the innkeeper, and God’s willingness to be born in the loneliest and humblest of circumstances.

But it probably didn’t happen quite like that.

First, if everyone had to go back to their hometowns to be registered, Mary and Joseph probably weren’t traveling alone, but with a caravan of people.

Second,the biblical account doesn’t give us any reason to believe Mary wasn’t in Bethlehem in plenty of time before baby Jesus arrived: “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.”

Third, since this was Joseph’s family home, they wouldn’t have been booking a room at an inn. They would have stayed with family. Hospitality was an important value, and Joseph not being welcomed into the family home would have been unheard of.

Plus, the word translated “inn” in the King James Version is different from, for instance, the word used in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the Samaritan pays an innkeeper to care for the injured man. So, “guest room” is a more faithful translation for a word that’s distinct from “inn.”

Homes at that time had an upper room for guests, which is what the word “guest room” is referring to. Then, there was a separate family room that had an upper portion where the family slept and a slightly lower portion where they brought their handful of animals in for the night. That lower portion would have little trenches dug into the ground where animal feed could be put: mangers.

So, since the guest room was taken, and the upper part of the family room taken up by the family who lived there, they would have cleared one end of the animal portion of the family room for Mary and Joseph, and one of the trench mangers would have worked as a place to lay the baby.

Speaking of the baby, there would have been other women there to help Mary deliver her baby. She wouldn’t have been alone in a drafty stable with only poor Joseph to tend to her.

So, yes, our Christmas pageants make for an exciting story, but they don’t give a fair representation of the hospitality and kinship present in the story of God’s dream come true.

God chose to be born to a humble family, yes, not to a king, emperor, or warlord. And God was also born surrounded by a loving, caring community. That’s why the word choice of “guest room” matters.

Jesus came to create a Beloved Community of people who take care of each other, show hospitality and generosity to the vulnerable, including a young pregnant woman far from home, and live out God’s love for the world.

Even Jesus’ birth exemplified that Beloved Community.

And then, God told the Good News to shepherds—not politicians or generals or rich patrons—but shepherds who spent the night outdoors and were probably a little smelly from taking care of animals and who definitely didn’t have a highly-regarded profession.

These shepherds were welcomed into Joseph’s family home, which was already overcrowded with distant family members and chaotic from the aftermath of a birth.

But since the guest room was full, everyone was family—Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and the shepherds.And when the shepherds shared what they had heard from the angel, “all who heard it were amazed.” It was a shared experience of joy.

God’s dream for the world is one of community and inclusion. It can be a bit messy, but it’s filled with love.

It can be hard to find that kind of community these days. Many of us have the luxury of single-family homes, which might be extra full this time of year, but maybe not, since we do have hotels.

We have the ability to communicate with people around the world in our pockets, but how often do we really connect with other human beings?When someone asks you how you are, do you ever say anything but “fine” or maybe “busy”?How many people do you feel safe enough with to admit that life is hard?

And it can be challenging these days to have conversations with family members who have different political beliefs. It’s often safer to keep the conversation to “how is work” or “wow, it’s been raining a lot this week.”

Modern life can be really lonely.Christmas can feel more like being relegated to a stable than being welcomed into the family.

But no matter how lonely you feel, you are part of God’s family. God created you, loves you, and was born this night to build a Beloved Community in which everyone belongs.

It’s not fully realized yet and won’t be until the end of time. That will be God’s ultimate dream come true, and it will last forever.

In the meantime, God’s working to create Beloved Community day by day, and thanks to the Holy Spirit, we get to be part of helping create it.

Every time we choose kindness instead of hatred,

Or generosity instead of overconsumption,

Or belonging instead of exclusion,

Or love instead of violence,

the Beloved Community is becoming more real, and God’s using us to make God’s love known to the world.

And every time we fail, every time we fall short, and we will, because we’re human, God is still in our corner, comforting us, reminding us that we will always belong to God, and there’s nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less.

Jesus was God’s dream come true two thousand years ago, the fulfillment of the Beloved Community will be God’s ultimate dream that will come true one day, and God dreamed of you before you were born, so you, too,are God’s dream come true.

Let that belonging settle into your heart, Beloved, and may the peace of the Christ Child be with you now and always.