Nor room at the inn - an all-age Nativity Service

Nativity Service for 16^th December – Café style

People sat around tables decorated for Christmas and we imagined we were in an inn.

Welcome to the Inn …

[get children sitting on different tables in groups – angels, Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men,  Herod and the soldiers.]

It’s great to come together and share in something of a party.  It’s what you do at this time of the year – fun and games, crackers to pull, party hats to wear.  Things to make and fun to share.  Presents to sort out, cards to write.  So much to do at Christmas.

Things to do on the tables – a few of our youngsters are going round to take names of people who are here.

Parties and Pantomimes, Santa Claus too.  All those presents – great time.  The fun, the partying.  And all sorts of songs – carols are dances to go with the partying –

Maybe some non-religious carol like The Twelve Days of Christmas

[As I am talking there are three interruptions

1. Someone knocking on the window, someone goes to find out what’s happening – and interrupts me with a whisper: it's a young couple apparently and I suggest sending them round to the back
2. A second interruption – one of our congregation who lives on a farm has arrived in wellies with a bundle of hay saying there are lots of others outside - they too are sent round the back.
3. A third interruption – maybe on the mobile phone - there’s a delivery, three parcels – they are going to get sent back – can we take them in?  Send them round the back! Someone will sign for them there.

Reading of Poem – Mary’s Shopping list – read by two women’s voices - the one voice is in today's world overwhelmed by the busy-ness of getting ready for all the trivia of Chrsitmas.  The other voice is Mary's anxious about the expected arrival of her little one.

Leader

A reminder of how different it was then.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

No room in the inn – packed full because something was going on.  It wasn’t the happiest of things that was happening.  The Romans had taken control of Galilee and of Judea – they placed a cruel, local ruler in charge – his name was Herod.  Herod the Great.

They forced people to return to their home town … so that they could be listed.  And so it was that masses of people

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. 

People had crowded into the little town of Bethlehem and stayed wherever they could.

Imagine what it would have been like – crowding into every nook and cranny.  What would it be like if people were herding us together … and then counting us up – it’s one thing having polite young people taking our names.  Imagine what it would have been like … forced to give your names, your personal details, so that the Roman state could take control of your lives.

Sheltering, frightened, not sure of what is going to happen next.  Conscious of a big, old nasty world out there.  Held captive.  Lonely,  feeling as if they weren’t in control, in exile all over again.  Faced with a tyranny.  It felt as if they were plumbing the depths of hell.  It’s  along night.

Yet something is stirring, something is moving, something is happening to change things, to change the world – it’s as if the words of the prophets of old were taking hold …

Isaiah

The people who walked in darkness
   have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
   on them light has shined. 

For a child has been born for us,
   a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
   and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
His authority shall grow continually,
   and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
   He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
   from this time onwards and for evermore.

Carol:  66 O come, O come Emmanuel

Mary came from up in the North, in Galilee – in the village of Nazareth.  There it was that she had sensed it first, the presence of someone there, speaking to her.

[Mary comes to the front – and the angel too …]

Narrator 1

God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a young woman engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the young woman’s name, Mary.

On entering, Gabriel greeted her:

Gabriel

Greetings!
You’re beautiful – with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.

Narrator

She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her,

Gabriel

 “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

He will be great,
   and will be called ‘Son of the Highest.’
The Lord God will give him
    the throne of his father David;
He will rule Jacob’s house forever—
    there will be no end, ever, to his kingdom.”

Narrator

Mary said to the angel,

Mary

“But how can this be?

Narrator

³⁵ The angel answered,

Gabriel

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
    the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
    will be called Holy, Son of God.

Narrator

Mary was overjoyed at the wonderful news and couldn’t keep it to herself.  She knew something was happening, something that would change everything.

Mary

I’m bursting with God’s great, good news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Saviour God.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the proud and the boastful.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.

he remembered his people and piled on the mercies, piled them high.

Leader

Everything was ready.  Joseph was ready too.  And then the news came – it shocked them to the core.

Narrator

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

^6-7 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.

[As this reading is being read Mary and Joseph make their journey around the church … and they go out of the door towards the back of the church.]

Leader

What would it have been like? – arriving in Bethlehem to find there was no room – the anxiety, the fear, mounting deep within their hearts.  And then somewhere – not in the warm where everyone was …  but out in the back, out in the cold.

Carol:  Away in a manger

[During carol Mary and Joseph slip back in and return to their table]

Leader

Generous of someone to find that place in the back, out in the cold.  But not quite so generous of the people who had somewhere comfortable, thank you very much.  The inns were full, packed.  And no one wanted to give up their place.

The night was drawing on, darkness had long since fallen.  It was cold outside.  But there was a disturbance.  The comfortable inn was not going to be left alone.

They were rough and ready – they had come down from the hills.  And they had a strange story to tell.

[go over to the Shepherds’ table – and get the shepherds together – and the angels table too – acting out the story as it is read]

Narrator

There were shepherds sleeping rough out in the fields.  They had set a night watch over their sheep.

Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them.

They were terrified. The angel said,

Gabriel

“Don’t be afraid. I’ve got good news for you.  I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Saviour has just been born in David’s town, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord, the Messiah and the Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”

Narrator

^13-14 At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:

Angels

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

^15-18 As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the shepherds talked it over.

Shepherd

“Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.”

Leader

They left, running at full speed.

Was that the disturbance those folk in the inn felt?  What were all these others doing and so late too.

They too went out to the back – [shepherds go out to the back]

 and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger

Carol:  94 While shepherds watched their flocks by night

[during carol shepherds slip back in and go to their table]

Leader

What did the authorities make of it all?  Did they share the delight, the joy.  Or were they unsettled by it all?

Herod and the soldiers were in the palace Herod had built.   Their power was impregnable.  Or was it?

Were the crowds still there?  Were they troubled by the threat the soldiers posed?  Far in the east there were Kings – were they?  Wise Men?  Maybe.  Magi?  Strange word.  Maybe they were scholars, people who studied the skies, and studied the world and its ways.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.”

You would have thought this would be exciting.  A wonderful message.  Something to rejoice at.

It was actually happening.

One set of people were not amused.  This was a threat to the Roman puppet king, to Herod.  It was a threat that filled him with fear.

Narrator

^3-4 When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified—and not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well.

The people of that city knew that if Herod felt threatened, they all had good cause to be frightened.

 Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religion scholars in the city together and asked,

Herod

 “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

^5-6 They told him,

Wise Man 1

 “Bethlehem, Judah territory. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:

Wise Man 2

It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land,
    no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader
    who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”

Narrator

^7-8 Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East.

He had formed a plot.  He had a secret plan.

Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said,

Herod

 “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.”

^9-10 Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!

¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.

[The Wise Men go out the back]

Leader introduces …

Carol:  See him lying on a bed of straw

Leader

During the carol we build up a tableau on the platform of everyone taking part, finishing with the Wise Men who come from the back]

That’s something worth celebrating – great ending to the story.

The shepherds went back singing praises to God and telling everyone all they had seen.

Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the shepherds were amazed.

Narrator

^19-20 Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The shepherds returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!

[The shepherds return to their places.  And the angels too]

Narrator

Those scholars, however, knew that something was not right … they were fearful of Herod the Great and of those soldiers of his.  Rightly so.

In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.

[The Wise Men return to their places]

Narrator

That left Mary and Joseph … they too were fearful of what would happen next.

After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded,

Gabriel

 “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”

Narrator

^14-15 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.”

[Mary and Joseph and the Christ child return to their places]

Leader

It was still a dark world.  When Herod realized he had been tricked he was incensed.  It was a devastating time in that small place.

And the Christ child grew

He lived a life of love and mapped out a life for all to live

With love for God and love for neighbour and love for enemy too

He brought healing into a hurting world.

He did not escape the suffering of the world.

He opened up a way through the suffering of the world

Into the glory of God’s eternal love

2000 years on as we meet together here it’s good to party, but it’s good to remember the ones who interrupt our partying.  Not to forget them.

Who is it knocking on our windows?

Who is it with muck on their shoes because they have been in the muckiness of the world? 

Who has gifts to share?

Could it be the children in Kerala state that we are going to be supporting in our Christmas Collection finding a home for someone who is homeless?

Maybe it’s someone closer to home? – someone supported by CCP’s foodshare programme and someone in need of our help too.

What gifts are we going to share 2000 years on? – What charities are we individually going to support this Christmas?  What are those more personal gifts each of us has that we could use for God and for other people in 2013?

Is God Himself knocking on your door to interrupt your life and come closer to you?

Carol:  We’re told he was born at a Bethlehem Inn

Prayer – Leader and Offering

Carol: 600 in the bleak mid winter

Blessing