In a seminar on preaching at Christmas I spoke about the following things to bear in mind about the Christmas story.
- They have heard it all before
Preachers in Advent and at Christmas can be like weary actors treading the boards saying the same well-worn lines for the umpteenth time. For preachers the same well-worn lines come from places like Isaiah 9, the opening chapters of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John.
- They have not heard it all before
Every year as a preacher, and for as long as I can remember, I have prayed the same prayer each Christmas, “Help me to find something fresh in the Christmas story.”
This prayer was inspired by a sermon preached by the late, great apologist Francis Schaeffer. The sermon is entitled What difference did looking make? published in a book of sermons, Ash Heap Lives.
Schaeffer imaginatively reflects on how the shepherds would respond to everyday life after they had been to Bethlehem.
As a preacher at Christmas, I am always seeking to detect a fresh angle on the Christmas story.
This can be accomplished by moving beyond the usual suspects for Christmas texts and exploring the whole biblical story from Genesis through to Revelation. This might include a sermon on the proto-gospel in Genesis 3:15 or the slaying of the dragon in Revelation 12, and so much in-between.
- Don’t make too much of Christmas!
One of the casualties of putting all our evangelistic eggs into the Christmas basket is that we can downplay the rest of the Christmas story. There is a danger that preachers at Christmas can get to Easter too early and fail to exhaust the rich resources of the Incarnation. There is also the danger of expending all our evangelistic energy in the Christmas season so that we have little or nothing to give when we start the New Year.
- Don’t make too little of Christmas.
One of my favourite Christmas texts is 2 Corinthians 9:15 that helpfully captures the wonder of the generous God of Christmas.
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.”
You can never have too much wonder. This is something that C. S. Lewis grasps so well:
“Once in our world a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.” (CS Lewis)
- Remember that the word ‘Christmas’ contains the word ‘Christ’!
Christmas preaching is not a time to lecture people about only turning up at church once a year. Yes, we all want to put Christ back into Christmas, but we need to recognise that the best way to do this is to show people Christ. To show Christ is not merely to speak about him but to dispay the glory and beauty of Christ to our hearers.
I love the way that Augustine manages to do this in his Christmas sermons:
“Christ’s feebleness is our firmness, Christ’s infant inability to talk is our eloquence, Christ’s need is our abundance, because years later Christ’s death became our life. The bread of heaven is lying in a manger.” (Augustine sermon 204A)
People are hungry for reality.
“Bread of heaven, feed us” so that we can be like a beggar telling other beggars where to find bread.
Photo by Phill Brown on Unsplash