Dec 24th: Christmas Eve: Making Space for Love to Be Born, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
Christmas Eve on KTVZ (NBC) at 12:00pm
Christmas Eve on KFXO (FOX) at 4:30pm
Christmas Eve on NTVZ (The CW) at 7:00pm
Plus regular streaming platforms
A Part of the Series:
Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Christmas Eve: Making Space for Love to Be Born with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Rediscovering Jesus A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Luke 2.
Wondering what Christmas is really all about? Join us Christmas Eve online or in-person, as we explore how even a small bit of openness can make room for unexpected love and hope. You don’t need to have it all figured out; just come curious and see what this story might awaken in you.
Christmas Eve on KTVZ (NBC) at 12:00pm
Christmas Eve on KFXO (FOX) at 4:30pm
Christmas Eve on NTVZ (The CW) at 7:00pm
Plus regular streaming platforms
Transcript:
Steven: On Christmas Eve, when the world sits between wonder and weariness, we gather to remember a story so small it could have been missed, a story of God slipping quietly into the world through the narrow doorway of an unlikely and ordinary life. Now, some of you might find yourself this Christmas with hearts full of gratitude and joy. I’m guessing many of you find your hearts full in a different way, full of questions, full of grief and sadness, full of exhaustion, full of the kind of heaviness that makes it hard to imagine you have room for anything more, but Christmas whispers the truth God doesn’t require a Perfect space, only an open one, even if it’s open just a sliver, the first Christmas came to an overcrowded, anxious, violent, weary world, much like today’s world, and yet love, love still found the smallest corner where hope could take its first breath. You know that reminds me of my absolute favorite story to tell at Christmas. It’s the story of Wallace pearling and the Christmas pageant that took an unexpected turn. Now, Wally was nine years old, and Wally desperately, he desperately wanted the role of the innkeeper in the children’s Christmas Pageant. Now he thought he could do a great job of scowling and telling Mary and Joseph there was no room in the inn with just the right amount of firmness. So he rehearsed the perfect scowl in the mirror. He tried to get the tone just right, turning Mary and Joseph away. So was the night of the pageant. While he was was so excited he was wearing his costume, he looked around at at all the decorations and the families gathering in the pews, and his eyes were were wide with childlike wonder. The pageant director told Wally to get in place behind the indoor and be ready, and Mary and Joseph made their way down the center aisle of the church. Joseph knocked on the inn door. Now Wally. Wally was ready. He swung the door open. Now he looked straight ahead above their head so so he wouldn’t be distracted, and he bellowed his lines just as he’d rehearsed. There’s no room in the inn now, Joseph said, Please, please, my wife Mary is about to give birth. Surely, there’s a corner we could stay now, at this point, Wally was just supposed to slam the indoor shut, but Wally looked down at Joseph for the first time, then he looked into Mary’s eyes that looked so tired and worried. Joseph turned, and with his arm around Mary, they began to walk away. Now again, Wally was just he was supposed to slam the indoor shut. But there was a pause, a long pause the pageant director whispered from the wings Wally. Wally shut the door. Wally didn’t hear a thing. He was lost in the moment. Tears rolling down his cheeks as he watched Mary and Joseph walk away, and this, this is when the pageant took a sharp, unexpected turn. Wally shouted, Joseph. Joseph, wait, bring Mary back. And Wally’s face brightened, and his eyes grew large and joyful, and Wally said, she can have my room. Love. Love took over Wally’s heart, and he abandoned his script that he had memorized, and with great joy, he said. She can have my room that Christmas pageant had a surprise ending. You know, love does that when we make even, even a little space for love to take over. Old scripts are abandoned. New stories are told. Surprise endings are possible. That’s what Christmas Eve is about, making space, even a sliver of space in our hearts to be overcome with the love of God revealed in the child in a manger, so that like Wally, we might go off script, and that we might love with the with The kind of love where new stories are told, surprise endings are possible. Now, Wally’s improvisation wasn’t planned. It certainly wasn’t polished. It was messy, sincere, impulsive love, this weary and aching world of ours is waiting for us to go off the tired old scripts waiting for us to love with the kind of Love where new stories are possible. A friend of mine named Maya shared a story that happened to her last week, she was driving home from her shift working as a nurse at the hospital. She she was exhausted, as so many of us are, and she was just ready to collapse into the couch at the end of her shift, at the end of the day, but at a stoplight, she noticed an older man standing on the corner with a cardboard sign. Now that the cardboard sign didn’t list needs or complaints, the cardboard sign simply said, I’d love a warm conversation. The light turned. Traffic moved on, and Maya started to continue her path towards home, but something tugged at her heart. She could have just kept going. She could have said she didn’t have the energy or the time or the space, but instead, she took the next left. She went through the drive through at Starbucks, bought two hot chocolates, parked and walked back towards the man. She handed one of the man and said, I Maya, what’s your name? His name was Robert. He told her he he wasn’t lonely every day, just on holidays, especially this holiday when the world just seemed to speed up and pass him by, Maya said she too felt especially lonely during the holidays. They talked for about 20 minutes about his dog, her parents, the weather and how strange and beautiful people can be. Nothing dramatic happened. There was no miracle ending, just two people making space for one another on a cold corner. When they parted ways, Robert said, Thanks for seeing me. Maya said to me later, she said, I didn’t give him much, but I gave him a little space in my heart, and he gave me something too. I felt hopeful and human again. Maya’s unexpected detour, you know, leaving the script of what she had planned that evening, it didn’t fix the world, but it created a little space for love to be born, and sometimes that’s the miracle. So on this Christmas Eve, I ask you, gently, where might you make space for love to be born? Maybe it looks like pausing long enough, just simply to breathe. Maybe making space means softening towards someone you’ve kept at a distance. Maybe it means loosening your grip on a fear or regret that has filled too much of your inner room. Maybe it means allowing yourself to be seen, to receive help, to trust that God can work even in the parts of your life that feel messy or overcrowded or maybe like Wally and Maya, maybe it means simply noticing someone who needs compassion, and choosing to open a door rather than close one, Mary said yes to God without knowing the full plan, she simply created space and everything changed. Christmas is not just what happened once, long ago, it’s what keeps happening. Love keeps showing up. Light keeps breaking in. God keeps choosing to be with us. So on this Christmas Eve, you don’t have to fix your life, you don’t have to feel ready, you don’t have to make sense of everything you’re carrying. All that is asked is this, leave the door unlocked, clear a small corner, make room, even just a sliver for love. To be born again, because the love of Christmas does not arrive with force or fanfare. Love comes quietly. Love comes tenderly. Love Comes looking, not for perfection, but for permission for space, and when we make space, however small it feels, love always finds a way to enter, and the story always becomes more than we imagined. May it be so for you this Christmas, may love find a home in you, and may others find a home in your love. Amen,
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