Texts used – Luke 2:1-20; John 1:1-14

• I’m going to kick things off with something that might be a little controversial tonight, all. Everyone have their Christmas Eve seatbelts on? Are you ready? I want you to do me a favor and look through the text of the Luke passage, and let me know when you find the word “stable.” [PAUSE] Anybody? That’s because it’s not there. There is nothing in Scripture that says Jesus was born in a stable.
  • Multiple mentions of Jesus in a manger → traditional elaboration has led us to believe this means stable → Because nowadays and for at least a few generations now, the type of animals that eat out of mangers/feed troughs are kept in their own space: barns, stables, and so on. But this isn’t always how it’s been.
    • Tradition of bringing animals into the shared home at night
      • Protects them from the elements, especially in places where it gets colder at night (also provides much-needed extra body heat in those places!)
      • Protects them from other animals that may way to snatch them and eat them
      • Protects them from thieves who may try to come by in the night and steal them
    • Fabulous scene from the movie A Knight’s Tale in which the protagonist, William, who is trying to rise up out of the peasant class into which he was born is arguing with the noble woman he’s fallen in love with → She’s trying to convince him that they can run away together so he can avoid a deadly duel he’s set on fighting, and he’s trying to describe to her what a peasant life will look like. He says to her, “And where will we live? In my hovel? With the pigs inside in winter so they won’t freeze?” And she responds, “Yes, William, with the pigs. With the pigs.”

• • • Something done by homesteaders in American history
    • Lots of places around the world where this is still the case today
  • Non-stable idea = work of theologian Ian Paul, professor at Fuller Seminary in California → cites Kenneth Bailey, renowned scholar in field of 1^st-cent. Palestinian culture: Most families would live in a single-room house, with a lower compartment for animals to be brought in at night, and either a room at the back for visitors, or space on the roof. The family living area would usually have hollows in the ground, filled with hay, in the living area, where the animals would feed.[1] → This is certainly a far cry from the traditional home layout that we’re used to, so along with a traditional misunderstanding leading us to the stable, we’re also laboring under a cultural misunderstanding.
  • One more misunderstanding layered onto this that makes a huge difference = grammatical → And this one is understandable because it has to do with translation from the original Greek.
    • Gr. for “inn” as we think of it nowadays = word that referred to a shelter for strangers that included a common cooking/eating space and a large communal sleeping space → Think modern-day hostels: large communal room with separate beds, shared bathroom, communal kitchen.
    • But the thing is, the Greek in Luke’s story is not that word. → another word that specifically refers to a spare upper room in a private house that was set aside for guests (no payment expected)
      • Same word used for the Upper Room in which Jesus and his disciples share their last supper together[2]
  • Ian Paul gives us a glimpse into what this means for our understanding of the Christmas story that we know and love: What, then, does it mean for the [inn] to have ‘no space’? It means that many, like Joseph and Mary, have travelled to Bethlehem, and the family guest room is already full, probably with other relatives who arrived earlier. So Joseph and Mary must stay with the family itself, in the main room of the house, and there Mary gives birth. The most natural place to lay the baby is in the hay-filled depressions at the lower end of the house where the animals are fed.[3]
• Okay … pause and take that in for a second. Now, I know that for a lot of years, all sorts of people – pastors included … myself included! – have used that image of Jesus … of the Son of God, God-With-Us, Emmanuel … being born in a stable as a metaphor for God coming down into the lowliest of lowly and inhabiting humanity in the most humble, modest, commonplace way. And that’s a powerful metaphor. But tonight I want us to look at and think about this miraculous birth in another way – a way that sheds a whole new light and dawns a whole new meaning onto the passage from John’s gospel that we also read this evening.
  • Jn passage begins with description of all the ethereal exceptional-ness of Jesus: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.[4] → John wants to be sure we understand from the very outset how truly Other this Jesus – this Word-Made-Flesh – really is.
    • Jesus has always been AND has always been with God
    • Everything came into being through Jesus
    • Jesus was light and life – a light so powerful, so eternal, so other that even the most impenetrable darkness is no match for this Jesus-Light → It wasn’t. It isn’t. And it never will be. “The light shines” … as in a constant and perpetual action, an ongoing action … “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t” … as in a fixed and terminable action, a limited action … “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.” The light goes on and on, so much so that the darkness no longer has the final word.
  • It’s this Everlasting Light – this Wonder Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, as the prophet Isaiah called him … it’s this Light of the World that was being born that night. It is God Incarnate – the Almighty Creator of the entire universe – who is choosing to take on the frail, vulnerable, precious form of a human baby. God chose a heart that beat just like yours. God chose flesh that ticked and itched, tingled and ran with goosebumps just like yours. God chose lungs that breathe in and out just like yours. God chose eyes that cried and lips that smiled and a stomach that rumbled just like yours.
  • Where was this miraculous God Incarnate born? → If we follow the reasoning and scholarship of Ian Paul, that precious and world-altering little baby Savior was born … in a home. A peasant home. An ordinary home. In the most used, the most communal, the most shared room in that house – the main room in which most of the family’s whole life took place.
    • Yes, they guarded/sheltered their animals there
    • Shared everyday family life there
    • Probably birthed other babies there
    • Jesus Christ … God’s only begotten Son … the Savior of the world … the one who came to put hands and feet and a heart and breathe on the Love of God … was born literally in the midst of the everyday lives of people.
    • Ending of Jn passage: The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.[5]
• Throughout Advent this year, we’ve been talking about the theme “Where We Belong” and how God meets us wherever we are on our journeys and brings a holy, blessed presence to that place. Tonight is the absolute, ultimate culmination of that idea – of finding belonging in God because God chose to belong with us. Fully. Without exception. In our homes. In our lives.
  • Tuhina Verma Rasche, ELCA minister who put together the main ideas for this sermon series: The reality of life – well, reality, at least as we know it – is filled with muck. Highs. Lows. Joys. Sorrows. Messy, and sometimes more uncensored than we can bear. In the midst of an uncensored reality, God took on our nature, took on our form, and came into a very real and broken and beautiful world. The Word made flesh came to truly make our stories and God’s story come together, become close and relational and passionate and full of feelings. … Let us remember the Word made flesh that came to live among us, to be with us, and to live out our experiences. This is a gospel of embodiment, not mere words, but the Word.[6] → That home and those circumstances that Jesus was born into weren’t perfect. Mary and Joseph ended up in that communal, family space because they showed up later than everyone else and the honored space specifically for guests was already full. But into that difficulty and overcrowded space – into all the awkwardness and the annoyance of that situation – God made space anyway. God made space for the Light to shine in the darkness. God made space for shepherds and the adoration and alleluias they would bring. God made space for Love and Hope to be born, making God’s own home among us. “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors!” Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/jesus-wasnt-born-in-a-stable-and-that-makes-all-the-difference/.

[2] Lk 22:11.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Jn 1:1-5.

[5] Jn 1:14.

[6] Tuhina Verma Rasche. “Advent/Christmas series: Where We Belong – Christmas Eve: Home in the Word” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 86.