NO ROOM FOR THEM IN THE INN
Luke 2: 1 – 7
December 10, 2006

Pilgrim Bud Precise

We left home. More like fled – along with most everyone else. Pensacola was a ghost town. The hurricane was approaching. Where would we go? From the weather forecast, it looked like if we went west, we would be out of the path. But that did not work out because all the motel rooms were taken. So we drove toward Birmingham. The places renting rooms were all filled up, and the prices were tripled. So we managed to get to our friends house in Birmingham. It was about 4 in the morning when we arrived. It had been a long night. The hospitality was most appreciated. The story of Joseph and Mary getting to Birmingham etches a vivid scene in the minds of those of us who have heard it for years. After a long journey, they come to a little town in darkness. The town is a crowd of jostling people – arriving – to be counted for the census. They are all trying to find a place to stay. Joseph and Mary from Nazareth are coming wearily to the end of their long journey.

There is no room for them in the village inn. No hospitality. Why is there no room for them? Best answer is probably that others got there first. If they had gotten there earlier, they would have been received. The people at the inn just had no more room. That is it. It is not fair to condemn the innkeeper. There is no place left. We talk about how we would have welcomed Joseph, Mary and the Christ child. Truth is that many times in our own hearts we have filled the space that would be for Christ. We have other guests. Why no room for them in the inn? Nobody knew they were coming. Like most of us, they probably would have been flattered to welcome greatness. We, like the innkeeper, see ordinary strangers – no room. No hospitality. Do you know what it is to be left out? We were on our way to our summer mission project in Tiptonville, Tennessee. It was 1:00 – past our lunch time. We stopped at a restaurant in Corinth, Mississippi. There were about 24 of us and we had recruited 3 black students from Chelsey Lane Presbyterian Church to go work with us because most of our Vacation Bible School students would be black. We were about the only people in the restaurant. We began to look at the menu.

No one came to wait on us. Finally I went over to the waitress and asked her if we could get some food. She responded that she could not serve us. They did not serve blacks. If she served us, she would lose her job. There was no room for us. No hospitality. It was January and I was the new minister at West Grove. The minister had died at Thanksgiving, and I was to fill in until conference in June. Then, I would go to SMU to school and someone else would be appointed to the church. During my first two weeks, I got a list of members who were homebound or in nursing homes; homes of members who had family in Viet Nam; prisons where we had members. My problem was that I knew nothing about the area. I asked our Council on Ministries who could help me locate the nursing homes and people I needed to see. The consensus was that the best person would be Ed Carmichael. He was a retired Methodist minister living in our community, but they doubted he would help me. He never came to church for anything.

So I went to see Ed Carmichael. His wife Margie met me at the door and welcomed me to their home. In a little bit, Ed came into the living room. I explained what I was going to do and that I was hoping he would have some time to show me the nursing homes and where homebound members lived. He informed me that he did not have much use for the church. The church had left him out. He had served his time and the church did not care anything about him. He believed that very early in his ministry, the powers had decided that he would be a rural circuit preacher and that was all there was to it. He never served a big church and he never made any money. He felt lucky that they had this home place where they lived. The church had no room for him and now, he did not have much use for the church. I told him the church folks had recommended him to me and that thought he was the perfect person to help me. He seemed surprised that the church members thought of him. We talked awhile and finally he agreed to go visiting with me one day a week for a few weeks so I could learn the area. He made it clear that he was not an early riser, so I suggested I pick him up and take him to lunch and we would go from there.

That seemed to work. So I picked him up every week and we would go to lunch. Then we would visit nursing home members, home bound members in the community. Ed and Margie began to show up at worship at the church. A couple of weeks before Holy Week, I asked Ed if he would help me serve communion on Maundy Thursday. I thought it would be meaningful to the church, but especially meaningful to Ed and Margie. I told him I would wear my robe, but he did not need to do that. He said he had a robe and would like to wear it. So we served communion that Maundy Thursday. Every first Sunday of the month after that, Ed would come and help me and other members serve communion. I eventually wound up staying at the church a year longer that I had originally planned. We had begun to make some progress and I was reluctant to just walk away. I told Ed I was coming back for the year.

That was when he told me that West Grove was the first place he had ever felt welcomed and wanted – that he had been wrong to believe the church did not care for him and Margie. I saw that as the work of hospitality. Ed, you are welcome here. There is room for you here. Let is not be weary in offering our best welcome to all who enter our doors. It just may be that we are the one place that welcomes, that cares that they are a part of us. Hospitality. Welcoming others to our place. It is a gift. It is one we can extend so that people do not feel “left out” or that there is no room for them. The innkeeper had no room for Joseph and Mary. But he did have a stable and he did extend that hospitality to them. Prepare the way. Let us make room in our hearts and lives for those about us who are left out. As we welcome them, we welcome the Christ Child.