by Pastor Douglas Brauner

It’s Time to Go!

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

If you and I were responsible for filling the pages of the Bible, we would create at least a twelve volume edition of the scriptures. We would fill in all the blanks that would answer our questions about what happened next.

There are many questions that surround Jesus’ birth. We learn that Jesus was placed in a manger only because there was no room in the guest quarters. We want to know the rest of the story so we attempt to fill in the blanks. We have built children’s Christmas programs around Mary and Joseph knocking on the door of Motel Bethlehem only to find that they had to settle for a stable, something the Bible does not tell us.

Yet, we still have questions like how long did the new arrival and his parents stay in the stable? We don’t know. What we do know is that the stable and the manger are empty. The holy family didn’t remain in the makeshift birthing room. That’s a fact!

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 English Standard Version

Staying in the stable was not an option for the holy family, neither is hunkering down in our churches as if they were made to protect us from the big, bad world. As the baptized of Christ, we are called to go, to go into that messy world in which the holy family traveled, in which Jesus traveled.

We may not know how long Jesus and his parents remained in the stable, we may not know where they stayed once they left or how long they stayed in Bethlehem, yet what we do know is that they left the stable empty, the manger empty because there was more to the story.

That more to the story involves a cross and an empty tomb. May we hear the call to leave the stable and live for the baby who died and rose for us.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado