Sermon Illustrations for Christmas Day (2023)
Illustration
Isaiah 9:2-7
There is a verse of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” that does not always make it into hymnals. I don’t recall ever singing it. The words are:
Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
When this Phillips Brooks’ carol premiered Dec. 27, 1868, at the Episcopal Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia, this verse was sung as the fourth verse. I am not sure why this verse is not sung often. The words point to the blessed child Jesus. The key phrase, as I see it, is “faith holds wide the door.”
The key to celebrating Christmas well, as did Ebenezer Scrooge, is to celebrate that a “child has been born for us, a son given to us…he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace” (vs. 6). That’s what Christmas is all about.
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 9:2-7
This passage is filled with images made familiar through music and lyrics, as well as in art. So much of our time and attention is given to our actions on this holy day to make these words come alive, to give them meaning, to point to Jesus. I’m wondering if we might give more attention to giving life to these words through lighting effects (a gentle darkness giving way to a bright light), sound effects (tramping of warriors, sounds of war, giving way to the birth cries of a child), tableaux featuring the familiar characters of our nativity sets come to life, wordless choirs and occasionally selected words.
You know your worship space, what can be done with sound and light, what your choir, if you have one, is capable of, if there are composers or arrangers in your congregation (or if you are experts in any of these arts), how you can highlight familiar or unfamiliar artwork displayed or projected. This might be a better way to deal with these words which have become so familiar we may be tempted to phone them in, and people may be just as tempted to ignore them just as they ignore unfamiliar — or too familiar — phone numbers that pop up on their cell phones.
Frank R.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
What difference does Christmas make in our everyday lives? It is a bit like winning the lottery the way Geraldine Jones did. Tell her story — a woman born in the projects in a tough neighborhood with a life of shifting back and forth from menial job after menial job. Then she had the fortune of winning her state’s multimillion-dollar lottery! From now on, her income would keep her in the upper class for life. And what did she do with this bounty? After buying a nice home in the suburbs (not as swanky as she could have afforded) and a new car, she took a large percentage of her monthly winnings and donated them to charities serving her old neighborhood.
No longer needing to work for a living, she spent her time volunteering in her old neighborhood. When asked why she was living this way with her new wealth, she simply responded: “I don’t deserve my blessings.”
It is true. We Christians don’t deserve Christmas, what the Christ-child is and will be doing to us. Martin Luther had it right when we once said in a sermon, “What all Christians should do and say with Paul is this: My holiness is plain filth and dung... “ (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.91) The text also teaches, the reformer adds, that without grace no good can be done (Ibid., Vol.3/2, p.138). He then observes that:
We must then shelter ourselves under his [Christ’s] wings and not fly afar in the security of our of our faith... (Ibid., p.129)
Luther does a nice job with reference to the lusts noted in the text (v.12). He claims that the things of the world are God’s good gifts, that it is only lusting after them and craving them that must be denied (Ibid., p.119). His advice is that we can enjoy them, but not give into the temptations they pose:
To live right in the present world, mark you, is like living soberly in a saloon, chastely in a brothel, godly in a gaiety ball, uprightly in a den of murderers. (Ibid., p.129)
Mark E.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
There are days when I wonder why God called me into the ministry. It’s not that I feel ministry is not my vocation. Rather, it is because I fall so often, failing and sinning, and wandering in my own faith and faith practices. This passage from Titus reminds me we are called to repent, to move into lives of piety and forthrightness, of faithfulness and godliness. How often do I fall short of these? How often do I forget that I am called to be a leader in my faith? Titus reminds us, on this Christmas Day, that Jesus was born into the world to redeem us. Redemption is not a one-time thing, thankfully. I need redemption every day. Maybe that is why I am called to ministry — to simply be an example of one who falls and gets back up, redeemed by the life of Jesus.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
I recently enjoyed reading Luke and Acts: Turning the World Upside Down by Christina Bucher and Robert W. Neff (Brethren Press, 2023) because (full disclosure) they are both close friends of mine. (Chris taught Hebrew while we were fellow students, and Bob co-authored eight biblical studies with me.) Revisiting the second chapter of Luke annually at this time of year, I turned to the pages of that book that discuss this scripture for new insights.
With regards to Luke 2:11 they write, “The use of the word ‘Savior’ (Greek soter) is a rare word in the gospels but was commonly used to refer to the emperor.” (p.27) Luke is subtly turning the world upside when he uses one of the emperor’s titles for this infant-king. I checked my copies of Arndt-Gingrich and Moulton-Milligan for the linguistic history of the word and think this is a valid comment.
In Luke 2:14, the angels proclaim that Jesus will bring “peace among those whom he favors!” To quote my friends, “…so the word peace provided by Jesus, the Messiah, is the counter to the idea of the Pax Roman. Jesus the Messiah is the true bringer of peace.”
The world is indeed turned upside down by the birth of Jesus, and it is done in the full light of day (or actually the angelic light at night) in a manner that is totally invisible to the imagined powers of the world.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
One of my favorite Christmas movies is It’s A Wonderful Life. I know that I am not alone in that sentiment. A 2020 survey found It’s A Wonderful Life to be the second favorite among all people groups and first among the baby boomer generation. If you’ve never seen it, the premise of It’s A Wonderful Life is that a young man, George Bailey, stays in the town of Bedford Falls. Even though he dreams of traveling the world, he does the right thing and takes over his father’s business making loans to regular folks to build homes. One Christmas Eve, he runs into some trouble, and he’s worried that he’s going to go to jail because of someone else’s mistake, and he wishes he had never been born. In the last part of the movie, he gets to see what life would have been like if he really had never been born. He sees how his sacrifice has made a difference for so many people.
You may have seen or used this movie as an illustration before. I think, though, it deserves a second look. If that movie had been made today, I’m not sure it would have been about George Bailey changing the world by staying home. He would have gone out and did his own thing, making a name for himself. What we don’t see a lot of today, in the stories that we tell, is the beauty of life lived in sacrifice.
The beauty of life lived in sacrifice. That’s at the heart of celebrating the coming of Jesus. He gave up the splendor and glory of heaven to live a life in sacrifice, ultimately giving his life for sinners. As we celebrate Christmas, let’s not forget the sacrifice of Jesus. “Born to die that man might live. Came to earth new life to give. Born of Mary. Born so low. Many years ago.”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
In the midst of all our plenty at Christmas, how about considering that nearly 3% of us are in poverty, food insecure, with nothing left over for Christmas gifts? Isn’t it interesting that the Christmas story is all about the poor, about poor shepherds (a poor man’s job in first-century Israel) being the first to learn of the glory of God revealed in Jesus, and then how Jesus himself was born into a family with no place to sleep the night of his birth. Martin Luther told the story powerfully and to the point:
There are many of you in this congregation who think to yourselves, “If only I had been there! How quick I would have been to help the baby! I would have washed his linen... Yes, you would. You say that because you know how great Christ is, but had you been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Childish and silly thoughts are these! Why don’t you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need you do to the Lord Christ himself. (The Martin Luther Christmas Book, p.38)
No, we are no better than the people of Bethlehem. And their as well as our behavior is all the more heinous when we consider that according to a 2021 Gallup International poll it seems that those in the lowest income bracket worldwide are 17% more religious than those in the highest.
We need to be reminded that those who are outside the establishment are more likely the people God uses.
Having Christmas in your heart makes it a little easier to start caring about all the flock, about those like the shepherds and like Jesus’ family who are outside our economic circles. As Martin Luther claimed, when we really believe the Christmas story there is no way then that we could ever harm another human being. For since God took on human flesh in Jesus, harming another human being would be to harm and hate someone with a body like God has taken (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.113)!
Mark E.
There is a verse of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” that does not always make it into hymnals. I don’t recall ever singing it. The words are:
Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
When this Phillips Brooks’ carol premiered Dec. 27, 1868, at the Episcopal Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia, this verse was sung as the fourth verse. I am not sure why this verse is not sung often. The words point to the blessed child Jesus. The key phrase, as I see it, is “faith holds wide the door.”
The key to celebrating Christmas well, as did Ebenezer Scrooge, is to celebrate that a “child has been born for us, a son given to us…he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace” (vs. 6). That’s what Christmas is all about.
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 9:2-7
This passage is filled with images made familiar through music and lyrics, as well as in art. So much of our time and attention is given to our actions on this holy day to make these words come alive, to give them meaning, to point to Jesus. I’m wondering if we might give more attention to giving life to these words through lighting effects (a gentle darkness giving way to a bright light), sound effects (tramping of warriors, sounds of war, giving way to the birth cries of a child), tableaux featuring the familiar characters of our nativity sets come to life, wordless choirs and occasionally selected words.
You know your worship space, what can be done with sound and light, what your choir, if you have one, is capable of, if there are composers or arrangers in your congregation (or if you are experts in any of these arts), how you can highlight familiar or unfamiliar artwork displayed or projected. This might be a better way to deal with these words which have become so familiar we may be tempted to phone them in, and people may be just as tempted to ignore them just as they ignore unfamiliar — or too familiar — phone numbers that pop up on their cell phones.
Frank R.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
What difference does Christmas make in our everyday lives? It is a bit like winning the lottery the way Geraldine Jones did. Tell her story — a woman born in the projects in a tough neighborhood with a life of shifting back and forth from menial job after menial job. Then she had the fortune of winning her state’s multimillion-dollar lottery! From now on, her income would keep her in the upper class for life. And what did she do with this bounty? After buying a nice home in the suburbs (not as swanky as she could have afforded) and a new car, she took a large percentage of her monthly winnings and donated them to charities serving her old neighborhood.
No longer needing to work for a living, she spent her time volunteering in her old neighborhood. When asked why she was living this way with her new wealth, she simply responded: “I don’t deserve my blessings.”
It is true. We Christians don’t deserve Christmas, what the Christ-child is and will be doing to us. Martin Luther had it right when we once said in a sermon, “What all Christians should do and say with Paul is this: My holiness is plain filth and dung... “ (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.91) The text also teaches, the reformer adds, that without grace no good can be done (Ibid., Vol.3/2, p.138). He then observes that:
We must then shelter ourselves under his [Christ’s] wings and not fly afar in the security of our of our faith... (Ibid., p.129)
Luther does a nice job with reference to the lusts noted in the text (v.12). He claims that the things of the world are God’s good gifts, that it is only lusting after them and craving them that must be denied (Ibid., p.119). His advice is that we can enjoy them, but not give into the temptations they pose:
To live right in the present world, mark you, is like living soberly in a saloon, chastely in a brothel, godly in a gaiety ball, uprightly in a den of murderers. (Ibid., p.129)
Mark E.
* * *
Titus 2:11-14
There are days when I wonder why God called me into the ministry. It’s not that I feel ministry is not my vocation. Rather, it is because I fall so often, failing and sinning, and wandering in my own faith and faith practices. This passage from Titus reminds me we are called to repent, to move into lives of piety and forthrightness, of faithfulness and godliness. How often do I fall short of these? How often do I forget that I am called to be a leader in my faith? Titus reminds us, on this Christmas Day, that Jesus was born into the world to redeem us. Redemption is not a one-time thing, thankfully. I need redemption every day. Maybe that is why I am called to ministry — to simply be an example of one who falls and gets back up, redeemed by the life of Jesus.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
I recently enjoyed reading Luke and Acts: Turning the World Upside Down by Christina Bucher and Robert W. Neff (Brethren Press, 2023) because (full disclosure) they are both close friends of mine. (Chris taught Hebrew while we were fellow students, and Bob co-authored eight biblical studies with me.) Revisiting the second chapter of Luke annually at this time of year, I turned to the pages of that book that discuss this scripture for new insights.
With regards to Luke 2:11 they write, “The use of the word ‘Savior’ (Greek soter) is a rare word in the gospels but was commonly used to refer to the emperor.” (p.27) Luke is subtly turning the world upside when he uses one of the emperor’s titles for this infant-king. I checked my copies of Arndt-Gingrich and Moulton-Milligan for the linguistic history of the word and think this is a valid comment.
In Luke 2:14, the angels proclaim that Jesus will bring “peace among those whom he favors!” To quote my friends, “…so the word peace provided by Jesus, the Messiah, is the counter to the idea of the Pax Roman. Jesus the Messiah is the true bringer of peace.”
The world is indeed turned upside down by the birth of Jesus, and it is done in the full light of day (or actually the angelic light at night) in a manner that is totally invisible to the imagined powers of the world.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
One of my favorite Christmas movies is It’s A Wonderful Life. I know that I am not alone in that sentiment. A 2020 survey found It’s A Wonderful Life to be the second favorite among all people groups and first among the baby boomer generation. If you’ve never seen it, the premise of It’s A Wonderful Life is that a young man, George Bailey, stays in the town of Bedford Falls. Even though he dreams of traveling the world, he does the right thing and takes over his father’s business making loans to regular folks to build homes. One Christmas Eve, he runs into some trouble, and he’s worried that he’s going to go to jail because of someone else’s mistake, and he wishes he had never been born. In the last part of the movie, he gets to see what life would have been like if he really had never been born. He sees how his sacrifice has made a difference for so many people.
You may have seen or used this movie as an illustration before. I think, though, it deserves a second look. If that movie had been made today, I’m not sure it would have been about George Bailey changing the world by staying home. He would have gone out and did his own thing, making a name for himself. What we don’t see a lot of today, in the stories that we tell, is the beauty of life lived in sacrifice.
The beauty of life lived in sacrifice. That’s at the heart of celebrating the coming of Jesus. He gave up the splendor and glory of heaven to live a life in sacrifice, ultimately giving his life for sinners. As we celebrate Christmas, let’s not forget the sacrifice of Jesus. “Born to die that man might live. Came to earth new life to give. Born of Mary. Born so low. Many years ago.”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
In the midst of all our plenty at Christmas, how about considering that nearly 3% of us are in poverty, food insecure, with nothing left over for Christmas gifts? Isn’t it interesting that the Christmas story is all about the poor, about poor shepherds (a poor man’s job in first-century Israel) being the first to learn of the glory of God revealed in Jesus, and then how Jesus himself was born into a family with no place to sleep the night of his birth. Martin Luther told the story powerfully and to the point:
There are many of you in this congregation who think to yourselves, “If only I had been there! How quick I would have been to help the baby! I would have washed his linen... Yes, you would. You say that because you know how great Christ is, but had you been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Childish and silly thoughts are these! Why don’t you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need you do to the Lord Christ himself. (The Martin Luther Christmas Book, p.38)
No, we are no better than the people of Bethlehem. And their as well as our behavior is all the more heinous when we consider that according to a 2021 Gallup International poll it seems that those in the lowest income bracket worldwide are 17% more religious than those in the highest.
We need to be reminded that those who are outside the establishment are more likely the people God uses.
Having Christmas in your heart makes it a little easier to start caring about all the flock, about those like the shepherds and like Jesus’ family who are outside our economic circles. As Martin Luther claimed, when we really believe the Christmas story there is no way then that we could ever harm another human being. For since God took on human flesh in Jesus, harming another human being would be to harm and hate someone with a body like God has taken (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.113)!
Mark E.
