Got Room?

Luke 2: 1-20

Prescott American Baptist Church

December 24, 2013

Imagine a gift so big it cannot fit through your front door.  Imagine it wrapped in fabulous good taste. Would you knock out some wall to claim it and bring it inside? Would you make room or would you let it move along, maybe to the house next door or on to another neighborhood? 

My friend, Lisa Anderson, was in seminary with me at Memphis Theological. She has been a chaplain at St Jude for many years. She has also been serving as pastor for Colonial Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 2010, she introduced her church to a program, Room in the Inn, to host guests overnight when the winter weather makes homelessness particularly loathsome. Room in the Inn has been a successful program in Nashville for twenty-five years supported by over 200 community agencies. The program provides dinner and breakfast, a shower (depending on the facilities available) and a warm bed to sleep in for guests one night a week during the coldest winter months (November 1 through March 31.)

Trinity United Methodist Church (right across the street from my house) decided they would like to be part of this program. They have warm hearts and a warm building with room to share. So they gathered up volunteers who were properly trained for the job and they informed the neighborhood, giving neighbors a chance to learn and to contribute. But some neighbors did not want to learn or contribute. They went to city hall and complained. The complainants discovered a city ordinance that said no church sitting on six acres or more could host overnight guests. And so Trinity UMC was ordered to cease and desist with the hosting of homeless neighbors. 

A meeting was called.  It was a chance to talk about the program and to listen to each other. There were about 200 people who came to the Sunday afternoon meeting. Most of the people were in support of the program. One woman talked about the joy she received by hosting the overnight guests. She had shared a good meal, played Scrabble for hours and felt like it was the most rewarding night she could remember. A boy told about being resistant to the job of volunteering at the church. Volunteering would keep him away from a ball game. But his father insisted and so he went to the church. And he had so much fun! He is bringing friends with him to share the good time with guests at the church. The supportive testimonies brought tears to my eyes.

Then another man got up and he said, “I have two daughters in this neighborhood. They are five and three years old. I do not want their safety to be jeopardized by the sort of people this program will bring into our neighborhood.” 

Other people talked about unwanted traffic, suspicious activities and criminal element… They were afraid. Afraid. I do know about that. Being fearful. You probably know what it’s like to be fearful too. We get afraid of new things, things we have never seen before, people who are not like us, ideas that come from faraway places. If it is strange we just might be on guard. If it is mysterious we are sure to be afraid. 

As it is, only about a dozen or so guests are hosted on any given night with the Room in the Inn program. All of them have been in relationship with people at Manna House. They are known. Their story is a story that can be shared. They are not frightening to the people who know them, not strange to the people at Manna House who have taken the time to eat with them, play games with them and listen to their stories. 

The guests are picked up at 7:00 downtown and brought to the church in a van driven by a trained volunteer. The guests eat with hosts and spend the evening with hosts. They sleep while the space is supervised by hosts and then everyone gets up and out early in the morning. At 7:00 am the guests get on the van and are returned downtown to the place where they were initially picked up. 

The hosts who give their time to these guests are able to receive true blessings. Their hearts are warmed. Their faith increased. They can see how all of us belong to the same creator God. Every homeless person carries a part of me and I walk around with part of them in me too. We are the same family when we look beyond our fears.  Being poor does not make our brothers and sisters dangerous. But being poor does make them first in line in God’s heart.

Like it or not it was the poor who were blessed by Jesus’ birth. God did not send Jesus to be born in a king’s castle or in a 5 bedroom brick mcmansion in Collierville. The gift came to the front door of the poor and the smelly. The riffraff were blessed with good tidings of great joy. And the rich would receive word when the poor got around to sharing.

The angels that visited the shepherds were huge and loud and overwhelming. Totally unexpected. In a field on a winter night. The sheep already lying down and the shepherds trying to catch a little shut-eye. They were simply uneducated men. The angels came soaring down out of the darkness, bringing light and song and terror.  Yet the shepherds, (their clothes smelly and their beards matted) listened to the command, “Do not be afraid!” They were courageous and curious enough to set aside their fear. Their ears were opened to hear the good news. A Savior is born for you this night. The shepherds seized the opportunity to be players in the greatest story ever told.

Imagine a gift so big it cannot fit through your front door.  Imagine that it is wrapped in fabulous good taste. Would you knock out some wall to claim it and bring it inside? Would you make room or would you let it move along, maybe to the house next door or on to another neighborhood?

We have spent the last few weeks preparing our hearts and lives to receive this great gift. The doors of our hearts and lives are open. We know it is new, strange and mysterious. We know it might be unfamiliar and messy—to let true love into our homes, our relationships and our souls. But it has been offered. And we are here to set aside our fear, knock out a few walls if we have to—in order to accept the gift of God’s love this night.