Accessibility

We had the Christmas pageant this morning, and Randy's message was based on a couple of points I hadn't been aware of. The first thing is that, while we've all heard "there was no room for them in the inn", the word "inn" here doesn't mean "motel", it means "guest room." A peasant house typically had a guest room and a family room, and at the end of the family room there was a low wall separating an area for the animals. You'd keep the family cow and donkey inside at night, both for warmth and for protection from theft. Joe and Mary stayed with a peasant family who took in guests, but someone was already in the guest room so they had to sleep (well, go into labor, probably not much sleeping) next to the animal pen. The second thing is that shepherds weren't honored--nobody thought of David as "the shepherd king". In fact, the profession was listed by the rabbis as one of the unclean ones--you couldn't be a shepherd and keep kosher. And the third was that at the time of Jesus' birth, Augustus was propagating "There is no other name by which you must be saved but Augustus Caesar" and calling Julius a god, and therefore himself "the son of god." The difference is that Augustus was interested in power and prestige and if you didn't go along with him, you were likely to get crucified. When Jesus appeared, it wasn't in a palace, it was in a peasant's hut, and the ones he invited to come were the outcasts.