One leap of faith after another
During Christmas we recall the familiar story
of Joseph and a very-pregnant Mary returning to his hometown of Bethlehem,
where Mary gives birth to Jesus and “laid him in a manger, because there was no
place for them in the upper guest room,”
according to Luke 2:7. The Greek word kataluma,
meaning “upper room” or “guest room,” is correctly translated in Luke 22:11-12.
This up-close reading of the Biblical text combined with the grand view of
Biblical hospitality moves us to understand that Jesus was born in a home overflowing with guests!
Like any other Jewish family, Mary and
Joseph would have been readily welcomed into their extended families’ homes.
Biblical archaeology reveals that such first-century Palestinian peasant family
houses were typically built around a common courtyard area, with each dwelling
comprised of one or two rooms on the ground floor and loft space or an extra
room above. The senior family members had the “highest” and cleanest area of
the main room, opposite the “low” corner where animals were kept at night and where
bodily functions happened—including the birthing of babies. Cooking took place
outside in the courtyard area, where communal meals were prepared. Other adults
stayed in the second room (if there was one) or another corner of the main
room. Children were consigned to the loft or upper room. As occurs today, when
guests arrived they would be given the children’s space, and the children had
to either double-up or make do elsewhere.
Thus according to the Gospel birth narratives,
Mary gave birth to Jesus in a house—in the corner of the main room where any
other Palestinian peasant baby would be born; where bodily functions happened; where
there was fresh, clean straw and water; where a manger (animal feeding trough)
served as a make-shift crib; with many relatives to assist in the birth.
Why? Because there was no more room in the
upper guest room – there were so many guests!
So what does this mean for us? Jesus was born into hospitality. And even
though rejection became part of Jesus’ story, God did not allow rejection to
have the last word.
I serve an
Affirming Congregation in Scotland that is overflowing with guests. Measured by
our size alone, we are very small, with less than 50 members and a
very-part-time (15%) locum minister (me). Yet as we know, health is not
determined by weight but by body-mass index. And the great height to which this
light-weight church goes to practice Biblical hospitality—that is, welcome
strangers as well as neighbors—not only calculates us to be “healthy” but keeps
us continually “dying to new life.”
Anderston
Kelvingrove Church is one of over a dozen Affirming Congregations in Scotland
which strive to enact their statements of inclusion. In addition to our congregational
activities, we rent (on a sliding scale) office space to several para-church
organizations and an education organization; a half dozen other congregations
(Chinese, Georgian Orthodox, Indian, Nigerian, Russian Orthodox, Salvation
Army) use our building for worship and programs; many types of 12-step groups
meet; dance classes and martial arts classes are held; we serve as the
community center for a Sudanese Muslim group, the local community council, a
few housing organizations, and various community programs serving
mothers-and-infants, self-reliant-groups of women, and individuals and families
facing homelessness or poverty; a dozen men seeking asylum in the U.K. and a
few volunteers with the Glasgow Destitution Network reside in our building each
night of the year from dinner-time to breakfast-time; and our church and the
neighboring Catholic Church sponsor a program that serves up a hot lunch every
Wednesday in our building for folks in the community.
The Clerk of
Session figures that our building is used 160 hours per week.
Meanwhile
The Church of Scotland denomination is finally making it possible—not perfect, but possible—for its congregations to employ a minister or deacon who
is in a Civil Partnership (or married, thanks to Scotland’s same-gender marriage
legislation that begins in 2015). It’s not perfect because it requires LGBT-affirming
church Sessions to vote to “depart” from the “traditional” view of
scripture—the “traditional” view defined as that which claims marriage is only
between a man and a woman.
For
us Christians who believe that lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and transgender
people are created by God and their relationships have always been blessed by
God and thus we do not want or need
to “depart” from scripture, “traditional” or otherwise, this new rule erects an
unjust and discriminatory hoop to jump through.
I’m
thankful that Affirming Congregations—which have a healthy body-mass index—are
willing and able to jump through all kinds of hoops in order to do all kinds of
justice and welcome all kinds of people.
