"Make Room For Others"
Sermon Transcript for December 2, 2001 By Rev. Mike BeckI hope there are a still a few of these out on the table in the Narthex. Using this inexpensive Advent Calendar, taking five minutes a day, you can help prepare your heart spiritually for Christmas. I urge you to pick one up as you leave. Use it to prepare so that we’re ready on December 24th.
In this Christmas Touch Advent series, the first three sermons have to do with our reaching out to touch others: our neighbors, the over-looked persons around us, a family member. Now, some of you might be thinking, "Well Reverend Mike, I’m the one who needs the Christmas touch this season!" And if that’s true of you, that’s what we’re focusing in on December 22nd and at our Christmas Eve services.
And as we begin this morning, let me remind you of this principle of scripture taught throughout the pages of God’s Word: That it’s often as we reach out to touch others that God ends up touching us in return. So today we want to talk about how we touch our neighbors, remembering in the parable of "The Good Samaritan" that Jesus said your neighbor is far more than the person whose house backs up next to yours. And how you reach out in your busy lives to make room for others.
Each of these messages will use one of the characters of the Christmas story to focus in on. Today we focus on the innkeeper. Now, I often think the innkeeper gets wrongly characterized as the "bad guy" in the Christmas story. Even though the scripture doesn’t say it, we get this image of him meeting Mary and Joseph at the door, telling them in a hateful voice, "There’s no room here", slamming the door in their face leaving them out in the cold. But I think if we read between the lines it’s very likely that although he had to say to them, "I’m really sorry but every single one of our rooms are already taken." People had bedded down for the night. But he said, perhaps, "But you know, I’ve got the cave out at the edge of town where the livestock are and I’d be glad to let you out there. You can stay there tonight; you’ll be warm. If the baby arrives you can lay him in the manger, the rock that had been hewed out for the feed for the livestock." In other words, very likely the innkeeper made room even though he was full, for Mary and Joseph.
So I want us this morning to think in very practical ways of how in our busy lives we can make room for others this Christmas. And to begin our thinking I want to see a show of hands. That picture that’s up on the screen is a cover of our church directory. It was taken four years ago. I want to see a show of hands of those of you that were not in that picture. Hold up your hands and take a look around for a moment. Now you can put them back down. I want you to consider the many ways that persons here at Grace have made room for others. Some of you raised your hand; a neighbor or friend invited you to Grace. For some of the rest of you someone seated around you as you came to worship made you feel welcome. Maybe the hugs have been coming your way in time of need. Friendship with care giving has been extended to make room for you. Let me stay with this image just a little bit longer here in our own church.
That’s why on several of our administrative committees, after you have served three years you automatically have to go off. You can’t come back on that year. There’s a reason for that. Without that the same people would be doing the same jobs over and over again. That kind of rotation lets new people be involved. Our modular building was a way of trying to make room for our youth and our children ministries. In our small groups very often if we’re not careful the longer a group goes on the more it has the tendency to become ingrown. The Serendipity ministry invites every small group to always have an empty chair. The empty chair represents two things: 1) to remind the group that Christ is there. But the empty chair also is to remind the group 2) what new person needs to be included in this group and I need to reach out with an invitation. I know I’ve hammered it home a lot, but I just can’t emphatically say to you enough that if you have an un-churched family member, neighbor, person at work, person at school, with what’s transpired in our land over the last few months, with the Christmas season, if you will make an intentional invitation the odds are pretty good they’ll join you. But you’ve got to invite them. Are you praying about who you are going to invite to come to Grace? Because the last I checked, even though I’m not outside, I don’t think everybody in Franklin is in church right now, are they? Maybe someone is waiting on your invitation.
We honor God when we make room in our hearts for persons who are different than we are. In the notes of thanksgiving you turned in a couple of weeks ago, there’s no name on this so I’m not embarrassing the person. I don’t know who it is. But this note of thanksgiving really touched me. This person wrote, "I’m grateful for family for those who love me warts and all. For friends who accept me and feel no real need to make me into something else. And I continue to say, "Why me Lord? Why am I so richly blessed." We make room for others when we make room for people who are different than we are. When are idea of church becomes one not of a place where good people come who think they’ve got it all together, but a place where if you are wounded and weary and hurting, if you are struggling with sin in your life, that you can walk through these doors and know that you will be loved. And know that you will be put in contact with the transforming grace of God.
Through our association with Willow Creek, we get a cassette tape each month called "Defining Moments". And this week’s tape is talking about how the church provides a safe loving place for persons who have experienced or are going through the trauma of divorce. Bill Hiball’s opened the tape with this illustration that just floored me. Bill was speaking at a conference on this idea that the church is to be a grace place. And he was talking about this specific kind of ministry. And he shared a personal illustration of a time in which he and his wife were struggling in their marriage and he came to their church board and asked them to pray for them. The pastor who was tending the conference came up to him afterwards and he said, "I was amazed at your candor." He said, "I don’t know what would have happened if I’d tried that in my church." Bill got a letter from him two months later. He decided to try it in his church. He was meeting with the elders. He shared with them that he and his wife were struggling in their marriage and would they pray for him. The elders immediately said, "Would you step out of the room." So the pastor and his wife stepped out of the room. And when they were called back in the elders told him, "You are fired as of tonight." All he had done was to ask the family to pray for him, acknowledge honestly his hurt; and they kicked him out. Oh, I pray that Grace is never that kind of church. But if you’re wounded and weary and hurting, whether you are theologically liberal or conservative, that you find the grace of Christ in this place.
To make room for others we have to be willing to be flexible. We have to be willing to change. And I’m thankful for people here at Grace who allowed us to begin this Contemporary Worship at 11:00 a.m. There are a lot of churches that wouldn’t have let that happen. I still scratch my head every day that the people here at Grace…Mark Freeland is here today who was my partner in crime in remodeling this chancel area. Mark it’s amazing to me that they let us tread on this holy space, change it in some ways to make it more flexible so we can get these bell tables up here on a day like today. And in our own lives we’ve got our "to-do" lists pretty crowded. We have to learn to be flexible. That when somebody crosses our path that’s not on our "to-do" lists we take time, we adjust to accommodate them.
I want to invite you to make room in your life for children and youth. Are you praying for our kids? I looked over at the kids, now some of them didn’t know their picture was going to be up there this morning. But are you praying for them? I tell you, as I drive through Franklin I often see teenagers, children on the streets. I often ask myself, "I wonder if they know the Lord? I wonder if God is a part of their life?" Are you praying for our kids? Do you try to make friends with them? Do you take an interest in their activities? When it’s appropriate do you include them in your activities? Do you overlook their faults and their immaturity just like you hope they overlook your faults and immaturity? I was thinking back to my growing up years. Thinking about adults making room in their lives for kids. My Mom and Dad are out there. I thought about that softball team at Columbia that let me play when I was about eleven years old. I thought about Walter Gronning. But I also thought, Mom and Dad, about a guy I haven’t thought about for years. When I was about eight years old, I loved sports and I loved to keep score at basketball games. And at that particular time most of the gyms you would go to for basketball games were the gyms like in the movie "Hoosiers". So I’d come to the ballgame and there’d be this tiny little score bench over there with the official scorer and the official timer. And I’d sneak over to the bench with my scorebook and see if they’d let me sit down and keep score. Dick Konstander, I’m amazed Mom I can still remember his name! I haven’t thought of him for years. But Dick Konstander was the sports writer for the Connersville News Examiner. He was often at the games. And he became my buddy. When he’d see me coming, even if they were crowded, he’d squish in a little further. And he made room for a nine-year old boy. I have to believe that some of the positive self-concept that I have today is from an adult that made room for me. That didn’t say, "Get out of the way, this is for adults." He said, "Come on, there’s room for you." As Steve and our adults minister to these precious youth, pray for them. Make room for them.
When we think about making room in our lives for others, remember we don’t have to make it as difficult or complicated as we often do. How long does it take to send a card, to give a hug, to invite a neighbor in for a cup of hot chocolate or to sample the pastries that just came out of the oven? You don’t have to set out the fine china. It doesn’t have to be a five-course meal to make room. One of our vendors in our tech equipment stopped in at the church this week. He said he stopped to check on a piece of equipment. And I took a moment to visit with him and Dan took several minutes to visit with him. And Dan came up to me later. He said, "You know Mike, I don’t think Clarence stopped in today to look at the equipment." You see, we’ve been aware for some time that his son is in the Franklin jail. His son had had his day in court. He was hurting. He needed us to be his pastors in that moment. And I’m so thankful that each of us stopped. We didn’t have Clarence on our list for the day, but we stopped and we made room for him. It usually boils down to time. And, friends, as I’m saying this I’m looking right in the mirror. I don’t do this very well. I get busy and often don’t see the ministry God wants me to stop and have with someone. We don’t have time, but by golly in the name of Jesus we need to take time to make room for someone who’s hurting.
And then, finally, let me invite you to make room for others through prayer. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Lighthouse Movement. The Lighthouse Movement across America are people who are just committed to pray for their neighborhood. And they sometimes walk the streets of their neighborhood silently praying for the people who live in each house they walk in front of. Evangelism and outreach always begins with prayer. Who are you praying for today? And I’m so thankful to serve a church where prayer is so vitally important. I don’t profess to understand how prayer works. I accept the fact that prayers are often answered differently than our human understanding. I recognize that God never violates our human will when it comes to our prayers. But I know things happen when people pray. And I invite you to make room in your prayer life for people. On Tuesday of this week, if you look in your bulletin, you notice that through Congressional action from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening, members of the Senate and House of Representatives on a voluntary basis will gather under the Rotunda of the United States Capital. I don’t think you’ll see it on the news for this reason: (and I kind of laughed when I heard this), the media isn’t invited! It’s private. But Senators and members of the House of Representatives are coming together to pray between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Churches have been invited to pray at the same time. Our sanctuary will be open. We will have a 30-minute service of prayer at 6:30 p.m. You may want to fast during the day on Tuesday. It might be a good thing to do for practical purposes as we prepare for Christmas. Make room for others through prayer.
When we think of making room aren’t you glad that God made room for you? I’m glad that God made room for me. And friends, we don’t deserve to be included. We don’t have clothes to wear to his banquet. He has thrown a Christmas party like you’ve never seen., And I don’t care how good of clothes you’ve got in your closet, they ain’t good enough to come to His party. But He sent you an invitation and He says you are welcome to take his sons garment of righteousness and put them on and come to the banquet. Have you R.S.V.P? And if you haven’t, if you’re sitting there this morning and you’ve never R.S.V.P to his gift of love, wouldn’t this Christmas season be a great time to make room for him in your heart as your Savior and Lord?
So as we prepare to leave our time of worship I invite you to give a Christmas touch to others this Advent Season by making room for them with time…with acceptance…with an act of love and caring…with prayer. And in so doing, God will touch your life in return.
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