Reflections on Luke 2: 1-7, delivered 12/11/08 at Union                       UNITED CHURCH of Christ, Elk River,

                    MN Ecumenical “Blue Christmas”

“No room in the inn”by Rev. Sharon James Fazel

* Also given at First Congregational UCC Anoka on 12/14/08

As I think about that phrase, my thoughts go first to situations similar to that of Chris Gardner, a medical industry salesman in 1980s San Francisco, played by Will Smith in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. The movie, released in 2006,  is based on a real memoir, by the real Chris Gardner.

Having invested the family’s finances in selling to the medical community, high priced bone density scanners which, for the most part, just didn’t sell – Gardner applied for and was accepted into a stock broker internship program. He had a real knack for the work, but it paid no money for the required six month training. One highly contested position would be awarded only at the end of the six months, when the best contestant of a large group of interns would be hired. Faced with an already crumbling marriage, and the prospect of certain financial disaster, Gardner’s spouse left him to raise their 5 year old son on his own. With no sales of bone scanners, and no income from any other source, Gardner and his son eventually lose their apartment, and find themselves living first in shelters, and then literally on the streets, even while he worked every day at Dean Witter.

For Gardner, the nights on the streets trying to shelter himself and his son from not only the cold but also the violence that is often part of homelessness, this story is its own version of “no room in the inn.” And yet – despite the setbacks and the heartache of trying to raise his son with dignity, Gardner persisted. He and his son stuck it out; and in fact, not only the movie character but the real Chris Gardner got the job coming out of the internship, and years later sold a minority interest in his own stock brokerage, for millions of dollars.

What did it take to get Chris Gardner from such debased circumstances to what society considers the pinnacle of success? Well, it certainly took persistence. And a strong measure of faith. But it took something else, too – hope.

It’s easy to see the comparison between “no room in the inn” and “no room in the homeless shelter” or “no room in the job market.” But what if the “inn” is actually the inner being of each of us? What if “no room in the inn” means “no room within ourselves for the light of hope”?

Even in a world used to living on the basics, it must still have been uncomfortable for Mary to give birth to a child in an animal stable. Especially when so much was left bewilderingly unexplained for the two characters in our nativity story, Mary and Joseph. Not to mention the person of this unusual child who seemed immediately to attract so much attention!

And yet – there was hope. Light entered through the cracks of the stable walls and ceiling; in the faces of adoring visitors; in the gifts of exotic yet respectful strangers; in the stories of the shepherds about good news of great joy associated with her son – stories that Mary treasured in her heart, where there was more than ample room for the light of hope. Even when there was no room in the inn for lodging, there was room inside her heart for hope.

There was for Mary, and for Joseph. For Chris Gardner. And there is for you and for me, too. Inside, there is always room for hope. That is the promise of our faith. May we each find a way to open the door to it, or at least to see it through the cracks in the walls of our own hearts. Amen.

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