Jeremiah 33: 14-16 (Common English Bible)

The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill my gracious promise with the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time, I will raise up a righteous branch from David’s line, who will do what is just and right in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is what he will be called: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

It’s THAT time of year.

Time to pull down those boxes of Christmas Ornaments, set up the tree, and just generally Deck the Halls.

Every year when I pull out those boxes, I promise myself that I will go through everything when I put it away and get rid of the broken ornaments, the lights that don’t work, and… that weird thing isn’t really a Christmas decoration.  But at the end of the season, I just don’t.  I’m tired.  I want it all to go away as fast as possible.  So everything gets tossed back into the boxes and stuffed into the attic higgledy piggledy!

So last year, I did it at the beginning of Advent.  I sorted through all the boxes and got rid of broken things, worn out things, things that don’t work and the things that no longer make sense (and maybe never did!) while the rest of my family decorated.

There’s 5 of us because we share our home with our adult children, so: 

• my husband put up the lights that still work
• Oli and Gwen and Aelric decorated the tree and the house
• And I spent 5 hours sorting and letting things go.

I cleared out 2 large rubbermaid tubs worth of broken and no longer useful things!  It felt soooo good!

Which made room for new things that work. 

And made room for a simpler and easier clean up.

Advent is season for making room.

The word Advent is both a verb and a noun.  

To advent, is to enter 

For example:

“The whole party rejoiced at my advent to the house!”

An Advent is a beginning.

For example:

“The advent of my highschool experience was in1985!”

The Churchy use of the word Advent is both as a verb and a noun.

We are celebrating the Advent of Jesus into the world.

And

We are at the Advent of the church year.

The beginning of the church year isn’t back to school or New Years.

The beginning of the church year is the season of Advent, where we make room for Jesus, like the innkeeper made room for Jesus’ family even though there was no room.

Bring up our online folks please!

What do you like about the Innkeeper?

• How many of you remember the Innkeeper from the story of Jesus’ birth?  Raise your hands.
• Take a minute and talk with your neighbors…What do you like about the Innkeeper?  (Would a few of you be willing to share what you like about the Innkeeper?)
• Bonus question:  Who can tell me which gospel the Innkeeper appears in?

The Innkeeper doesn’t appear in any of the gospels!  All we have is a passing mention in Luke chapter 2 verse 7 that Mary lay Jesus in the manger because there was no Guest Room available at the inn.

OK – you can take our online friends down, so we’re not staring at them!

The Innkeeper isn’t in the Bible, and yet the Innkeeper is a totally relatable character.  Because like so many of us the Innkeeper’s life is overfilled to the point that there’s no room for anybody else.  Between making a living, accommodating all the out of town guests, keeping the house in working order, taking care of their own family, dealing with health issues and mental health issues, caring for their animals, getting food on the table, and trying to participate in the local Innkeepers guild — I’m making all this up, making the Innkeeper relatable, since the Innkeeper is a made up character anyway!   The overwhelmed Innkeeper really didn’t have any room in their life for a young pregnant couple with zero ability to plan ahead!

And yet, the Innkeeper made room.

They made space where they didn’t have space.

They reprioritized, they rearranged, they maybe tossed some junk they were storing in the barn, maybe put some fresh straw in the manger, and turned it into a bedroom with a manger for a crib.

Advent is a season for making room for God.

I love playing the Innkeeper in Christmas pageants because literally making room for God is such a life-giving thing!  It’s like, yes!  I did the right thing!  I let Jesus into my heart and my home!

But real life isn’t that simple, is it?

I think that Jesus does show up in our lives every day, but we have been enculturated to not recognize Jesus.

We have been taught by our culture to fill our lives with work and housekeeping, and family, and dealing with our own issues, and to buy more shiny things to sooth ourselves when we become overwhelmed.

And none of those things are bad.  

It’s not wrong to take care of yourself! 

It is Good to take care of yourself.  

Jesus took naps!

Jesus shared dinner with friends!

Jesus took breaks!

But our culture tries to convince us to fill our lives to overflowing so that there will be no room for the holy.

No room for the holy work of being there with a friend in need.

No room for volunteering to help others.

No room for resisting evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, as we vowed to do in our Baptismal vows.

No room in many of our church buildings for those in need, because we have filled our rooms with broken and outdated things.

In these times when we feel like we have no room.  

Here at the Advent of a new year,  this is the time to sort through our things.  Not just sort through our stuff, but sort through our lives.

What things am I doing that don’t work for me anymore?

What feels broken?

What is doesn’t fit with this season of my life?

What can I let go of to make room to breathe?

What can I let go of to make room for the holy?

This is confusing work, so don’t do it alone.

Maybe share your journey with a friend.

Maybe pray with the Psalmist, today’s Psalm. 

Psalm 25: 4-5 (CEB)

Make your ways known to me, Lord;

    teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth—teach it to me—

    because you are the God who saves me.

        I put my hope in you all day long.

Maybe read it each morning or each evening.

We put our hope n God to help us make room in our lives for the holy, however the holy shows up.

I saw the Holy show up a couple weeks ago at Rahab’s Sisters Sparkle Party.   

Rahab’s Sisters is a non-profit that rents space in our building to provide radical hospitality to Fem and Queer folks through: food, resource navigation, supplies, counseling, and a safe place to be.

How many of you got to see Rahab’s Sisters rearrangement of our space last week?

Rahab’s Sisters had their gala fundraiser, the Sparkle Party, here a couple of weeks ago and we got to play Innkeeper for them.  We didn’t really have a big enough room for their party, or the right kind of spaces, but we shared what we do have.  We let them move all the books and tables and old things into the lobby and make room in our old building to decorate and  celebrate the work of welcoming the Holy Family of our Fem and Queer neighbors.

I noticed that moving around all the things, and looking at all the pictures of their guests and the stories and supplies they displayed, gave some of you an idea for how we could repurpose this old building to do more good in the world.  How we could make more room for the ministries that our community needs.

It’s not a secret that we’ve been talking about trading places with Rahab’s Sisters in relationship to the building.  Selling them the building so they can have more responsibility and more use of the building, while we stay here and have less responsibility for the building, and more time for ministry.

I invite you this week to have conversations with your Church friends about what it might look like to make more room for the Holy in our ministries and our space use.

What room do we really need for the ministries that matter?

and 

How can we make room in our church for the Holy?