'Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her.’ Luke 1:45
Friends, it’s that time of year, nativities everywhere. Both our schools have done them and on Christmas Eve our Sunday Club will be doing it too. It’s always cute, it’s always chaotic, and it’s almost always funny. There is a story of one little boy desperate to be Joseph being completely gutted when he found out he was instead the inn keeper. The inn keeper didn’t get to hold Mary’s hand and the inn keeper only had one line. However, if he only had one line then, by golly, he was going to make the most of it. When the boy who got the Joseph part knocked on the door of the inn on the night of the big performance the little boy inn keeper opened the door—drew himself up to his full height—and screamed at the top of his lungs: ‘No room’! I wonder how the actual inn keeper said it? Probably not that viciously, and yet in those two words a whole spiritual truth is opened up. When Love—when God—came down that first Christmas there was no room for Him. Though he was the king, though he was divine, though He created all things and all people when He came knocking doors were slammed in His face and again and again and the response to His requests was, ‘No room’. As we draw near to our celebration of Christmas I want us to give serious thought to this question: Is there room for Jesus in your heart this Christmas?
Before we turn to today’s reading, I want to make sure we know the back story, I want to make sure we know what comes immediately before the reading we had today. It’s a well know story of when an angel visited a teenage girl in the poorest parts of a forgotten land. We know it so well, in fact, that we often miss—what is in fact— a pivotal moment in the history of the world. ‘The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus’ and then there is a pause…! Every year about this time Time Magazine publish their ‘Person of the Year’. This year—for his historic comeback—Time chose Donald Trump! In the UK we having something similar—though possibly slightly less serious—in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. This year, and quite rightly I think—if you saw her race and knew her back story—Keely Hodgkinson, the 800 meters Olympic Champion was named as ‘Sports Personality of the Year’. IF there was to be a ‘Person of All Time’ I think, hands down, the award would have to go to Mary. I know you were all thinking I’d pick Jesus but I’m ruling Jesus out of this one because whilst He was fully human He was also fully God. No, I think the award for ‘Person of All Time’ should go to the teenage girl from Nazareth, why? Because without her—and her response to the angel’s question—Jesus’ rescue would not have been possible: ’the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.’ Mary was given a choice and saying ‘No’ was a very real option; in fact in many ways it was the only sensible option. Think what Mary faced if she said ‘Yes’: persecution, almost certainly, from everyone she knew. Women who slept around—which everyone would assume Mary had—were in for a torrid time, and what’s more there was the very real possibility of being stoned to death. At first no one would notice, okay, but there is only so long you can keep a bump and then a baby hidden. The angel’s offer was going to mean some real suffering for this teenage girl. Now, God would never force Himself on anyone, God always respects the free will which He gives to each human being; so Mary had a choice! Will she make room in her heart, and in her WOMB, for Jesus. If the answer is ‘No’—and that’s the obvious answer—the salvation of the world is off. The angel paused, and—we might imagine—the whole world held it’s a breath… ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ ‘Yes’ Mary's answer amazingly, astonishingly, unfathomably, is ‘Yes’ and no doubt all the angels around God’s throne sang for joy. Mary said ‘Yes’. Mary would make room for Jesus, in her heart, in her womb, and in her life; and because of that ‘Yes’ the whole world—including you and me—can be saved. Surely for this alone, Mary must be the winner of the ‘Person of All Time’ award. This Christmas—and every moment before and after it—we are faced with the same question, a question directed towards each one of us individually: Will we make room in our hearts for Jesus?
Why do we need to make room? For the very simple reason that we fill our hearts with all sorts of things. We shop ’til we drop and it feels for a moment as if our hearts will be satisfied with our new purchases. We pursue romantic relationships and it feels for a moment as if our hearts will be satisfied with our new partner. We switch jobs, switch homes, switch TV channels trying to fill our hearts and finally make them feel satisfied… and yet the truth is, our hearts were made to be filled in only one way, by the God who is Love. Saying ‘Yes’ to this God is risky—who knows what He might ask us to do—and so we stick with trying to make shopping, and people, and Netflix fill our hearts instead. Consequently we’re never fully happy. Mary’s ‘Yes’ is a yes to God, it is a yes to the risk of suffering for God, it is yes to giving God everything, for that is what it means to make room for Jesus. It’s a commitment, and it’s a commitment which for Mary means stepping outside her front door and going on a long, and potentially dangerous, journey. Does Mary draw back? No, today’s reading tells us: ‘Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.’ Mary makes room for Jesus, Mary makes room for God, Mary makes room for Love, and Love sends her out on a journey. Is there room for Jesus in your heart this Christmas?
When I was a kid I was given the Narnia books as a Christmas present. I loved them and read them all at pace, they were, and are, fantastic stories. However, it was only when I became a Christian—as an adult—that all of a sudden I saw Jesus jumping off every page. Making room for Jesus in my heart changed the way I read those amazing stories and what was true for me is true for every Christian. When someone makes room for Jesus in their hearts all of a sudden they see things they have never seen before, they see things which are all around us but we simply have not spotted them. How do we know this is true from the Scriptures?… because of the witness of Elizabeth. In Sports Personality they have a number of runners up, of people winning in smaller categories. I reckon if Mary wins ‘Person of All Time’ then Elizabeth must be a runner up. In some ways Elizabeth was the opposite of Mary. She was elderly, she was married, and as the wife of a priest she had some social standing. And yet, like Mary, when asked by God to make room in her heart, in her womb, and in her life for His plan, and like Mary, she said ‘Yes’. Oh, the baby was her husband’s, and her baby was merely a man—no divinity here! However, this pregnancy was a miracle and Elizabeth welcomed God and His plans with an open heart. We're told in today’s reading that: ‘Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.’ God entered her heart, as He entered Mary’s womb, because like Mary Elizabeth said ‘Yes’, and that encounter changed the way that Elizabeth saw the world. Making room for God means you will be changed and when you are changed what you see in the world will change as well. Is there room for Jesus in your heart this Christmas? If your answer—like Mary and Elizabeth—is ‘Yes' then your eyesight will change and with it your role. When Elizabeth’s spiritual eyesight changed she could see Mary for who she was, and the child invisibly growing in Mary's womb for who He was, and with that change came a change of role for Elizabeth: to point to Jesus. ‘Blessed are you among women’ cries out Elizabeth, ‘and blessed is the child you will bear!’ All those who have their spiritual eyes opened are given the job of helping to open the eyes of those who cannot yet see. We are called, like Mary, like Elizabeth, and like John who leaps for joy in the womb, to point people to Jesus.
That first Christmas when Joseph knocked on door after door, he was repeatedly told ‘No room’. Today—perhaps even without knowing it—millions more close their hearts, and proclaim in their words and deeds ‘No room’ for Jesus. Making room seems too hard, too scary, and too much of a risk. And yet, should you have the courage these two amazing women, the courage of Elizabeth, the courage of Mary, to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus, you will find your eyes and your mouth opened and your world transformed. So friends, is there room for Jesus in your heart this Christmas? (from Fr Mike).