No Place For Them
It is Christmas Eve.
We continue our meditation on the Christmas story, found in Luke 2:1-14. On Tuesday we were reminded that this is not a sweet bedtime story. Rather, it is a story of oppression and darkness.
I know that’s not what you want to read about on Christmas Eve, but it’s true. Perhaps this year, during all that has happened in 2020, we might be more ready to read the story for what it is.
Today we turn to Luke 2:6-7.
Mary and Joseph have arrived in the house of bread (Bethlehem). Yet, because of the oppressive edict from the Emperor, the small village is overcrowded. Mary and Joseph were forced to sleep in the animal stall.
Why? Because there was no place for them where the people sleep.
Let that line soak in.
NO. PLACE. FOR. THEM.
When I read these words I can’t help but think of the photographs I’ve seen of millions of refugees around the world who have been cloistered in cages, living in unthinkable conditions.
Refugees are people who have been forced from their homes because of violence. They did not choose to leave their beloved home land. External forces of evil pushed them out.
And now, there is NO. PLACE. FOR. THEM.
Mary gave birth to Jesus in the most horrible place I can imagine. She was forced from her home. No one welcomed her. She sat on a stinky floor where the cows and goats do what they do. She was exposed, in that place, in the most vulnerable act a woman can experience.
Think about that for a moment. The infinite creator of the universe chose to become finite and human in this moment. God could have entered into any human space, but this was the one God chose.
Here is the Christmas message we must hear. God stands with the refugee, the outcast, the forgotten, the weak.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, thank you for entering our world in the weakest, most desperate place. Help us to welcome Mary and Joseph into our lives that you may be born in us today. Amen.
As you gather with your loved ones, whether in person or on Zoom today, pray for those who have no place. How might we open our spaces to them, to Christ, today.