Makin' Room in the Inn: Christmas Hospitality Through an African American Experience

By S. Dianna Masters and Henry L. Masters SR.

Makin' Room in the Inn is a four-lesson Advent study that celebrates Christmas traditions and practice through the perspective of an African American family. 

Session titles, scriptures
1. Makin' Room (Luke 2:4-7) cultivating and living out hospitality in a diverse world
2. Makin' Do (Luke 2:21-24) trusting God as compared to trusting in wealth
3. Makin' Up (Matthew 2:19-21) learning the importance of forgiveness and reconnection
4. Makin' Time (Luke 2:15-19) understanding that the most precious gift is presence

This Advent study celebrates the Christmas traditions and spirituality of black people in America, showing how African ethics and theology have a continuing influence.  The study, however, relates to any group who has experienced rural to urban displacement, homecoming, and who strive to practice extended hospitality, especially during the Christmas season. 

This book includes a leader guide with:
1.  An author’s introduction that sets the targeted issue in context.
2.  Questions for the group that help stimulate discussion and their memories of family traditions and experiences of Christmas seasons.
3.  A bibliography of helpful books on African American History, family and Christmas traditions.
4.  More biblical and historical background information on African American Christmas celebrations, nativity art, etc.
5.  Suggested format and time segments for group discussions.
6.  Helpful teaching and learning techniques.

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781426733314

Book preview

Makin' Room in the Inn

An Advent Study

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Christmas Hospitality Through an

African American Experience

An Advent Study

Henry L. Masters, Sr.

Abingdon Press / Nashville

MAKIN' ROOM IN THE INN

CHRISTMAS HOSPITALITY THROUGH AN AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Copyright © 2010 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801, or e-mailed to [e-mail].

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Masters, Henry L.

Makin' room in the inn : Christmas hospitality through an African American experience / Henry L. Masters, Sr.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4267-0371-3 (curriculm—printed/text plus-cover, adhesive -perfect binding : alk. paper)

1. Advent. 2. African American families—Religious life. 3. Hospitality—Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title. II. Title: Making room in the inn.

BV40.M385 2010

242'.33208996073--dc22

2010019672

Scriptures marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

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Introduction

Discipline One: Makin' Room

Discipline Two: Makin' Do

Discipline Three: Makin' Up

Discipline Four: Makin' Time

Conclusion

Leader Guide by S. Dianna Masters

Introduction

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Sweet little Jesus boy, they made you be born in a manger.

Sweet little holy child, we didn't know who you were.

Didn't know you'd come to save us to take our sins away.

Our eyes was blind, we could not see. We didn't know who you were.

Long time ago, you were born.

Born in a manger bare, sweet little Jesus boy.

They treat you mean, Lord. Treat me mean, too.

But that's the way it is down here.

We didn't know who you were.

––African American Spiritual

Hospitality finds its deepest and most joyful expression during the Christmas season. I remember distinctly one Christmas when all my relatives had come and we were preparing a good oldfashioned Grandma meal. My grandmother, who had gone outside to respond to some intruder, came walking back in the house accompanied by a man wearing an old, tattered shirt. The man was also not African American; he was white! Everything stopped at the sight of it all. Grandma broke the silence. She said, This man is hungry and we are all about to eat. Together! My grandmother's action demonstrated the gift of hospitality. Hospitality was and is a spiritual gift from God. It was expressed in countless ways by members of my family and in the community in which I grew up. We were always making room for someone.

How different it was for Joseph and Mary, who were told that there was no room in the inn (Luke 2:7). Yet, after their baby was born, Joseph was warned in a dream to take his wife and child and flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13). It was to this land and its people that Joseph and Mary escaped with their new child, Jesus. They found refuge in a society where hospitality was not only offered, but exists as the ethical concept of ubuntu (sometimes called ubantu): community sharing in which we all have being and meaning because of and for others. They arrived in an African village (Egypt is in Africa) that offered to the Holy Family what my grandmother offered to the stranger that day, the gift of hospitality. The ancient wisdom of Egypt encouraged generosity and the understanding that bread must be shared. Given refuge in an environment that believed it takes a village to raise a child, Mary and Joseph found warmth and safety from the ruthlessness and monarchical envy of Herod. Here, the baby Jesus would spend his formative years; he would be shaped and prepared for life by this African experience of hospitality.

Down through the centuries, the practice of hospitality has become the cornerstone of existence throughout the African Diaspora. It has been cultivated through the exercise of particular disciplines even in the cruelest of times. It has been nurtured by Africa's children in the womb of racism, the indecency of colonialism, the caldron of slavery, the nexus of segregation, and the insidious classroom of discrimination. The memory of and common experience with a sweet little Jesus boy, who was treated mean, who we didn't know who he was, is indelibly etched into the psyche of the black soul. And while all believers everywhere practice a magnified hospitality during the Christmas season, black folk, many of whom continue to operate on the margins of the socioeconomic radar, seeking inclusion and room in the inn, tend to be kinder and happier at Christmas than any other time of the year––even when they're broke and out of