WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:27.200 Bible. There was an assumption made because there's a line in Scripture that says he was 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:33.640 placed in a major because there was no guest room available for them. In some translations 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:41.680 it says there was no room at the end. Well, the word translated as in is actually better 00:00:41.680 --> 00:00:53.560 translated here in the NIV. The word is cataluma in Hebrew. Yeah, Hebrew, Aramaic. It means 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:59.840 guest chamber or upper room. Doesn't mean in. In fact, historians say that Bethlehem wasn't 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:03.640 even big enough to have an inn. Like, they weren't a big enough town to have something 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:07.720 like that. So, this was a guest chamber. They would go. There was no room for them in the 00:01:07.720 --> 00:01:14.640 guest chamber to stay. And the result of this mistranslation to inn leads to a very different 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.920 understanding, I think, of the story because there was an innkeeper. There was someone 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:25.240 who is not allowing them into the end to stay. So, it's not an inn. It's a guest chamber 00:01:25.240 --> 00:01:36.440 of a home. In fact, this would have been a guest chamber and probably a family's home. 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:47.200 I grew up in mostly like in a city or in a suburb of a big city. But Mottie, Mottie grew 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:56.840 up in Von New Mexico. Now, Von New Mexico does have some motels, but it has no stoplights. 00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:04.080 It has two gas stations and about 500 people when she was growing up. Now, it's like 200 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:09.880 people. But in fact, Mottie's like graduating, entire graduating class would have been like 00:02:09.880 --> 00:02:15.640 what? Six people? Six people in her school. If she hadn't left and gone to military school. 00:02:15.640 --> 00:02:24.360 But, which she loved, by the way, anyway. She had six people like in her graduate class. 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:33.760 I had 670 people in my graduating class. We come from two very different places. So, when 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:42.720 I'm reading about this, it reminds me of like Von. When we would go back, I remember the 00:02:42.720 --> 00:02:49.160 first time we went to Von and like Mottie's, most of her family still lives there. Her 00:02:49.160 --> 00:02:56.800 aunts and cousins and they all come over. Like everybody comes over. We eat. Like the 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:05.240 first time I went, it's like homemade tortillas, the red and green New Mexico chili. I did not 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:12.760 go hungry. Like she went over this white boy that day. I'm in. I get homemade tortillas. 00:03:12.760 --> 00:03:26.520 I don't now. Only when I go back to Von. But every time we go back, even if her entire 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:33.400 family like descends on this small little town for a family reunion or a big life event, 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:42.200 there is always room for even our family of six to lay our heads inside of a home. We've 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:48.800 never slept outside. Von, like I said, does have some motels. So, we could say the motel, 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:52.320 but that would be blasphemy if we were even to mention that we're going to go stay in 00:03:52.320 --> 00:04:01.080 a hotel. No, no, we stay with the family. In our Christmas story, Joseph and Mary are 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:07.400 heading back to Bethlehem, Joseph's hometown. Everyone had to descend on this small town 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:12.760 for the census. It was a band-aid. We know from scripture, from history, that Joseph 00:04:12.760 --> 00:04:17.480 and Mary were not people of higher societal status. They were more likely considered poor 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:27.920 in their time. So, this is a young, poor couple with a very pregnant Mary traveling across 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:34.360 the country. And why are they traveling? Because the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus had mandated 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:40.520 that everyone must return to their birth town for a census to be conducted. The census was 00:04:40.520 --> 00:04:48.360 how the Roman government assessed how much you would own taxes, kept track of all of 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:53.680 their territories that they rolled over and all the people in those territories, and basically 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:02.240 how they asserted their power. You will move here to be counted. This was the Roman empire 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:07.160 saying, "We do not care what your circumstances are. You must travel, even if it's a long distance, 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:16.040 even if you were nine months pregnant, travel to Joseph's hometown to be counted." So this 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:21.480 young unmarried couple arrives in Joseph's hometown with all of his family who would 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:30.200 have also had to have made this trip. They arrive there and they can't find a cataluma, 00:05:30.200 --> 00:05:39.840 a guest room for a young Mary that has traveled a long way while being about ready to have 00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:48.360 their baby. I don't know about you, but I think someone in Maudie's family, even in 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:56.040 my family who is not as tight in it as Maudie's, would have offered their room in those circumstances 00:05:56.040 --> 00:06:07.960 unless something else was a problem. Like a young, unwed couple showing up with a pregnant 00:06:07.960 --> 00:06:16.000 fiance to their family's home and their family says, "We can't condone this. I'm sorry." 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:27.560 Especially with everyone in town right now. What would people think? Now, I'll be honest. 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:36.520 This is a conjecture on my part. This is me reading into this story, but I feel like 00:06:36.520 --> 00:06:41.080 I'm reading it from a historical perspective. It would make sense for this to happen in 00:06:41.080 --> 00:06:51.960 that time. In fact, Mary, in Jewish law, could have been put to death for not being married 00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:56.760 and becoming pregnant. In fact, they considered that adultery and it was punishable by death. 00:06:56.760 --> 00:07:01.600 Now, in the time where Rome had come in and taken over, they controlled executions, which 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.600 later that's why you see they have to go to Rome to try to get Jesus crucified, but they 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:11.880 had controlled executions. So it was much less likely that she would be killed for this, 00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:19.880 but it was not unlikely that she would be a societal outcast, that she would be thought 00:07:19.880 --> 00:07:30.720 of as less than, that she would have been pushed away, and that the family would have had grounds, 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:40.760 societal grounds, religious grounds to reject her. So it makes a lot of sense to me that 00:07:40.760 --> 00:07:48.040 this is what is happening. Even in our current time, this is something that happens constantly. 00:07:48.040 --> 00:07:52.360 A family's religious belief steers them to reject even their own family in their time 00:07:52.360 --> 00:08:00.760 of vulnerability and need. I believe that it's not that Joseph and Mary were late getting 00:08:00.760 --> 00:08:05.720 to town, so they didn't have a chance to find a room, but it's that they were rejected 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:13.280 by their family. Clearly, they had family members in town, as that was the reason that 00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:19.920 they returned to Bethlehem for a census. That there was no room in the guest chamber for 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:31.080 a pregnant teenager indicates that they chose not to make room for this unwed mother. So 00:08:31.080 --> 00:08:42.600 the birth of Jesus in a room where animals lives, it suggests shame and rejection, which 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:51.440 I believe many of us have experienced and probably can relate in some way to that. But 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:58.160 why was this not the story we were told growing up? Why was it that there was this third party 00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:09.560 innkeeper that did the rejecting of the mother of baby Jesus? Why did we need that character? 00:09:09.560 --> 00:09:17.720 People psychologist Jonathan Heit says that we're all tribal, that people are just tribal, 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:24.320 and we tend to operate in our tribes from one of two mindsets and views of humanity. One 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:32.760 he calls common enemy identity, where he says, "Life is a battle between good groups and 00:09:32.760 --> 00:09:41.280 evil groups." It's the us versus them mentality. Whoever the leader of the group is, they have 00:09:41.280 --> 00:09:48.120 identified a them, an enemy, or a way of doing something that aligns with that enemy mindset, 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:51.520 and they say, "If you do this, you are with them. Do you want to be a them or do you want 00:09:51.520 --> 00:09:59.960 to be with us?" I think the innkeeper falls in line with this line of thinking. We needed 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:08.880 a villain in this story, someone that rejected baby Jesus himself, one that we can say, "You 00:10:08.880 --> 00:10:20.160 have a choice this Christmas to be like the innkeeper and reject Jesus, the Savior, or 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:26.080 you can receive Jesus and allow him to, you can see who Jesus is as your Savior." I don't 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:33.840 have anybody ever heard that sermon. I did. Are you going to reject Jesus or are you going 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:41.880 to receive him? Do you want to be like this rejection, this innkeeper or not? When we were 00:10:41.880 --> 00:10:47.760 able to create a them scenario, those in leadership, when we do this, they hold power and control. 00:10:47.760 --> 00:10:51.720 They tell you how to act, who to like, who you should and shouldn't love, who to reject 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:58.560 at the door, because we don't do that, and we don't condone it. I was taught the phrase. 00:10:58.560 --> 00:11:03.440 You guys have heard me say this. I don't drink. I don't cuss. I don't smoke. I don't drink. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.920 I don't cuss. And I don't dig girls who do or something on those lines. Let's talk that 00:11:07.920 --> 00:11:32.080 like as a child. We don't do that. We don't condone that. But I don't believe that there 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:43.320 was a villain in this story alone. If you ascribe to the idea that I do, their family 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:53.520 was rejecting them. Even their family, I would say, isn't the villain in the story. Now they're 00:11:53.520 --> 00:11:59.760 operating with a mindset and a system that tells them what they are to do in order to 00:11:59.760 --> 00:12:08.160 stay in, and part of us, and not become one of them. It's this system that is driving 00:12:08.160 --> 00:12:13.920 how they respond to people. It's this mindset that the tribe has decided is the way that 00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:18.240 we treat people. They're either with us or they're against us. They're either our common 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:30.400 enemy or they're on our team. Because it's easier to create a villain and in us versus 00:12:30.400 --> 00:12:40.800 them scenario than to speak to systemic issues. Let's think about the Christmas story again. 00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:46.280 Joseph and Mary, they're traveling a long distance. They're poor. She's very pregnant. 00:12:46.280 --> 00:12:49.960 More Joseph, like I'm sure it was really hard for him to like, he probably had to do everything 00:12:49.960 --> 00:13:07.240 on this trip. I'm just kidding. I'm sure their means of travel wasn't the most comfortable. 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:11.880 And they're only traveling because those in power and control, the empire had mandated 00:13:11.880 --> 00:13:18.880 that they do it. There was no exception. The census was not just inconvenient. It was 00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:27.320 displacing. It reordered lives without consent. There wasn't a villain here. There was a 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:32.200 system that taught people that it was normal to other people, to dehumanize, to reject the 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:38.800 humanity of another. I think one of the biggest misunderstandings we have of like this idea 00:13:38.800 --> 00:13:44.720 of like empire or power, especially in scriptures that we imagine is obviously cruel, visibly 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:53.880 violent, easy to spot. But most of the time, empire doesn't announce itself as oppression. 00:13:53.880 --> 00:14:03.480 It announces itself as policy, as procedure, as this is just how things work. That's true 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:10.920 in the Roman world and scripture and it's true in our world right now. This is one of 00:14:10.920 --> 00:14:16.640 those things that once you see it, you see it everywhere. When you look throughout the 00:14:16.640 --> 00:14:25.600 New Testament and you look at the life of Jesus, it's this mindset, this system, that 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:30.400 this is what Jesus was constantly speaking against, pushing back against, fighting for 00:14:30.400 --> 00:14:36.280 the humanity of all people. It wasn't, "I'm trying to teach you not to be sinners." It 00:14:36.280 --> 00:14:43.280 was, "I'm trying to teach you that all humanity is worthy of love." He was constantly pushing 00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:48.320 back against the religious systems, the power structures that were othering people, creating 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:56.600 in us versus them society. He was constantly fighting this system. It's why Jesus flipped 00:14:56.600 --> 00:15:01.760 tables in the temple. People were still living in a system that said, "There is an us and 00:15:01.760 --> 00:15:09.080 there is a them and they are your enemy and you do not want to be like them." That's 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:16.320 why when Jesus sat with them, the Pharisees were appalled. It's why when Jesus picked 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:22.280 his disciples, they were living on the margins. It was shocking to the system. He did not pick 00:15:22.280 --> 00:15:27.320 the religious elite. The twelve disciples he chose are not people that a rabbi should 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:31.640 choose to be his followers and those that are going to spread the message. These were 00:15:31.640 --> 00:15:42.560 not the best of the best. It was a shock to the system. So, we see, again, go throughout 00:15:42.560 --> 00:15:45.800 the New Testament, watch what Jesus is doing, what he's saying, who he's pushing it back 00:15:45.800 --> 00:15:51.120 against and you will see that it is a constant pushback against a system and a mindset that 00:15:51.120 --> 00:16:03.400 creates a common enemy. So, when I was thinking about love and advent, I didn't want to look 00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:10.800 at Jesus as an adult because I think sometimes we just skip to that. It's a privilege we 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:21.440 have of being in the future and looking back at things, but what does love look like in 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:30.000 the Christmas story? What does love look like in this advent time, in this time where Jesus 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:37.200 is born? Where do we see love in these moments with Mary and Joseph? Like, where is love 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:45.440 in advent? Again, I think when you see it, it's impossible to unsee. Look at the story 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:48.440 of Christmas. Look at what's happening. Look at the characters chosen to be highlighted. 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:57.160 Mary and Joseph, they're unwed. She's pregnant. They're societal outcast. Bethlehem, it's 00:16:57.160 --> 00:17:02.560 a tiny, insignificant town. It is overrun and unable to help a very pregnant young girl 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:10.600 because the empire has mandated inconvenience without provisions. Shepherds. If you look 00:17:10.600 --> 00:17:17.200 historically, shepherds were dirty. They were considered untrustworthy. They were unreliable 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:22.920 witnesses. These are the people that the angels came to, to say that their unto us a Savior 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:27.440 is born. Go tell everybody they're unreliable witnesses. Nobody's going to believe them. 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:35.280 They are societal outcast. Why are they chosen to be the witnesses? Again, once you see it, 00:17:35.280 --> 00:17:40.160 you can't unsee it because if you go to the cross when Jesus dies and he's resurrected, 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:48.120 who finds out that he's resurrected before anybody else? A woman? What? And she goes 00:17:48.120 --> 00:17:52.720 to the disciples and says, "You won't believe what has happened." And they're like, "Yeah, 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:58.200 we don't believe you. We're going to go check out ourselves." None of those that were 00:17:58.200 --> 00:18:06.800 always marginalized and pushed to the edges, that is who God keeps meeting. In this story 00:18:06.800 --> 00:18:12.520 of Advent, we see it. Mary and Joseph, Bethlehem, the shepherds, the angels announced to the 00:18:12.520 --> 00:18:19.760 shepherds, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all 00:18:19.760 --> 00:18:25.800 the people." Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, 00:18:25.800 --> 00:18:31.440 the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths lying in 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:35.800 a manger. Suddenly, a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God 00:18:35.800 --> 00:18:40.880 and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:51.520 His favor rests." This is the place that the incarnation of love comes to meet us and shake 00:18:51.520 --> 00:19:04.160 up our world. In a little town of Bethlehem, to an unmarried couple, to an unwed pregnant 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:13.920 teenage girl, announces it to shepherds and says, "This is where I will shake it up. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:25.720 This is who I'm going to use to tell the message." Love in this story meets us in the midst of 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:34.680 uncertainty and fear. There's no way Mary wasn't fearful in this time, or Joseph, or the shepherds 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:44.480 we know they were. We see it play out in the life of Jesus, but we often miss how love showed 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:54.520 up in a manger first. Love and advent. God does not side with empire. God does not baptize 00:19:54.520 --> 00:20:02.400 power. God does not confuse control with order. He does not come as someone of royalty into 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:15.080 this world. God chooses displacement over dominance, vulnerability over visibility, presence over 00:20:15.080 --> 00:20:26.600 policy. He didn't come to change government. He came to just transform life. Love didn't 00:20:26.600 --> 00:20:32.680 announce itself from a throne. It entered through the cracks on the margins of society 00:20:32.680 --> 00:20:41.120 and culture. And I think that means something for how we read the story and then how we 00:20:41.120 --> 00:20:48.840 live it. I told you, Jonathan Hite has these two mind sets that he talks about as a social 00:20:48.840 --> 00:20:57.440 psychologist, common enemy. And the second one is common humanity. A view of humanity 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:03.960 that he says we can operate from other than common enemy. It's to see the common humanity 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:14.160 of all people. Because with the common enemy, it creates us for them, me a human versus 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:20.280 another human, that I have to dehumanize. I have to label something that I can then consider 00:21:20.280 --> 00:21:26.120 them an enemy and I can fight against that person or that group of people. And I can 00:21:26.120 --> 00:21:33.460 reject that group of people or that person. And it becomes a human versus human thing. 00:21:33.460 --> 00:21:42.120 Even though in church we'll say it's not against flesh and blood. Now it is. When you're on 00:21:42.120 --> 00:21:55.560 the receiving end of rejection and hurt, it is flesh and blood. What Jesus did is he 00:21:55.560 --> 00:22:01.640 saw the humanity of everyone. He pushed against the systems, the religious and the societal 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:08.000 that other to anyone. He met those rejected, those on the margins and he pulled them into 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:16.080 the arms of love. Because in common humanity, you are no longer fighting against your brother 00:22:16.080 --> 00:22:20.440 or sister. You are fighting against anything that is oppressing another human or hurting 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:27.080 another human. Anything that is causing harm to your fellow human you are fighting against. 00:22:27.080 --> 00:22:33.840 It's policies, it's procedures, it is not humans, it is the system and this mindset 00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:48.560 that is creating enemies. Even in this Christmas story, in Advent, we see God, he comes as the 00:22:48.560 --> 00:22:58.960 incarnate love to meet a vulnerable, rejected Mary. And how does he do that? Through the 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:17.120 eyes and the smile of her baby boy. Rejected, probably feels alone. She has this baby. And 00:23:17.120 --> 00:23:24.640 when she sees this baby and holds this baby, she has never experienced love like this. 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:32.560 This is a love that she has never, ever had. Talk to a mother and have her describe what 00:23:32.560 --> 00:23:41.720 this feels like to look at their baby. I can tell you as a dad, but it is very different. 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:51.320 I believe there is just something different. Marty carried this baby in her body. They 00:23:51.320 --> 00:23:58.120 ate the same thing, they drank the same thing. She literally grew this child inside of her. 00:23:58.120 --> 00:24:08.640 And then when she has the baby, she keeps the baby alive by feeding the baby forever. Her 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:14.400 body literally keeps this baby alive until it is time to like feed it other types of 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:21.080 food. So I believe Mary had this baby and she sees love and she experiences love through 00:24:21.080 --> 00:24:27.520 these eyes and the smile for the first time that she has ever seen it. And this is a rejected, 00:24:27.520 --> 00:24:43.100 hurting little girl. And she holds love in her arms. She names love Jesus. This is a 00:24:43.100 --> 00:24:55.600 promise that she wasn't unlovable, but that she could literally hold love in her hands. 00:24:55.600 --> 00:25:06.520 I believe that the truth of the love of Advent is that this is good news for all people, 00:25:06.520 --> 00:25:11.240 because it tells us that love meets us in the midst of control and fear and rejection 00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:23.480 and vulnerability. And it says, you are loved. No matter what, no matter what a society or 00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:33.400 a culture or a system says to you, Advent, the life of Jesus says, no, no, you are loved. 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:45.560 You are worth it. So the love of Advent and the midst of fear and rejection and vulnerability 00:25:45.560 --> 00:26:04.200 is the eyes and the smile of a baby. This says, you are loved. And now we get ready for Christmas 00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:11.400 and the moment in the Advent time where we receive Jesus, we receive Christ as this baby, 00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:20.400 we receive the love where we get to be reminded that you are loved. Advent is this leading 00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:26.000 up to showing us that Mary was reminded that she was loved in her vulnerability and fear 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:34.960 and rejection. And Christmas is supposed to be the reminder that you are loved. You're 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:46.080 worth it, that you're receiving and seeing the eyes and the smile of this baby Jesus. 00:26:46.080 --> 00:26:55.880 And then this becomes our message. This is the message of Jesus. You take that message 00:26:55.880 --> 00:27:05.360 of love for all humanity and you go do that as we say every week. Go love well because 00:27:05.360 --> 00:27:11.560 that is who you were made to be. I love you guys. Merry Christmas. I'll see you Christmas 00:27:11.560 --> 00:27:11.760 Eve.