A young innkeeper at Brush Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church

December 24  |  Christmas Eve

by Charles Strobel, Room In The Inn Founder

The Christmas story is in miniature, in microcosm, what the entire Gospel story is about:  an invitation to change our hearts, to be converted—by receiving the gift of God’s Love Incarnate.  And where does this start?

The miracle of God’s love dwelling in us—what on Christmas we call the Word made Flesh—starts with our understanding of ourselves as poor.  For all of us are poor.  

Christians hear this proclaimed as the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor…for theirs is the kingdom of God.”  Our blessing is that we know we are incapable of being happy all by ourselves.  This is our poverty, and all the riches in the world cannot rid us of it.
More than an economic condition, poverty is an attitude of the heart, an experience of our human limits. 

But who wants to think of themselves as poor?  Or to see ourselves as blessed in our poverty?  Yet that is how we are created.  Long before we achieve power, prestige, possessions, even pigmentation, we are born, like Jesus, naked, vulnerable and poor, dependent on others for our survival. 

When we forget this basic truth about ourselves, we end up fighting for our own survival rather than helping each other survive.  

The result is separation and differences that can diminish our realization of a profound divine truth:  We share a common humanity.  

But understanding ourselves as poor establishes an equality among us that can lead to the greatest blessing imaginable--human kindness. Rather than allowing our riches to divide us—all that creates self-sufficiency—recognizing how each of us is the same can unite us with a generosity of spirit.  

We will not need to rack our brain for ways to deprive ourselves and be generous.  If we love others with the miracle of God’s indwelling love, we will soon be poor.  We will no longer have anything much of our own.  We may have some possessions, but our time, our attention, our investment of energy will belong to the demands of those we love.  

That is why each year we hope that the Christmas story arouses impulses of infinite joy, liberation, and peace to burst in our hearts.  It’s so vital to our faith, more than anything else about Christmas—the decorations, the food, and the gifts— to remember God’s love within us is worth waiting for.

The manger, a simple feeding trough, is a symbol of the poverty into which Jesus was born, among the animals. When you see a nativity scene or artistic rendering of Jesus’ birth today, take notice of the humble surroundings into which divine love was born. Consider how this same love can be born out of your own poverty today.

God of the poor and the vulnerable,
you come to us not in strength, but in need.
Help us to recognize our own poverty—
our limits, our dependence, our longing for love.
Free us from the illusion of self-sufficiency,
and unite us in kindness, compassion, and grace.
As we wait for Love Incarnate,
may your kingdom be born in our shared humanity.
Amen.