There Was No Innkeeper: How Love Meets the Rejected | Advent | Chad Belew

Bible. There was an assumption made because there's a line in Scripture that says he was

placed in a major because there was no guest room available for them. In some translations

it says there was no room at the end. Well, the word translated as in is actually better

translated here in the NIV. The word is cataluma in Hebrew. Yeah, Hebrew, Aramaic. It means

guest chamber or upper room. Doesn't mean in. In fact, historians say that Bethlehem wasn't

even big enough to have an inn. Like, they weren't a big enough town to have something

like that. So, this was a guest chamber. They would go. There was no room for them in the

guest chamber to stay. And the result of this mistranslation to inn leads to a very different

understanding, I think, of the story because there was an innkeeper. There was someone

who is not allowing them into the end to stay. So, it's not an inn. It's a guest chamber

of a home. In fact, this would have been a guest chamber and probably a family's home.

I grew up in mostly like in a city or in a suburb of a big city. But Mottie, Mottie grew

up in Von New Mexico. Now, Von New Mexico does have some motels, but it has no stoplights.

It has two gas stations and about 500 people when she was growing up. Now, it's like 200

people. But in fact, Mottie's like graduating, entire graduating class would have been like

what? Six people? Six people in her school. If she hadn't left and gone to military school.

But, which she loved, by the way, anyway. She had six people like in her graduate class.

I had 670 people in my graduating class. We come from two very different places. So, when

I'm reading about this, it reminds me of like Von. When we would go back, I remember the

first time we went to Von and like Mottie's, most of her family still lives there. Her

aunts and cousins and they all come over. Like everybody comes over. We eat. Like the

first time I went, it's like homemade tortillas, the red and green New Mexico chili. I did not

go hungry. Like she went over this white boy that day. I'm in. I get homemade tortillas.

I don't now. Only when I go back to Von. But every time we go back, even if her entire

family like descends on this small little town for a family reunion or a big life event,

there is always room for even our family of six to lay our heads inside of a home. We've

never slept outside. Von, like I said, does have some motels. So, we could say the motel,

but that would be blasphemy if we were even to mention that we're going to go stay in

a hotel. No, no, we stay with the family. In our Christmas story, Joseph and Mary are

heading back to Bethlehem, Joseph's hometown. Everyone had to descend on this small town

for the census. It was a band-aid. We know from scripture, from history, that Joseph

and Mary were not people of higher societal status. They were more likely considered poor

in their time. So, this is a young, poor couple with a very pregnant Mary traveling across

the country. And why are they traveling? Because the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus had mandated

that everyone must return to their birth town for a census to be conducted. The census was

how the Roman government assessed how much you would own taxes, kept track of all of

their territories that they rolled over and all the people in those territories, and basically

how they asserted their power. You will move here to be counted. This was the Roman empire

saying, "We do not care what your circumstances are. You must travel, even if it's a long distance,

even if you were nine months pregnant, travel to Joseph's hometown to be counted." So this

young unmarried couple arrives in Joseph's hometown with all of his family who would

have also had to have made this trip. They arrive there and they can't find a cataluma,

a guest room for a young Mary that has traveled a long way while being about ready to have

their baby. I don't know about you, but I think someone in Maudie's family, even in

my family who is not as tight in it as Maudie's, would have offered their room in those circumstances

unless something else was a problem. Like a young, unwed couple showing up with a pregnant

fiance to their family's home and their family says, "We can't condone this. I'm sorry."

Especially with everyone in town right now. What would people think? Now, I'll be honest.

This is a conjecture on my part. This is me reading into this story, but I feel like

I'm reading it from a historical perspective. It would make sense for this to happen in

that time. In fact, Mary, in Jewish law, could have been put to death for not being married

and becoming pregnant. In fact, they considered that adultery and it was punishable by death.

Now, in the time where Rome had come in and taken over, they controlled executions, which

later that's why you see they have to go to Rome to try to get Jesus crucified, but they

had controlled executions. So it was much less likely that she would be killed for this,

but it was not unlikely that she would be a societal outcast, that she would be thought

of as less than, that she would have been pushed away, and that the family would have had grounds,

societal grounds, religious grounds to reject her. So it makes a lot of sense to me that

this is what is happening. Even in our current time, this is something that happens constantly.

A family's religious belief steers them to reject even their own family in their time

of vulnerability and need. I believe that it's not that Joseph and Mary were late getting

to town, so they didn't have a chance to find a room, but it's that they were rejected

by their family. Clearly, they had family members in town, as that was the reason that

they returned to Bethlehem for a census. That there was no room in the guest chamber for

a pregnant teenager indicates that they chose not to make room for this unwed mother. So

the birth of Jesus in a room where animals lives, it suggests shame and rejection, which

I believe many of us have experienced and probably can relate in some way to that. But

why was this not the story we were told growing up? Why was it that there was this third party

innkeeper that did the rejecting of the mother of baby Jesus? Why did we need that character?

People psychologist Jonathan Heit says that we're all tribal, that people are just tribal,

and we tend to operate in our tribes from one of two mindsets and views of humanity. One

he calls common enemy identity, where he says, "Life is a battle between good groups and

evil groups." It's the us versus them mentality. Whoever the leader of the group is, they have

identified a them, an enemy, or a way of doing something that aligns with that enemy mindset,

and they say, "If you do this, you are with them. Do you want to be a them or do you want

to be with us?" I think the innkeeper falls in line with this line of thinking. We needed

a villain in this story, someone that rejected baby Jesus himself, one that we can say, "You

have a choice this Christmas to be like the innkeeper and reject Jesus, the Savior, or

you can receive Jesus and allow him to, you can see who Jesus is as your Savior." I don't

have anybody ever heard that sermon. I did. Are you going to reject Jesus or are you going

to receive him? Do you want to be like this rejection, this innkeeper or not? When we were

able to create a them scenario, those in leadership, when we do this, they hold power and control.

They tell you how to act, who to like, who you should and shouldn't love, who to reject

at the door, because we don't do that, and we don't condone it. I was taught the phrase.

You guys have heard me say this. I don't drink. I don't cuss. I don't smoke. I don't drink.

I don't cuss. And I don't dig girls who do or something on those lines. Let's talk that

like as a child. We don't do that. We don't condone that. But I don't believe that there

was a villain in this story alone. If you ascribe to the idea that I do, their family

was rejecting them. Even their family, I would say, isn't the villain in the story. Now they're

operating with a mindset and a system that tells them what they are to do in order to

stay in, and part of us, and not become one of them. It's this system that is driving

how they respond to people. It's this mindset that the tribe has decided is the way that

we treat people. They're either with us or they're against us. They're either our common

enemy or they're on our team. Because it's easier to create a villain and in us versus

them scenario than to speak to systemic issues. Let's think about the Christmas story again.

Joseph and Mary, they're traveling a long distance. They're poor. She's very pregnant.

More Joseph, like I'm sure it was really hard for him to like, he probably had to do everything

on this trip. I'm just kidding. I'm sure their means of travel wasn't the most comfortable.

And they're only traveling because those in power and control, the empire had mandated

that they do it. There was no exception. The census was not just inconvenient. It was

displacing. It reordered lives without consent. There wasn't a villain here. There was a

system that taught people that it was normal to other people, to dehumanize, to reject the

humanity of another. I think one of the biggest misunderstandings we have of like this idea

of like empire or power, especially in scriptures that we imagine is obviously cruel, visibly

violent, easy to spot. But most of the time, empire doesn't announce itself as oppression.

It announces itself as policy, as procedure, as this is just how things work. That's true

in the Roman world and scripture and it's true in our world right now. This is one of

those things that once you see it, you see it everywhere. When you look throughout the

New Testament and you look at the life of Jesus, it's this mindset, this system, that

this is what Jesus was constantly speaking against, pushing back against, fighting for

the humanity of all people. It wasn't, "I'm trying to teach you not to be sinners." It

was, "I'm trying to teach you that all humanity is worthy of love." He was constantly pushing

back against the religious systems, the power structures that were othering people, creating

in us versus them society. He was constantly fighting this system. It's why Jesus flipped

tables in the temple. People were still living in a system that said, "There is an us and

there is a them and they are your enemy and you do not want to be like them." That's

why when Jesus sat with them, the Pharisees were appalled. It's why when Jesus picked

his disciples, they were living on the margins. It was shocking to the system. He did not pick

the religious elite. The twelve disciples he chose are not people that a rabbi should

choose to be his followers and those that are going to spread the message. These were

not the best of the best. It was a shock to the system. So, we see, again, go throughout

the New Testament, watch what Jesus is doing, what he's saying, who he's pushing it back

against and you will see that it is a constant pushback against a system and a mindset that

creates a common enemy. So, when I was thinking about love and advent, I didn't want to look

at Jesus as an adult because I think sometimes we just skip to that. It's a privilege we

have of being in the future and looking back at things, but what does love look like in

the Christmas story? What does love look like in this advent time, in this time where Jesus

is born? Where do we see love in these moments with Mary and Joseph? Like, where is love

in advent? Again, I think when you see it, it's impossible to unsee. Look at the story

of Christmas. Look at what's happening. Look at the characters chosen to be highlighted.

Mary and Joseph, they're unwed. She's pregnant. They're societal outcast. Bethlehem, it's

a tiny, insignificant town. It is overrun and unable to help a very pregnant young girl

because the empire has mandated inconvenience without provisions. Shepherds. If you look

historically, shepherds were dirty. They were considered untrustworthy. They were unreliable

witnesses. These are the people that the angels came to, to say that their unto us a Savior

is born. Go tell everybody they're unreliable witnesses. Nobody's going to believe them.

They are societal outcast. Why are they chosen to be the witnesses? Again, once you see it,

you can't unsee it because if you go to the cross when Jesus dies and he's resurrected,

who finds out that he's resurrected before anybody else? A woman? What? And she goes

to the disciples and says, "You won't believe what has happened." And they're like, "Yeah,

we don't believe you. We're going to go check out ourselves." None of those that were

always marginalized and pushed to the edges, that is who God keeps meeting. In this story

of Advent, we see it. Mary and Joseph, Bethlehem, the shepherds, the angels announced to the

shepherds, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all

the people." Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah,

the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths lying in

a manger. Suddenly, a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God

and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom

His favor rests." This is the place that the incarnation of love comes to meet us and shake

up our world. In a little town of Bethlehem, to an unmarried couple, to an unwed pregnant

teenage girl, announces it to shepherds and says, "This is where I will shake it up.

This is who I'm going to use to tell the message." Love in this story meets us in the midst of

uncertainty and fear. There's no way Mary wasn't fearful in this time, or Joseph, or the shepherds

we know they were. We see it play out in the life of Jesus, but we often miss how love showed

up in a manger first. Love and advent. God does not side with empire. God does not baptize

power. God does not confuse control with order. He does not come as someone of royalty into

this world. God chooses displacement over dominance, vulnerability over visibility, presence over

policy. He didn't come to change government. He came to just transform life. Love didn't

announce itself from a throne. It entered through the cracks on the margins of society

and culture. And I think that means something for how we read the story and then how we

live it. I told you, Jonathan Hite has these two mind sets that he talks about as a social

psychologist, common enemy. And the second one is common humanity. A view of humanity

that he says we can operate from other than common enemy. It's to see the common humanity

of all people. Because with the common enemy, it creates us for them, me a human versus

another human, that I have to dehumanize. I have to label something that I can then consider

them an enemy and I can fight against that person or that group of people. And I can

reject that group of people or that person. And it becomes a human versus human thing.

Even though in church we'll say it's not against flesh and blood. Now it is. When you're on

the receiving end of rejection and hurt, it is flesh and blood. What Jesus did is he

saw the humanity of everyone. He pushed against the systems, the religious and the societal

that other to anyone. He met those rejected, those on the margins and he pulled them into

the arms of love. Because in common humanity, you are no longer fighting against your brother

or sister. You are fighting against anything that is oppressing another human or hurting

another human. Anything that is causing harm to your fellow human you are fighting against.

It's policies, it's procedures, it is not humans, it is the system and this mindset

that is creating enemies. Even in this Christmas story, in Advent, we see God, he comes as the

incarnate love to meet a vulnerable, rejected Mary. And how does he do that? Through the

eyes and the smile of her baby boy. Rejected, probably feels alone. She has this baby. And

when she sees this baby and holds this baby, she has never experienced love like this.

This is a love that she has never, ever had. Talk to a mother and have her describe what

this feels like to look at their baby. I can tell you as a dad, but it is very different.

I believe there is just something different. Marty carried this baby in her body. They

ate the same thing, they drank the same thing. She literally grew this child inside of her.

And then when she has the baby, she keeps the baby alive by feeding the baby forever. Her

body literally keeps this baby alive until it is time to like feed it other types of

food. So I believe Mary had this baby and she sees love and she experiences love through

these eyes and the smile for the first time that she has ever seen it. And this is a rejected,

hurting little girl. And she holds love in her arms. She names love Jesus. This is a

promise that she wasn't unlovable, but that she could literally hold love in her hands.

I believe that the truth of the love of Advent is that this is good news for all people,

because it tells us that love meets us in the midst of control and fear and rejection

and vulnerability. And it says, you are loved. No matter what, no matter what a society or

a culture or a system says to you, Advent, the life of Jesus says, no, no, you are loved.

You are worth it. So the love of Advent and the midst of fear and rejection and vulnerability

is the eyes and the smile of a baby. This says, you are loved. And now we get ready for Christmas

and the moment in the Advent time where we receive Jesus, we receive Christ as this baby,

we receive the love where we get to be reminded that you are loved. Advent is this leading

up to showing us that Mary was reminded that she was loved in her vulnerability and fear

and rejection. And Christmas is supposed to be the reminder that you are loved. You're

worth it, that you're receiving and seeing the eyes and the smile of this baby Jesus.

And then this becomes our message. This is the message of Jesus. You take that message

of love for all humanity and you go do that as we say every week. Go love well because

that is who you were made to be. I love you guys. Merry Christmas. I'll see you Christmas

Eve.