This story as sermon (storyteller only version as well as the Christmas Pageant version) begins with The Innkeeper’s Long Night that sets up the reconnection with Jesus 30 years later in The Innkeeper’s Witness and reminds all that the best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is to never forget the presence of Christ delivered on The Fourth Sunday of Advent (4AdventA) by The Rev. Dr. William Carl Thomas at Christ Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City NC, December 21, 2025.

This story as sermon revolves around a character who does not exist in Holy Scripture (the innkeeper) and conflates the birth narrative of Jesus as found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Much as Henry van Dyke’s 1895 story The Other Wiseman created a fourth wiseman (we assume three because of three gifts), this pageant presents a living tableau of the birth narrative with Father Bill acting the part of the innkeeper as Christ Church presents a pageant inspired by the story Jesus’ Birthday Party by Nicholas Allan (adapted by Fr. Bill as The Innkeeper’s Long Night) and an original story, The Innkeeper’s Witness by The Rev. Dr. William Carl Thomas.

NOTE: I must have been really tired, as tired as the young innkeeper in my story, as I placed his inn in Jerusalem and not Bethlehem.

Storyteller Version

Christmas Pageant Version