Sermons

---

“Trouble at the Inn”
Christmas Eve 5 pm Family Service
December 24, 2002
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Read the story: “Trouble at the Inn,” by Dina Donohue

I love that Wally.

In order for there to be room at his inn…there had to be room in his heart. That really IS the question, isn’t it? Do WE have room in OUR hearts?

It’s the question of Christmas that will shape how we live our lives the whole rest of the year. Is there room inside of my heart…for Jesus??

NOT just for the baby in the manger. The baby was just the beginning, that’s what we celebrate now…a beginning. But: Is there room for God in my life, a God who is willing to step into the CLUTTER, the NOT-PERFECT, even the DISASTER that our lives can become, and say: “You. You belong to me.”

Is there room? Wally points us the right way…towards Jesus. In Jesus Christ…God’s love for us takes its clearest form.

Here’s how the poet Ann Weems writes it:

“When the holy child is born into our hearts
there is a rain of stars
a rushing of angels
a blaze of candles
This God burst into our lives.
Love is running through the streets.”

A blaze of candles…love running through the streets. That seems like the right way to describe what happens at Christmas. We celebrate the One who says to a very dark world: “I am the light of the world…,” and that light shines in the darkness…and the darkness has not overcome it.