No Room At The Inn

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 5

No Room At The Inn

(Specially written for "The Press" by GARDNER MILLER-1

IT is poignantly true that the day before Christ was born He was cast out from a public inn. The inn-keeper said there was no room for the parents of an unborn child.

1 hardly expect that there would be a sign hung on the door that accommodation was sold out But the expulsion meant: “Stop having children.” There is a curious affinity to that expulsion, seen in our day in the frantic references to population explosion and the growing tendency in society to prevent the birth of children. It is a matter of grave concern that this modern version of the innkeeper's refusal may be retarding the birth of the prophet, the leader, the matryr, the light-bringer, of whom the world is desperately in need. I say such an event may be retarded, but it probably will happen in our time that a birth of significance will take place that will alter both the values and outlook of multitudes of the world s population. Error In Date The parents of Christ were refused a room and there was so little sympathy for a pregnant woman *’ ft no-one offered her shelter. Out into the courtyard among the animals and the baggage they went and found a place to lie down. The child was born and put into an animal s food box for a cradle. No-one is born outside time and place. Christ's birth was in the early an autumn day in 6 8.C.. tor although we refer to the birth as happening in A.D. 1. there is no doubt that owing to the error of dating. Christ was born six years previously. He was born among a people ois-

tinguished in history by a religion that was unique. What the world owes to the Jews can never be computed. But both the country and the religion did not want him. It is an unremarked feature of much of our religious vocabulary how often be was hunted for the killing during the three short years of his public life. He was not wanted and when finally he was put to death they thought that they were rid of Him for good. But an event once born can never be expunged. This man born in a stable still haunts the world. True, magnificent churches have been built in His name, true, humanitarian work does much in His name, true. He has given life and death a meaning that no other religion has ever apprehended, but it is still true that the world is hostile to Him. Unwanted Much of the life has gone out of Christianity, though at no time in history has so much been given to help the needy and thousands are thrilled and willing to give service to the cause of Christ, but the fact remains, no matter how we try to hide it, that Christianity is largely unwanted.

A little over 50 years ago there appeared a book that then caught the imagination, though today one hardly ever hears it mentioned. The book was “The Blue Bird.” a fantasy for children. Its author was Maurice Maeterlinck, a Belgian poet and dramatist In a chapter we see into “the Kingdom of the Future.” Time, a tall old man with a streaming beard, armed with his scythe and hour-elass annoars unon the threshold w«th hi« shi»» with white and »nld s’i’s. He has •‘•tied to take the unborn children to theic w»ftin» mothers. Among the children there were two called “the Lovers." one of whom must leave at once for the earth; the other’s

time had not yet come and she was heartbroken at being separated. Time takes the boy and carries him to the ship, the little girl following and crying out to the boy, “A sign... A sign ... Tell me how to find you.” And he replies: “I shall always love you.” The sorrowing distracted little girl calls out as she sees her lover about to sail away: “I shall be the saddest thing on earth... You will know me by that.” The saddest thing on earth is an unwanted child. The child Jesus grew to be the saddest man on earth. I see Him coming into the world unwanted by His country and people: I see Him despised and rejected of men; I see Him as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; I hear Him say: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The swing away and desertion from Christianity is ominous but it is not final. Every Christmas reminds us of Christ's coming. The angels and their song, the shepherds and the wise men and all the lovely and radiant embellishments by which we remind ourselves of His birthday really lovely and covering up the fact of His poverty and the humiliation of His first hour on this earth. AU those things have no meaning if we do not attain to and believe in the truth that lies in His birth—the truth that God in this child has visited his careless people. Inescapable Event There is a difference between the birth-hour of Christianity and the modern acknowledgement of the birthday of Christianity. The difference is vital. The birth of Christianity is not a story it is an inescapable event The world of men revolves in the orbit of this event no matter how irrelevant many think the birth-hour is. We still have time to consider its meaning —and time is slipping away.