Just a Room, Please!

Last night was Christmas Eve at First Presbyterian Church. We had our sanctuary mostly full with friend and family from out of town who were here to visit. We also had some people who I had never seen, including one person who seemed to be looking for a warm dry place on a cold and rainy Christmas Eve. The lady came in the back of the church shortly after the service began. I watched from my point in the front as one of our ushers took the orange tarp she was carrying to shield herself from the rain and a little of the cold.

She sat through the service, on the back row. She raised her candle on the last verse of Silent Night, just like everyone else in the congregation. She lined up to wish me a Merry Christmas with all the other folks scurrying out to join family and friends for some other Christmas celebration, but I knew before she spoke that she had nowhere else to go and no one waiting for her.


She tried to have a conversation with me while others were still waiting to shake the preacher's hand and move on. I asked her to give me a minute to finish wishing the other worshippers Merry Christmas, and she did.

When everyone else had finally exited and it was down to myself, an elder, and this other child of God, she proceeded to unpack her story.

She poured out a confusing story about a family member stealing an apartment from her that she thought she had rented, about not wanting to be a burden to other family members or involve them in the conflict, and feeling a strong responsibility to have a place of her own.

I told her that I could only offer her one room for one night, and I tried to steer her back towards the family members she said she had spent the previous evening with. It was Christmas Eve and I was ready to get home to my own family, to finish some of our own preparations, but God wouldn't let me alone.

The Holy Spirit has a way of being down-right annoying from time to time. He kept throwing at me the sermon I had just preached and the Scriptures I had just read, the whole no room at the inn thing! Really, how dare He!

I knew I would have to call the local hotel, make the reservation for her, drive her there, sign her in, and make the payment before I could make a dash for the grocery store and finally head home. I wish I could tell you that the Christmas spirit overwhelmed me and the love of Jesus Christ poured over me and motivated me to empty myself, even as I had already told the congregation that Jesus Christ did when He was born in the stable. Sorry, it wouldn't be true. The influence to move me to do the right thing was to avoid the guilt I knew I would feel later for turning away someone in need even as the innkeeper had done so long ago.

I did pat myself on the back for offering to throw in a meal as well. "Have you had anything to eat?" I asked.

"Yes, I am fine," was the reply. "I just need a place to rest. Just a room, please."

There was that Holy Spirit again reminding me of the same words Joseph may have used on his desperate search. My mind said, "Hey, I'm doing the right thing here! Cut me some slack! Don't convict me about my attitude as well!"

Thirty minutes later I watched her head out of the cold and rain and into her motel room for the night. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was warm and dry, and they would feed her in the morning.

By the time I got to the grocery store, it was closing for the rest of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There would be some elements missing to the Christmas Day feast because of this side trip.

I wish I could tell you a story about some divine encounter or some evidence of the person of Christ Himself being ministered to on that raw night. The only comfort I had came the next morning reading the verse about "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (Hebrews 13:2).

The Holy Spirit was still working from the previous night. My heart tried to listen, to discern some great spiritual truth. This time the Spirit had only one thing to say, "

I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, (even) these least, ye did it unto me. (Matt 25:35-40)

And to think I was just wondering if I might have seen an angel when in fact I realized it just might have been someone far more grand!

Merry Christmas!
Pastor Craig

Claus, Krampus, or Christ?

I am fully aware that Christians of good faith may have dramatically different positions on the person of Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, or any of the other names the Jolly Old Elf may have around the world. We think of Santa with his naughty and nice lists. In our childhood wonderland, we struggled to comprehend just how he could track all the children in the whole world, how he could fit all those toys into one sleigh, and how he could manage to get the whole job done in just one night! It was just amazing.

 

Of course, in our western version of Santa Claus, every child eventually gets on the nice list, and every child SHOULD get a present from Santa. However, it turns out that in other parts of the world Santa has a sidekick and not every child makes the nice list. According to Bavarian tradition Krampus follows after Santa and punishes those children who are not on the nice list.

When it comes to the secular portion of the Christmas story, it’s obvious that the theology just doesn’t match up. While we like to think of good people of all ages during the holiday season, we know that it is because we are exactly the opposite of good that Jesus Christ came in the first place. We are, all of us, adults and children, male and female, every race, every culture, every nationality, in desperate need of forgiveness. So, because your name and my name, indeed every single one of our names are absent from the “nice” list, Christ came into the world to give the greatest gift of all, His righteousness.

We know this is the greatest gift of Christmas, not I-pads, X-boxes, or a Lexus, not whatever is hot with Neiman Marcus this season. The simple gift that no one can top, the gift of a clean heart, not a reward for having a clean heart, but actually granting that change of heart we all need. This means the greatest gift you could ever give this Christmas is the gift of introducing someone to the Child in the manger, the Savior upon the cross, and the King rising from the grave.

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Craig

Wisdom

Our Bible study has been looking at the Scripture passages from the New Testament leading up to and including the events of the birth of Christ. Take a moment and run through the Christmas story in your mind. Who are the main characters? Angels. Shepherds. An innkeeper and his family. Other holiday travelers. Foreigners on a long journey. Almost everyone was going about their daily routine with little or no thought about a Messianic encounter. Most of them seemed rather apathetic.

When the magi came to Herod to find out more information about the birth of this king they were seeking, Herod called all the priests and teachers of the law to answer the question for him. We have no record of any interest on the part of the priests or the teachers of the law as to why Herod would be asking this question. Granted, he probably did not tell them about the visitors who had been following the signs in the sky, but still. . . Herod sent no ambassador or representative. We don’t have any record of other people who were in Bethlehem for the census wondering who these people were and what they were doing in this out of the way community. Maybe everyone was fast asleep when the shepherds came into town and no one asked them what demanded their trip in the middle of the night or why they had left their sheep relatively untended in the field.

No, the first Christmas was story was made up mostly of average, rather unimportant people. In fact, most to the Bible is that way. It is a story of salvation, but it seems as though that salvation and God’s interaction with humanity quite often begins at the most common levels.

Peter, James, and John; Samuel, King David, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be less than footnotes in the history books if they had not been touched by the work and person of the Almighty God. Paul seems to indicate that God takes great joy in using the everyday, both people and things, to astound the entire world. I Corinthians 1:26-29 says,

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. . .so no one may boast before him.

In this Christmas season take great comfort that you can never rise so high as to rise above your need for Jesus Christ; nor can you sink so low as to fall from his love and compassion.

Pastor Craig