The Innkeepers

We are here again – the Christmas season is with us!

What with the parties at home and at the office, the movies, trips to the coast and shagz, the mood, the reunions… The gifts, nyam chom and the carols. It is just the season of the year.

Only one problem,it gets too busy. Weddings, shopping madness, traffic, budget issues… Life gets crowded. It is easy to miss out on an important person, an engagement, rest, or opportunity. This season is even more complicated because of politics!

Have you ever been so busy that you missed some important events or people?

Ever had so much going on and so many people in a party that you had no room to receive, chat up or create space for a guest? I know people who hate to host. They get too busy paying attention to logistics that they miss the point of the event.

That happens a lot during this season. It is so easy to miss the reason for the season and make the minor things the main thing. What are the minor things and what is the major thing? That is the question we will seek to answer.

When Christmas happened 2000 years ago, it was no different.

Read Luke 2:1-7

A lot was going on here: Traveling to shagz, registration, re-unions and the challenge of finding accommodation. It was not the best of times for Joseph and Mary: traveling with a 9-month pregnancy! It took them longer than everybody else. By the time they got there, the inn was packed to capacity. There was no room!

They had to put up out in the cold, with the cattle. It was the wrong place and time for a baby to arrive. It’s funny how babies seem to find their way out at night. The main thing is that Jesus showed up! He lay in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.

It seems to me that the innkeepers were too busy handling guests from everywhere, making cash, and connecting with friends and family that they did not have space for the King! He slept out. A delivery happened in the cowshed and the innkeepers probably did not notice until the baby cried. I wonder how they felt about the delivery in their cattle-shed.

It is like Jesus came to spoil their party.

• Ever felt like Jesus and his demands are spoiling your relationship with his unrealistic standards?
• Ever felt like Jesus and his standards of non-corruption are slowing down the opportunities of growth for your business?
• Ever felt like you really want to experience some pleasure or eat some sweet fruit only to hear Jesus voice crying out against it?
• Ever felt like Jesus is interfering with your career path by asking you to come on for internship or church-planting? He urged me out of law into ministry.
• Ever felt like the things you love are contrary to what Jesus likes? And that his conviction in your heart cannot be ignored?

So what do we do with the spoiler? We ignore him. We push him out. We have no place for him. We move on and enjoy our party!

Yet whenever you look back, you realize the interferer becomes the life of the party. If you let him in. He is never the spoiler, he is the savior. He takes center stage, determines the quality of life and opens a door for eternal peace. He deserves the best place in our lives.

The one point we are making here is:Jesus is the life of the party!

It is like Jesus was a gate-crasher! The crying of the baby, the visitors who streamed in – from the shepherds to the wise men – he took over the place. There was drama in the inn; the King had arrived.

It is like Jesus was a distraction! A sideshow that eventually became the main show. In your focus on life, his demand for allegiance, salvation and reconciliation distracts you from your set paths. It takes you away from your beaten path and adored habits.

Jesus is not a gatecrasher; he should become the invited guest in your life. A treasured friend. The way, the truth and the life. Make room for him in your life and business. When you let your dating, marriage, business, career, finances, youth, mid-life and parenting be about him… you will experience the life of the party.

 Jesus is the life of the party!

It is like Jesus came to the unlikely places. Kings don’t show up like this. Jesus pricks our conscience when he visits places we would rather not visit. His love and humility speaks to us loudly during this season. He was born in a manger while others enjoyed the comforts that the Roman Empire could afford. You know how our politicians show up? With color and pomp! Contrast that with how the king of the universe rolled in.

He loves to hang-out with sex-workers. He reaches out to politicians across the parties; He loves the unlovable and is compassionate to the poor and the helpless. His first visitors were the dirty shepherds! You have got to admire this king! He came for such as me… and because he came, look who is here today. Former alcoholics, former greedy and corrupt officials, former loose folks, and the list goes on.

For those who have been helped and redeemed by the King of Nazareth do you believe that Jesus is the life of the party?

Jesus arrived in a style that showed his mission would embrace the poor, the neglected, the lowly, the outcasts of society and the unwanted. Christmas reminds us that Jesus is the life of the partyfor all – poor and rich, the great and the small, the religious and the lost. It is a good time of the year to reach out to the lowly of society. Make Christmas for someone who cannot afford one. Reach out and share your faith with a person you had written off. Become the life of the party for someone in the name of Jesus, the reason for the party.

Christ did not just come for the elite of society; he came to throw a party for the slum dwellers as well as Karen residents. He came to celebrate with the Wananchi and the Wenyenchi alike. He came to all and for all.

Jesus is the life of the party!

I ask you to do 2 things this week:

1. What area in your life do you need to invite Jesus to take over the party? Is there an area where he has been ignored, locked out, squeezed to a corner or rendered irrelevant?
2. Become the life of the party to an unlikely or lowly person.