We Make Room - a Christmas Eve reflection for worship with families at 10 a.m.
Are you familiar with the song Crowded Table by The Highwomen?
First, in case you’re not familiar, the Highwomen is a collaboration of female singer songwriters who have recast some of the Highwaymen’s music while adding additional recordings in the same style (sort of…). Their songs are infused with feminine power – while steeped in nurture, hospitality, creativity capacity.
The second verse and refrain of Crowded Table include these lyrics:
If we want a garden
We're gonna have to sow the seed
Plant a little happiness
Let the roots run deep
If it's love that we give
Then it's love that we reap
If we want a garden
We're gonna have to sow the seed
I want a house with a crowded table
And a place by the fire for everyone
Let us take on the world while we're young and able
And bring us back together when the day is done
A lot of the time, this is my anthem, especially that refrain about a crowded table.
I really do want a house with a crowded table – perhaps it is a carryover from being that house when my kids were in high school – the place where it was safe for everyone to gather, the couch that was always available if someone needed to crash, the cabinets that always had enough snacks - some of which were healthy - for hungry teenagers, the refrigerator that always had an extra gallon of milk – because wow, do growing teens go through the milk.
Life’s not quite like that anymore. It’s kind of quiet at our house these days.
But I long for that crowded table. I long to make room for one more.
So often, you’ll find me humming that refrain…
I want a house with a crowded table
And a place by the fire for everyone
You know, there is a lot of “making room” that goes on in this story of baby Jesus that we read today. A LOT of making room.
Mary, young and unwed, makes room in her body to carry the Christ child. She makes room in her life trajectory to say yes to what God asks in spite of societal expectations.
Joseph, perhaps a little embarrassed but loyal and compassionate, makes room in his heart to believe that this is all happening and that God is in it all.
The town of Bethlehem makes room for visitors who are traveling for the census.
Family members make room in their home for this young couple and, oh by the way, they make room for a home birth.
The shepherds make room in their shepherding schedule to show up and see for themselves.
Then they make room to share the good news as they return to their fields.
There is a lot of making room in this story.
All these folks setting aside their routine, their expectations, even their identity, making room.
Making room for a baby.
Who is Jesus.
Who is the son of God.
But maybe that feels too big – too complicated – to wrap our heads around.
Maybe it feels more manageable to say they are making room for God to show up.
They are making room for God’s LOVE to be born in the world.
Perhaps at the most basic level, they are making room for love.
And love makes a difference.
That’s hard to deny.
Love changes lives.
Love changes the air around us.
Love changes the world.
I wonder….
What might it look like for us to make room, every day, for love?
What might it look like for us to make room, every day, for the new thing God is doing in our midst?
What might it look like for us to make room at the table – at home or here at Faith Church?
Maybe it looks like letting someone merge on I-270.
Maybe it looks like adding a place at the already crowded dinner table.
Maybe in looks like learning and using someone’s preferred pronouns and sharing our own.
Maybe it looks like scooting over in your pew and offering a friendly smile and hello.
Maybe it looks like listening to someone whose life and values are very different from your own.
Maybe it looks like Messy Church when we are used to the order of things done a certain way.
Maybe it looks like praying for peace for people we will never meet in places we will never visit.
Can we make room in our hearts for love that looks like that this Christmas?
Can we say yes to God’s call to us to carry love into the world?
I pray that we can, together.
May it be so.
Amen.
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