Sermon Illustrations for Christmas Day (2020)
Illustration
Isaiah 9:2-7
This is lesson about Christ breaking the oppressor’s rod (vv.4-6). This year has taught us a great deal about racial oppression and the oppression of the poor by the rich. Consider how big businesses were helped more than small businesses. More than half of Black adults were out of work during the height of the pandemic. That observation just scratches the surface of inequality. A 2019 Yale University study found that Black households hold one-tenth of the wealth of the average white household. In July, “The New York Times” Magazine reported that African Americans are the only ethnic group in America whose household income is less than it was in 2000.
What does the Christmas theme foretold in this lesson have to do with these injustices? Martin Luther had it right when he said this passage is about “God as the God of none but the lowly, the oppressed...” (Luther’s Works, Vol.16, p.102). Christmas is about the God of the oppressed. Sure, Christmas is about “peace on earth,” but consider the words of controversial modern Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan, who claimed that you don’t get that peace without justice:
The ... challenge of Christmas is this: justice is what happens when all receive a fair share of God's world and only such distributive justice can establish peace on earth.
Preaching in 1967 on Christmas, Martin Luther King Jr. said much the same:
If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.
There is no peace on earth if our nation remains plagued by all its racial injustices. Christmas is all about being empowered to overcome all the oppression, as we are lifted on Christ’s shoulders, set free from all evils, bad habits, and injustices that have bound us. Commenting on this lesson, Martin Luther wrote about the real meaning of Christmas:
What the Prophet Isaiah saw and wished to emphasize by these words is that the Christian Church [and American society] rests on Christ’s shoulder and that a real Christian and true member of the Church believes that he is carried on Christ’s Shoulder... (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, pp.226-227)
Luther put it another way in a Christmas sermon. He claimed that if we could believe the Christmas story, we could never harm another human being:
God is become man, would it be a wonder if we no longer were enemies with any man and surrendered our lives for each other? The fact is you could not even hate or harm anyone in effigy who has body and soul like your God and mine. (Complete Sermons, Vol;.5, p.113)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 9:2-7
Into the world a light has come. Darkness is pierced by the light. I remember camping as a child and the darkness in the woods, at a campsite. The dark seemed impenetrable. Yet, the smallest of flashlights would brighten the space around me and travel far into the forest. Christmas is like that for me. Even if, in this pandemic year, we cannot celebrate in the ways we usually do, the light comes. The darkness is dispelled. Maybe I will take a flashlight or a candle into the dark and remind myself that God’s light and love pierces even the darkest of nights and hearts. That is way to celebrate and remember that night so long ago who God was birthed into the world as a babe laid in a manger.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
Jeff Westover shares the story about the origin of the Christmas song, “Sweet Baby Jesus Boy” in an August 2017 article entitled, “What You Do Not Know About Sweet Little Jesus Boy.” Robert MacGimsey, the author of the song, was born in Louisiana and primarily raised by his African American nanny. While he was a boy, she sang him spirituals and he learned them well.
In 1932, MacGimsey attended a Christmas Eve service in New York City. Walking back to his one-room apartment, he passed by the open doors of private clubs where people were partying. None of them seemed to realize that it was Christmas Eve, and if they did, they didn’t seem to care. He stepped over people who had passed out on the sidewalk and thought, “What a strange way to celebrate the birth of the most perfect person who ever lived on this earth. These people are missing the whole significance of his life.”
When he finally arrived home, he scribbled some thoughts on the back of an envelope. The words he wrote that Christmas Eve became the basis of the popular spiritual:
Sweet little Jesus Boy, they made you be born in a manger.
Sweet little holy Child didn’t know who you was.
Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord, to take our sins away.
Our eyes was blind, we couldn’t see, we didn’t know who you was.
Will people today know who he is? Will they recognize what Christmas is all about?
Bill T.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
It’s hard to imagine that anyone is going to make this passage from Paul’s letter to Titus their primary scripture Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but what if you did?
Paul is addressing a hierarchical society in terms that might make us uncomfortable. There is an underlying assumption that nothing can be done to change the status of slaves.
In a hierarchical society, Paul makes an audacious statement. God’s saving grace is made available to all, to all classes of society, to all people of every economic status. The Aeneid of Virgil, written a few decades before, was seen as a scripture by many in the Roman Empire. In chronicling the journey of Aeneas, from the destruction of Troy to founding of the Roman state, one sees that the gods have ordained Rome to be the center of the world. When Aeneas descends to the underworld, the abode of the dead, he finds a gray cheerless place, where, regardless of merit, all humans share the same shadowy fate -- except for the privileged few who were also the privileged in life. They dwell in the bright Elysian Fields, a heaven of sorts only available to those who also had special status on earth. But Paul asserts that all humanity is eligible to receive the grace of God. We are instructed about the three stages that make us part of God’s family.
Rejection of ungodliness and worldly motivations.
Living a godly life.
Waiting with anticipation for the blessed hope of Jesus Christ.
Even at its most secular, we find these things in Christmas. And no matter how much we mask it, at its core we seek and find the infant king we have prepared our hearts and minds for.
PS: Just in case you get it in your head you really want to preach this text Christmas Eve, here’s some background on Crete and Paul’s disparaging remark on Cretans in Titus 1:12-13 – “It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, ‘Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.’ That testimony is true.”
Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. It was also home to a civilization that was ancient by Paul’s era. Rediscovered in the twentieth century, it possessed grand architecture, impressive art, its own literature still undeciphered, and a vast trade network. Some think the ancient stories of Atlantis are based on the civilization of Crete.
But people look down on other civilizations. The Romans looked down on Celtic civilization because they were an oral culture. They did not write books. But their science was advanced. They invented colorful dyes, cured hams, and their eye salves probably saved Paul’s eyesight when he traveled to Galatia.
Greeks looked down on non-Greek speakers as “barbarians,” a word that comes from the fact that Greeks though all other languages were just sounds, bar, bar, bar.
In our own day, European Americans denigrated Native Americans as savages, semi-human, when a thousand years ago the ancestral puebloan civilization of the southwest constructed buildings larger than anything built in Europe for the late 19th century.
And during the 20th Century, China was derided as backwards until Joseph Needham taught himself Chinese and then, during World War II discovered that long before the west invented just about everything, the Chinese were there first!
As for the quote from the poet Cretan poet Epimenides, almost nothing survives of this ancient author, but it is quite likely that this quote is not describing the people of Crete. It might well have been spoken by a character in a story who was an enemy of Crete.
One reason Cretans were considered liars is that they had a tomb to Zeus. Zeus, the god of lightning who supposedly lived on Mount Olympus and had the morals of an alley cat, was revered by Greeks and Romans as the chief god. Creating a tomb to someone’s god is saying your god is dead. In this passage, Paul talks about empty myths. Zeus was one such empty myth that the Cretans wanted no part of.
And while we might enjoy the Iliad and the Aeneid, we don’t worship Zeus or Jupiter (the Greek and Roman versions of that god’s name). We worship the Prince of Peace, infant king, who we celebrate in this season.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14
I remember the birth of my son, now 44 years ago, with clarity. I remember the labor pains, the directions to push, the first sight of this not-so-little babe placed in my arms. I remember the joy and the immediate joy and love that pierced my heart. I was forever changed by that moment. This night, I think about Mary, birthing the babe, likely in pain, feeling a little confused and afraid. I think too about the joy and love that pierced her heart as the child was placed in her arms. This is a love for all the ages, a love that never dies. A love to be celebrated forever, to be remembered forever. This love is shared among the heavens, among the shepherds, among all who gather in Bethlehem. This love never leaves, is never forgotten. In the same way, God’s love for us never leaves and is never forgotten, for we are the babes born into God’s family.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
A 2017 poll conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 38% of Americans said their stress level increased during the holiday season. The Christmas story offers some significant remedies. Commenting on the Christmas story John Calvin noted:
When men hear this single Word [the mercy of God], that God is reconciled to them, it not only raises up those who have fallen down but restores who were ruined and recalls them from death to life. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVI/1, p.115)
He continues to add that, “this blessing is so great and boundless, as fully to compensate for all the pains, distresses, and anxieties of the present life.” (Ibid.)
Preaching on Christmas one year, Martin Luther expresses similar sentiments about the significance of the holiday for living every day:
If Christ has now thus become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through him... it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. (Complete Sermons, Vol.I/1, p145)
Mark E.
This is lesson about Christ breaking the oppressor’s rod (vv.4-6). This year has taught us a great deal about racial oppression and the oppression of the poor by the rich. Consider how big businesses were helped more than small businesses. More than half of Black adults were out of work during the height of the pandemic. That observation just scratches the surface of inequality. A 2019 Yale University study found that Black households hold one-tenth of the wealth of the average white household. In July, “The New York Times” Magazine reported that African Americans are the only ethnic group in America whose household income is less than it was in 2000.
What does the Christmas theme foretold in this lesson have to do with these injustices? Martin Luther had it right when he said this passage is about “God as the God of none but the lowly, the oppressed...” (Luther’s Works, Vol.16, p.102). Christmas is about the God of the oppressed. Sure, Christmas is about “peace on earth,” but consider the words of controversial modern Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan, who claimed that you don’t get that peace without justice:
The ... challenge of Christmas is this: justice is what happens when all receive a fair share of God's world and only such distributive justice can establish peace on earth.
Preaching in 1967 on Christmas, Martin Luther King Jr. said much the same:
If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.
There is no peace on earth if our nation remains plagued by all its racial injustices. Christmas is all about being empowered to overcome all the oppression, as we are lifted on Christ’s shoulders, set free from all evils, bad habits, and injustices that have bound us. Commenting on this lesson, Martin Luther wrote about the real meaning of Christmas:
What the Prophet Isaiah saw and wished to emphasize by these words is that the Christian Church [and American society] rests on Christ’s shoulder and that a real Christian and true member of the Church believes that he is carried on Christ’s Shoulder... (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, pp.226-227)
Luther put it another way in a Christmas sermon. He claimed that if we could believe the Christmas story, we could never harm another human being:
God is become man, would it be a wonder if we no longer were enemies with any man and surrendered our lives for each other? The fact is you could not even hate or harm anyone in effigy who has body and soul like your God and mine. (Complete Sermons, Vol;.5, p.113)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 9:2-7
Into the world a light has come. Darkness is pierced by the light. I remember camping as a child and the darkness in the woods, at a campsite. The dark seemed impenetrable. Yet, the smallest of flashlights would brighten the space around me and travel far into the forest. Christmas is like that for me. Even if, in this pandemic year, we cannot celebrate in the ways we usually do, the light comes. The darkness is dispelled. Maybe I will take a flashlight or a candle into the dark and remind myself that God’s light and love pierces even the darkest of nights and hearts. That is way to celebrate and remember that night so long ago who God was birthed into the world as a babe laid in a manger.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
Jeff Westover shares the story about the origin of the Christmas song, “Sweet Baby Jesus Boy” in an August 2017 article entitled, “What You Do Not Know About Sweet Little Jesus Boy.” Robert MacGimsey, the author of the song, was born in Louisiana and primarily raised by his African American nanny. While he was a boy, she sang him spirituals and he learned them well.
In 1932, MacGimsey attended a Christmas Eve service in New York City. Walking back to his one-room apartment, he passed by the open doors of private clubs where people were partying. None of them seemed to realize that it was Christmas Eve, and if they did, they didn’t seem to care. He stepped over people who had passed out on the sidewalk and thought, “What a strange way to celebrate the birth of the most perfect person who ever lived on this earth. These people are missing the whole significance of his life.”
When he finally arrived home, he scribbled some thoughts on the back of an envelope. The words he wrote that Christmas Eve became the basis of the popular spiritual:
Sweet little Jesus Boy, they made you be born in a manger.
Sweet little holy Child didn’t know who you was.
Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord, to take our sins away.
Our eyes was blind, we couldn’t see, we didn’t know who you was.
Will people today know who he is? Will they recognize what Christmas is all about?
Bill T.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
It’s hard to imagine that anyone is going to make this passage from Paul’s letter to Titus their primary scripture Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but what if you did?
Paul is addressing a hierarchical society in terms that might make us uncomfortable. There is an underlying assumption that nothing can be done to change the status of slaves.
In a hierarchical society, Paul makes an audacious statement. God’s saving grace is made available to all, to all classes of society, to all people of every economic status. The Aeneid of Virgil, written a few decades before, was seen as a scripture by many in the Roman Empire. In chronicling the journey of Aeneas, from the destruction of Troy to founding of the Roman state, one sees that the gods have ordained Rome to be the center of the world. When Aeneas descends to the underworld, the abode of the dead, he finds a gray cheerless place, where, regardless of merit, all humans share the same shadowy fate -- except for the privileged few who were also the privileged in life. They dwell in the bright Elysian Fields, a heaven of sorts only available to those who also had special status on earth. But Paul asserts that all humanity is eligible to receive the grace of God. We are instructed about the three stages that make us part of God’s family.
Rejection of ungodliness and worldly motivations.
Living a godly life.
Waiting with anticipation for the blessed hope of Jesus Christ.
Even at its most secular, we find these things in Christmas. And no matter how much we mask it, at its core we seek and find the infant king we have prepared our hearts and minds for.
PS: Just in case you get it in your head you really want to preach this text Christmas Eve, here’s some background on Crete and Paul’s disparaging remark on Cretans in Titus 1:12-13 – “It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, ‘Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.’ That testimony is true.”
Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. It was also home to a civilization that was ancient by Paul’s era. Rediscovered in the twentieth century, it possessed grand architecture, impressive art, its own literature still undeciphered, and a vast trade network. Some think the ancient stories of Atlantis are based on the civilization of Crete.
But people look down on other civilizations. The Romans looked down on Celtic civilization because they were an oral culture. They did not write books. But their science was advanced. They invented colorful dyes, cured hams, and their eye salves probably saved Paul’s eyesight when he traveled to Galatia.
Greeks looked down on non-Greek speakers as “barbarians,” a word that comes from the fact that Greeks though all other languages were just sounds, bar, bar, bar.
In our own day, European Americans denigrated Native Americans as savages, semi-human, when a thousand years ago the ancestral puebloan civilization of the southwest constructed buildings larger than anything built in Europe for the late 19th century.
And during the 20th Century, China was derided as backwards until Joseph Needham taught himself Chinese and then, during World War II discovered that long before the west invented just about everything, the Chinese were there first!
As for the quote from the poet Cretan poet Epimenides, almost nothing survives of this ancient author, but it is quite likely that this quote is not describing the people of Crete. It might well have been spoken by a character in a story who was an enemy of Crete.
One reason Cretans were considered liars is that they had a tomb to Zeus. Zeus, the god of lightning who supposedly lived on Mount Olympus and had the morals of an alley cat, was revered by Greeks and Romans as the chief god. Creating a tomb to someone’s god is saying your god is dead. In this passage, Paul talks about empty myths. Zeus was one such empty myth that the Cretans wanted no part of.
And while we might enjoy the Iliad and the Aeneid, we don’t worship Zeus or Jupiter (the Greek and Roman versions of that god’s name). We worship the Prince of Peace, infant king, who we celebrate in this season.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14
I remember the birth of my son, now 44 years ago, with clarity. I remember the labor pains, the directions to push, the first sight of this not-so-little babe placed in my arms. I remember the joy and the immediate joy and love that pierced my heart. I was forever changed by that moment. This night, I think about Mary, birthing the babe, likely in pain, feeling a little confused and afraid. I think too about the joy and love that pierced her heart as the child was placed in her arms. This is a love for all the ages, a love that never dies. A love to be celebrated forever, to be remembered forever. This love is shared among the heavens, among the shepherds, among all who gather in Bethlehem. This love never leaves, is never forgotten. In the same way, God’s love for us never leaves and is never forgotten, for we are the babes born into God’s family.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
A 2017 poll conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 38% of Americans said their stress level increased during the holiday season. The Christmas story offers some significant remedies. Commenting on the Christmas story John Calvin noted:
When men hear this single Word [the mercy of God], that God is reconciled to them, it not only raises up those who have fallen down but restores who were ruined and recalls them from death to life. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVI/1, p.115)
He continues to add that, “this blessing is so great and boundless, as fully to compensate for all the pains, distresses, and anxieties of the present life.” (Ibid.)
Preaching on Christmas one year, Martin Luther expresses similar sentiments about the significance of the holiday for living every day:
If Christ has now thus become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through him... it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. (Complete Sermons, Vol.I/1, p145)
Mark E.
