1 Valley View Chapel December 27, 2015 Our Coming Savior, Part 5 The Innkeeper Luke 2:7b Introduction Have you ever made a hotel reservation and then been surprised at what you found when you got there? Several years ago Emily and I made a reservation at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. It was the day after Christmas. We had gone down to visit the children and grandchildren. The Marriott Wardman Park is the biggest hotel in Washington 1,156 rooms. We arrived late in the afternoon on December 26 th. The massive lobby was totally deserted not one person to be found! The front desk area was equally desolate. Finally someone appeared and checked us in. We walked the long, abandoned corridor to the elevator noticing along the way that the Starbucks and the Gift Shop were shuttered. We got off on our assigned floor and didn t see another soul as we made our way through the labyrinth of hallways to our room. I felt like I was in the hotel in The Shining. When I asked around, I found out that December 26-29 is the deadest season of all in Washington D.C. for the hospitality industry. Want a 1,156-room hotel all to yourself for a couple of nights? Make a reservation at the Marriott Wardman Park for December 26-29! Two-thousand years ago in the little town of Bethlehem Mary and Joseph had a different kind of problem when they tried to secure a room for the night. No rooms were available. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Christmas story. Yet I noticed something for the first time as I prepared this message. No Bible in any popular version translates Luke 2:7, There was no room in the inn. Yet that is how I always understood it. Mary and Joseph were denied space because there simply wasn t any room whatsoever for additional people in the inn. But that s not what Luke 2:7 says. Luke 2:7 in the NIV says that there was no room for them in the inn. The NLT renders it there was no lodging available for them. There may have been room for others just not for them. There may have been room for a couple of VIPs. There may have been room for any traveler willing to pay the inflated room rate caused by the furious demand. A poor couple like Mary and Joseph had as much chance of getting a room in the Bethlehem inn at an affordable rate as I would at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square on New Year s Eve. The Innkeeper Many years ago Emily and I came across a poem by Harri Webb, a 20 th -century Welsh poet entitled Never Again. It s a highly fictionalized account of the Innkeeper s recollections of the couple he turned away from his inn. We found it delightful and so before I get to the really serious stuff, I d like to share it with you.
2 You never saw such a stupid mess, The government of course, were to blame. That poor young kid in her shabby dress And the old chap with her, it seemed such a shame. She had the baby in the backyard shed, It wasn t very nice, but the best we could do. Just fancy, a manger for a bed, I ask you, what s the world coming to? We re sorry they had to have it so rough, But we had our troubles, too, remember, As if all the crowds were not enough The weather was upside-down for December. There was singing everywhere, lights in the sky And those drunken shepherds neglecting their sheep And three weird foreigners in full cry You just couldn t get a good night s sleep. Well now they ve gone, we can all settle down, There s room at the inn and the streets are so still And we re back to normal in our little town That nobody s heard of, or ever will. And though the world s full of people like those, I think of them sometimes, especially her, And one can't help wondering though I don t suppose Anyone will ever know who they were. The popular version of the Christmas story says that the innkeeper directed Joseph and Mary to a stable or a cave (someplace where animals were kept because of the reference to a manger ) and there in the most undignified and humblest of surroundings Mary had her baby. I believe the innkeeper made two wrong choices that night. First: He had no room for them The innkeeper may have had room for some people. He just had no room for them. You know it and I know it. We live in high stress, complicated times. Most of us have way too many things to remember; way too many responsibilities; way too many things that can go wrong; way too many places to be; and way too many people to see. I was thinking about how life was less complicated for my Mom and Dad when I was a kid not easier by any stretch of the imagination. Just less complicated. They didn t worry about remembering a multitude of PIN numbers or where the nearest Wi- Fi hotspot was or if they had gone over their data plan for the month. They never experienced a cable outage in the bottom of the 9 th inning of a tie game. Now that I think about it, my Dad never once had a nervous breakdown because he forgot his smart phone.
3 There are people, commitments, and activities that cry out in strident and relentless voices for a prominent place on our to do list. Have you come to the conclusion as I have that there just isn t room in your life for everything that demands some space? So how do we decide what gets room in our day and what doesn t? Some people have made room in their house for a pool table. We haven t. Others have made room in their house for a piano. We haven t. Why don t we have a pool table and a piano in our house? The answer isn t complicated. It s because these things are not important to us. But we do have a lot of bookcases in our house because books are important to us. We make room for what is important. We make room for that to which we ascribe great worth. But here s the danger with anything for which we have made significant room in our lives. Whatever we have made a deep commitment to in terms of time, priority, or space has the potential to control us. And what has the potential to control us has the potential to destroy us. The November 30 edition of Newsday, the Long Island daily, reported the sad story of Brittany Leith, a 25 year-old single mother who was killed early on Sunday morning November 29 in Long Island when she was struck by a car on the Southern State Parkway. What made her death even more tragic (and senseless) was that she had survived a car accident moments earlier. At around 4 a.m., Brittany's car struck the center median and flipped over. Aided by a few other motorists who'd pulled over to help, she managed to make it to the right shoulder of the roadway. She then told them she needed to retrieve some personal items from her car. Witnesses said that they begged her not to go, but she was adamant. While crossing the highway a second time, she was hit and killed by a passing vehicle. Brittany Leith made too much room for a few material things and it killed her. We all give great deal of life space to certain things that we judge to have great importance. How much room have we given to Jesus? Maybe like the innkeeper you have made some room for Jesus. But does Jesus occupy the master bedroom of your heart? Does he sit at the head of the table in your life? Or have you relegated him to the hall closet, the attic, or the basement? Is Christ your Lord or your personal assistant? Does he have the right to change your plans and your priorities? Or do you only take him out of his little corner of your life when you need his help? The innkeeper s second poor choice was that: He tried to have it both ways The innkeeper wouldn t have been able to sleep that night if he didn t do something for this young couple who apparently were just starting out in life. He was basically a nice guy but it
4 had been a long and busy day. He could see that the young woman was any minute. Something had to be done, but what? He couldn t spare a room for them but maybe the stable would do! He wasn t willing to go all the way to help Joseph and Mary but something is better than nothing, right? I know exactly how the innkeeper felt. I feel the same way every time I pass one of those Salvation Army kettles. I feel like a heartless, selfish pig if I don t do something. So I throw in a couple of bucks. I m willing to give a dollar or two. But I m not willing to sacrifice. The prophet Malachi had never seen a Salvation Army kettle but he confronted a similar situation with the Jews more than 400 years earlier. The prophet scolded the people for offering inferior goods to God: When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?.when you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands? says the Lord. Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock.but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. Malachi 1:8, 13b, 14 (NIV) The people of Malachi s day gave to God what was inferior; what was damaged; what wasn t worth very much. They threw a couple of dollars in the kettle and thought God should give them a round of applause for their generosity. Do we ever do this? What about our time? What about our commitment to things that are important to God like public worship, service, and witness? Do we do just enough so that we can sleep at night? If so, we re like the innkeeper. He may have had an excuse but we don t. The innkeeper didn t know about the cross of Christ and the grace of God. We do. I m reminded of what David did. It s recorded in 1 Chronicles 21:18-25. 18 Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up to do what the Lord had commanded him through Gad. 20 Araunah, who was busy threshing wheat at the time, turned and saw the angel there. 22 David said to Araunah, "Let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price. Then I will build an altar to the Lord there..23 "Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish," Araunah said to David. "I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, and the threshing boards for wood to build a fire on the altar, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you." 24 But King David replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!" 25 So David gave Araunah 600 pieces of gold in payment for the threshing floor. (NLT) Twice in this passage David said he would pay the full price. He could have offered a Dollar Store sacrifice. Instead he offered a Neiman-Marcus sacrifice. Do we give God a Dollar Store quality of commitment or a Neiman-Marcus quality of commitment?
5 If we truly understand the gospel we ll not only do more for the sake of Christ and His cause, we ll want to do more because we ve got a grip on a great truth expressed by Paul to the self-centered Corinthian Christians: You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NLT) Conclusion The innkeeper wanted to have it both ways. He wanted to do something for Joseph, Mary and Jesus but he didn t want to make a sacrifice or take a risk. One of our favorite TV shows is Blue Bloods. Tom Selleck plays the part of New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan. Hanging in Commissioner Reagan s office is a portrait of the former New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt. In a recent episode we found out that a quote from Roosevelt is Frank Reagan s life motto: Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. The innkeeper lived in a gray twilight that knew not victory nor defeat. Yes, he did something which is better than nothing. But he could have been a hero whose courage and good judgment we would celebrate every Christmas. But he did the minimum so we don t even know his name. As we approach a New Year full of fresh possibilities, may we resolve not to be innkeeper Christians. Let s together dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure. Unlike the Bethlehem innkeeper of so long ago, may God save us from spending even one day in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.