First Sunday after Christmas
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
The liturgical function of this Sunday is that, practically, it becomes a kind of Octave of Christmas. As the first Sunday in the twelve days of the Christmas season, it continues the celebration of Jesus' incarnation with more of the details of the Christmas story, and encourages the church to worship the Messiah who has come in the name of the Lord. The homiletical clue, from the very nature of the Sunday's purpose and readings, is to tell the story more completely and with more depth, so that it will be clear to the church that God broke into the world to save his people at any cost. What he has begun in Jesus' birth will be completed according to plan, for he is the God and Father of all.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - A reworked collect that highlights the incarnation in the context of the birth of Jesus Christ, expanding the scope of the incarnation by observing how God "wonderfully created and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature" in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. The petition asks, "In your mercy, let us share the divine life of Jesus Christ who came to share our humanity." This means, in the light of the full Gospel, that the effect of the Fall has been reversed; human beings no longer are at the mercy of Satan because their status has been restored to the level of full communion with God. The petition is a fitting response to the fuller meaning of incarnation as encompassing the totality of Jesus' life from his birth to his ascension, as well as his continuing incarnation through the Word and Holy Spirit.
The Psalm for the Day - Psalm 111 - A song of thanksgiving for all of the wonderful works that the Lord God has done; "He makes his marvelous works to be remembered." Among these unforgettable actions of God is, of course, the birth of Jesus, which is being remembered and celebrated; "He sent redemption to his people; he commanded his covenant forever; holy and awesome is his name." This collect is also a way of reminding the church that the Christmas celebration continues for twelve days, the Christmas Season; it concludes with the Epiphany, the Twelfth Night of the joyful festivities generated by the nativity of Christ. Subsequently, as the last verse proclaims, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding. His praise endures forever."
The Psalm Prayer
Merciful and gentle Lord, the crowning glory of all the saints, give us, your children, the gift of obedience, which is the beginning of wisdom, so that we may befilled with your mercy and that what you command we may do by the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The readings:
Isaiah 63:7-9
This word from a "later Isaiah" is tailor-made for the First Sunday after Christmas, praising God for "all that the Lord has granted us (in Jesus' incarnation, the church implies), and the great goodness to the house of Israel." The Lord "claims" those he has made in his image as his people, affirming that he (the Messiah) "became their Savior." Jesus entered into all levels of human experience, suffering as all humans suffer, yet redeeming humanity through his affliction, rather than withdrawing from the pain and anguish that had to be his in his efforts to loose people from sin, death, and the strangle-hold that Satan has had on humans and their destiny. Isaiah puts it so beautifully:
The angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them (obviously not in his birth, but in his life, death, and resurrection); he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Theologically, this text makes a kerygmatic connection with the incarnation event, preparing people for the Galatians reading and Matthew's story about the flight to Egypt.
Galatians 4:4-7
This pericope offers an "amen" to the reading from Isaiah, bringing the Old Testament perspective into the sharp focus of the gospel of Jesus Christ:
When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Paul reminds us that the birth of Christ assures us that we have been freed from the bondage we have been in and are empowered through the Holy Spirit to join Jesus in addressing God as he did, "Abba! Father!" Because he has set us free from all that has enslaved us, he has claimed us as his children and made us inheritors of the kingdom through Jesus Christ. Jesus and the kingdom are the gifts that God gives us at Christmas. In this reading, therefore, is the reminder that we are continuing the Christmas celebration this day.
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
Matthew is the only one of the four gospel writers to include this lovely, but terrible and puzzling, tale that finds its origin and impetus in another dream that Joseph had and another message delivered to him by an angelic visitor. When the whole story is told (including verses 16-18, which briefly sketch out the gory details of Herod's slaughter of the male children in Bethlehem), it takes on a paradoxical character; God saves his son but, at the same time, allows innocent children to die. If Matthew's purpose were merely to show how Old Testament prophecies found completion in Jesus' incarnation, why didn't he omit this part of the story? Surely, he didn't need to make this connection with the Old Testament reference (Exodus 1:16, 22) to Pharoah's command to the midwives, "throw all the boys born to the Hebrews into the river, but let the girls live." Herod's command to kill all the boy babies under two years of age is a continuation of the Epiphany story when the Wise Men from the East were warned in a dream to avoid Herod on their return journey because he wanted to kill Jesus. Since Matthew was telling this story to a largely-Jewish congregation, it had to stand on historical facts, which attested to the fulfillment of scripture in the early life of Jesus Christ.
Theologically, the dreams of the Wise Men and Joseph, together with the visits by the angels, are indications that God was at work in all that happened when Jesus was born, and that the plan he had put into action would succeed, no matter what forces were arrayed against him. It can be argued that the seeming paradox of Jesus' escape and the death of the boys in Bethlehem is a sign of the kind of trouble that his presence arouses in the world. It is also an indication of the manner in which God will use the death of other innocent persons to accomplish his purposes in the world, just as his plan calls for the sacrifice of the innocent one, his Son, to die to save all of the world. This part of the story declares, when Jesus comes into the world, that God's intentions will be accomplished, no matter what may happen.
A sermon on the Gospel, Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 - "Refugee Family."
It is always the First Sunday after Christmas, Year A, in our living room. A painting hangs on the north wall of the room, done in batik by a Chinese artist who escaped from mainland China to Taiwan; it tells the Epiphany story. A walled Chinese city forms the background, the landscape is bare and sparse, and the trees have no leaves; it is a stark winter scene. Two figures, one a woman on a donkey, are traveling away from the city; they look like Mary and Joseph - and the child the woman seems to be holding in her arms - as they flee the environs of Bethlehem and Jerusalem to take refuge from Herod in Egypt - is, for us, the baby Jesus. Whether or not this was the intent of the artist, I do not know; it might be a rendition of his own escape from a city in China, his way of telling part of the story of becoming a refugee. But I do know that everyone who sees it is immediately reminded of the familiar biblical story of the "Flight to Egypt." The painting tells the beginning of the story; it does not, cannot, of course, tell the whole story that Matthew relates.
1. The birth and early life of Jesus were surrounded by as much intrigue and tragedy as was the culmination of his life when he was plotted against, betrayed, put on trial for his life, and executed. Wise men, who followed a star to Bethlehem were innocently involved in the plot to kill the baby Jesus by Herod. The very life of Jesus was put in jeopardy by a puppet-king who believed that Christ was a threat to his throne; he ordered the death of all young boys in Jerusalem, hoping to kill Jesus in the process.
2. God took a hand in all of this; he would not, could not, allow his plan for delivering and saving his people to be overturned. He warned the Magi, through a divine visit to them as they dreamed in Bethlehem after they had found the Christ child, to return to their homeland by a different route to avoid Herod. He warned Joseph in another dream that Jesus' life was in danger, and to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, where - as refugees - they would be safe. He visited Joseph in another dream and told him that it was safe to return to their homeland, guiding him to settle in the town of Nazareth. That's where Jesus was reared as a faithful Jew, the son of Mary and Joseph.
3. God, you see, was the real "star" of the show, the central figure in the story - not the star in the sky that the Wise Men saw and followed, not Joseph, who obeyed God, not the Egyptians, who provided refuge for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (Matthew tells us nothing at all of the details of their life in Egypt), and certainly not the infamous Herod, whose intention to remove this threat to his reign was totally thwarted. God was the one who engineered the escape to Egypt and caused it to happen according to his plan, which was to protect the life of the Christ child at any cost.
4. That same God is still in charge of the world and all that happens, and he will see to it that the risen Christ is with us, guiding us, protecting us, and giving us salvation, no matter what the cost. No matter how brightly the stars shine at night, God is the "star" of the story of Jesus and all of us.
Note: Preachers seldom have the opportunity to preach the entire story that Matthew tells in any given year. In 1989-90, the Festival of the Holy Innocents occurs on the Thursday before the First Sunday of Christmas and Epiphany comes on the Saturday following this Sunday. Therefore, it seems like good strategy to combine in one sermon the three different Gospels from Matthew 2:1-23 that have been chosen for the three occasions (for the First Sunday after Christmas, the Holy Innocents, Martyrs, and the Epiphany of Our Lord) in order to tell the entire story. Theologically, God is at the center of the entire chapter; he is the protagonist of the story, which raises some questions that are difficult to answer.
Arthur Clarke's classic science fiction story, The Star, is a retelling of part of the Matthew 2 story in a futuristic space voyage to the distant star-planet - 3000 light years from earth
- that shone in the sky when Jesus was born and led the Magi to the Christ child. When the space explorers landed on the planet and discovered the charred remains of a beautiful civilization, they were able to date the explosion that created the "star of Bethlehem" as 4-6 B.C.; an entire race of intelligent beings and their advance civilization were destroyed by the blast, prompting the Jesuit priest-scientist on board the space ship to ask, as he stands in front of a crucifix: "O God, there were so many others stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem (when Christ was born)?" If God is the author of this story, why didn't, why couldn't, God save the baby boys of Bethlehem? That seems to be Clarke's question, doesn't it? I suggest that the whole story should be read and told in the sermon on the First Sunday after Christmas.
A sermon on the Gospels for Holy Innocents Day and the First Sunday after Christmas, Matthew 2:1-23 - "Long Live the King of the Jews."
1. The star was real; "The Gleam of a Star Was There" a poem by an unknown poet:
What of the night, was the moon adrift,
Was the galaxy unveiled or fair?
Only this man knew of that sky long ago,
The gleam of a star was there.
And it did its work, leading the Magi to Jerusalem - and Herod - and then to Bethlehem, where the baby Jesus was located.
2. Herod, the insecure king, decides that Jesus must die. That was when Jesus was actually condemned to death, although it took thirty-three years before the death sentence was executed outside Jerusalem, only a few miles from where he was born. God stepped into the picture and intervened in the person of an angel who told Joseph what was about to happen and what to do. Joseph obeyed and took Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
3. The atrocity committed by Herod - having all boy babies in and around Bethlehem killed in order to protect his insecure hold on the throne - makes God out to be something less than God. He is more like an earthly parent intent on protecting his or her own offspring, regardless of how many other children may be lost to whatever threatens their existence. Is this, too, a foreshadowing of the death of the innocent victim, Jesus Christ? Is it a sign of the rivers of innocent blood that will be spilled so that the gospel might be preached through-out the world? This much we know: awful as this episode is, it is an integral part of the story and has been duplicated in the noble army of martyrs in every century of the Christian era. (The Arthur Clarke story could be used in this section of the sermon.)
4. God provided for the Holy Family and protected them until Herod died (he apparently was never punished for his crime) and it was time to bring them back to their homeland. Again, God employed a dream and an angelic visit to get his message to Joseph. And, once more, Joseph obeyed in true faith and took his family to Nazareth, which became the place where Jesus was reared. God's word gives us protection and guidance to live faithfully and safely as his people.
An Old Testament sermon, Isaiah 63:7-9 - "In Memory of God."
1. The God of the Christmas story is a caring and concerned God, who sends his Son, Messiah, into the world to redeem his people.
2. He is a God of love and mercy, who will go to any lengths in order to save the world through his Son. In his incarnation he entered into "their affliction (and) he was afflicted" - suffering death on the cross on their/our behalf.
3. As God "he lifted them up and carried them" through the Exodus into the Holy Land and, now, through the death and resurrection, he transports believers into new life in Christ.
4. Psalm 111 offers a fitting conclusion for a sermon on this reading:
Hallelujah!
I will give thanks to the Lord
with my whole heart,
in the assembly of the upright,
in the congregation.
(Note: This psalm virtually begs to be combined with the First Lesson and allowed to become a full-blown sermon for this day.)
A sermon on the Second Lesson, Galatians 4:4-7 - "No Accidental Birth."
1. The pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Christ were no accident; God had planned this, according to Paul, from the beginning of time (he says, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of woman.").
2. Christ had to be born under the law - as a human being - in order to accomplish God's purpose, "To redeem those who were born under the law." This, Paul knows, will cost him his life.
3. Believers become "sons" or "children' of God by the sacrifice of Christ, and they are no longer slaves to Satan and sin. They are heirs, through Christ, of the Kingdom of God, and they are able - through the Holy Spirit - to dare to address their God and Father, "Abba! Father!", in confidence and faith, as Jesus did.
The liturgical function of this Sunday is that, practically, it becomes a kind of Octave of Christmas. As the first Sunday in the twelve days of the Christmas season, it continues the celebration of Jesus' incarnation with more of the details of the Christmas story, and encourages the church to worship the Messiah who has come in the name of the Lord. The homiletical clue, from the very nature of the Sunday's purpose and readings, is to tell the story more completely and with more depth, so that it will be clear to the church that God broke into the world to save his people at any cost. What he has begun in Jesus' birth will be completed according to plan, for he is the God and Father of all.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - A reworked collect that highlights the incarnation in the context of the birth of Jesus Christ, expanding the scope of the incarnation by observing how God "wonderfully created and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature" in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. The petition asks, "In your mercy, let us share the divine life of Jesus Christ who came to share our humanity." This means, in the light of the full Gospel, that the effect of the Fall has been reversed; human beings no longer are at the mercy of Satan because their status has been restored to the level of full communion with God. The petition is a fitting response to the fuller meaning of incarnation as encompassing the totality of Jesus' life from his birth to his ascension, as well as his continuing incarnation through the Word and Holy Spirit.
The Psalm for the Day - Psalm 111 - A song of thanksgiving for all of the wonderful works that the Lord God has done; "He makes his marvelous works to be remembered." Among these unforgettable actions of God is, of course, the birth of Jesus, which is being remembered and celebrated; "He sent redemption to his people; he commanded his covenant forever; holy and awesome is his name." This collect is also a way of reminding the church that the Christmas celebration continues for twelve days, the Christmas Season; it concludes with the Epiphany, the Twelfth Night of the joyful festivities generated by the nativity of Christ. Subsequently, as the last verse proclaims, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding. His praise endures forever."
The Psalm Prayer
Merciful and gentle Lord, the crowning glory of all the saints, give us, your children, the gift of obedience, which is the beginning of wisdom, so that we may befilled with your mercy and that what you command we may do by the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The readings:
Isaiah 63:7-9
This word from a "later Isaiah" is tailor-made for the First Sunday after Christmas, praising God for "all that the Lord has granted us (in Jesus' incarnation, the church implies), and the great goodness to the house of Israel." The Lord "claims" those he has made in his image as his people, affirming that he (the Messiah) "became their Savior." Jesus entered into all levels of human experience, suffering as all humans suffer, yet redeeming humanity through his affliction, rather than withdrawing from the pain and anguish that had to be his in his efforts to loose people from sin, death, and the strangle-hold that Satan has had on humans and their destiny. Isaiah puts it so beautifully:
The angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them (obviously not in his birth, but in his life, death, and resurrection); he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Theologically, this text makes a kerygmatic connection with the incarnation event, preparing people for the Galatians reading and Matthew's story about the flight to Egypt.
Galatians 4:4-7
This pericope offers an "amen" to the reading from Isaiah, bringing the Old Testament perspective into the sharp focus of the gospel of Jesus Christ:
When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Paul reminds us that the birth of Christ assures us that we have been freed from the bondage we have been in and are empowered through the Holy Spirit to join Jesus in addressing God as he did, "Abba! Father!" Because he has set us free from all that has enslaved us, he has claimed us as his children and made us inheritors of the kingdom through Jesus Christ. Jesus and the kingdom are the gifts that God gives us at Christmas. In this reading, therefore, is the reminder that we are continuing the Christmas celebration this day.
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
Matthew is the only one of the four gospel writers to include this lovely, but terrible and puzzling, tale that finds its origin and impetus in another dream that Joseph had and another message delivered to him by an angelic visitor. When the whole story is told (including verses 16-18, which briefly sketch out the gory details of Herod's slaughter of the male children in Bethlehem), it takes on a paradoxical character; God saves his son but, at the same time, allows innocent children to die. If Matthew's purpose were merely to show how Old Testament prophecies found completion in Jesus' incarnation, why didn't he omit this part of the story? Surely, he didn't need to make this connection with the Old Testament reference (Exodus 1:16, 22) to Pharoah's command to the midwives, "throw all the boys born to the Hebrews into the river, but let the girls live." Herod's command to kill all the boy babies under two years of age is a continuation of the Epiphany story when the Wise Men from the East were warned in a dream to avoid Herod on their return journey because he wanted to kill Jesus. Since Matthew was telling this story to a largely-Jewish congregation, it had to stand on historical facts, which attested to the fulfillment of scripture in the early life of Jesus Christ.
Theologically, the dreams of the Wise Men and Joseph, together with the visits by the angels, are indications that God was at work in all that happened when Jesus was born, and that the plan he had put into action would succeed, no matter what forces were arrayed against him. It can be argued that the seeming paradox of Jesus' escape and the death of the boys in Bethlehem is a sign of the kind of trouble that his presence arouses in the world. It is also an indication of the manner in which God will use the death of other innocent persons to accomplish his purposes in the world, just as his plan calls for the sacrifice of the innocent one, his Son, to die to save all of the world. This part of the story declares, when Jesus comes into the world, that God's intentions will be accomplished, no matter what may happen.
A sermon on the Gospel, Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 - "Refugee Family."
It is always the First Sunday after Christmas, Year A, in our living room. A painting hangs on the north wall of the room, done in batik by a Chinese artist who escaped from mainland China to Taiwan; it tells the Epiphany story. A walled Chinese city forms the background, the landscape is bare and sparse, and the trees have no leaves; it is a stark winter scene. Two figures, one a woman on a donkey, are traveling away from the city; they look like Mary and Joseph - and the child the woman seems to be holding in her arms - as they flee the environs of Bethlehem and Jerusalem to take refuge from Herod in Egypt - is, for us, the baby Jesus. Whether or not this was the intent of the artist, I do not know; it might be a rendition of his own escape from a city in China, his way of telling part of the story of becoming a refugee. But I do know that everyone who sees it is immediately reminded of the familiar biblical story of the "Flight to Egypt." The painting tells the beginning of the story; it does not, cannot, of course, tell the whole story that Matthew relates.
1. The birth and early life of Jesus were surrounded by as much intrigue and tragedy as was the culmination of his life when he was plotted against, betrayed, put on trial for his life, and executed. Wise men, who followed a star to Bethlehem were innocently involved in the plot to kill the baby Jesus by Herod. The very life of Jesus was put in jeopardy by a puppet-king who believed that Christ was a threat to his throne; he ordered the death of all young boys in Jerusalem, hoping to kill Jesus in the process.
2. God took a hand in all of this; he would not, could not, allow his plan for delivering and saving his people to be overturned. He warned the Magi, through a divine visit to them as they dreamed in Bethlehem after they had found the Christ child, to return to their homeland by a different route to avoid Herod. He warned Joseph in another dream that Jesus' life was in danger, and to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, where - as refugees - they would be safe. He visited Joseph in another dream and told him that it was safe to return to their homeland, guiding him to settle in the town of Nazareth. That's where Jesus was reared as a faithful Jew, the son of Mary and Joseph.
3. God, you see, was the real "star" of the show, the central figure in the story - not the star in the sky that the Wise Men saw and followed, not Joseph, who obeyed God, not the Egyptians, who provided refuge for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (Matthew tells us nothing at all of the details of their life in Egypt), and certainly not the infamous Herod, whose intention to remove this threat to his reign was totally thwarted. God was the one who engineered the escape to Egypt and caused it to happen according to his plan, which was to protect the life of the Christ child at any cost.
4. That same God is still in charge of the world and all that happens, and he will see to it that the risen Christ is with us, guiding us, protecting us, and giving us salvation, no matter what the cost. No matter how brightly the stars shine at night, God is the "star" of the story of Jesus and all of us.
Note: Preachers seldom have the opportunity to preach the entire story that Matthew tells in any given year. In 1989-90, the Festival of the Holy Innocents occurs on the Thursday before the First Sunday of Christmas and Epiphany comes on the Saturday following this Sunday. Therefore, it seems like good strategy to combine in one sermon the three different Gospels from Matthew 2:1-23 that have been chosen for the three occasions (for the First Sunday after Christmas, the Holy Innocents, Martyrs, and the Epiphany of Our Lord) in order to tell the entire story. Theologically, God is at the center of the entire chapter; he is the protagonist of the story, which raises some questions that are difficult to answer.
Arthur Clarke's classic science fiction story, The Star, is a retelling of part of the Matthew 2 story in a futuristic space voyage to the distant star-planet - 3000 light years from earth
- that shone in the sky when Jesus was born and led the Magi to the Christ child. When the space explorers landed on the planet and discovered the charred remains of a beautiful civilization, they were able to date the explosion that created the "star of Bethlehem" as 4-6 B.C.; an entire race of intelligent beings and their advance civilization were destroyed by the blast, prompting the Jesuit priest-scientist on board the space ship to ask, as he stands in front of a crucifix: "O God, there were so many others stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem (when Christ was born)?" If God is the author of this story, why didn't, why couldn't, God save the baby boys of Bethlehem? That seems to be Clarke's question, doesn't it? I suggest that the whole story should be read and told in the sermon on the First Sunday after Christmas.
A sermon on the Gospels for Holy Innocents Day and the First Sunday after Christmas, Matthew 2:1-23 - "Long Live the King of the Jews."
1. The star was real; "The Gleam of a Star Was There" a poem by an unknown poet:
What of the night, was the moon adrift,
Was the galaxy unveiled or fair?
Only this man knew of that sky long ago,
The gleam of a star was there.
And it did its work, leading the Magi to Jerusalem - and Herod - and then to Bethlehem, where the baby Jesus was located.
2. Herod, the insecure king, decides that Jesus must die. That was when Jesus was actually condemned to death, although it took thirty-three years before the death sentence was executed outside Jerusalem, only a few miles from where he was born. God stepped into the picture and intervened in the person of an angel who told Joseph what was about to happen and what to do. Joseph obeyed and took Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
3. The atrocity committed by Herod - having all boy babies in and around Bethlehem killed in order to protect his insecure hold on the throne - makes God out to be something less than God. He is more like an earthly parent intent on protecting his or her own offspring, regardless of how many other children may be lost to whatever threatens their existence. Is this, too, a foreshadowing of the death of the innocent victim, Jesus Christ? Is it a sign of the rivers of innocent blood that will be spilled so that the gospel might be preached through-out the world? This much we know: awful as this episode is, it is an integral part of the story and has been duplicated in the noble army of martyrs in every century of the Christian era. (The Arthur Clarke story could be used in this section of the sermon.)
4. God provided for the Holy Family and protected them until Herod died (he apparently was never punished for his crime) and it was time to bring them back to their homeland. Again, God employed a dream and an angelic visit to get his message to Joseph. And, once more, Joseph obeyed in true faith and took his family to Nazareth, which became the place where Jesus was reared. God's word gives us protection and guidance to live faithfully and safely as his people.
An Old Testament sermon, Isaiah 63:7-9 - "In Memory of God."
1. The God of the Christmas story is a caring and concerned God, who sends his Son, Messiah, into the world to redeem his people.
2. He is a God of love and mercy, who will go to any lengths in order to save the world through his Son. In his incarnation he entered into "their affliction (and) he was afflicted" - suffering death on the cross on their/our behalf.
3. As God "he lifted them up and carried them" through the Exodus into the Holy Land and, now, through the death and resurrection, he transports believers into new life in Christ.
4. Psalm 111 offers a fitting conclusion for a sermon on this reading:
Hallelujah!
I will give thanks to the Lord
with my whole heart,
in the assembly of the upright,
in the congregation.
(Note: This psalm virtually begs to be combined with the First Lesson and allowed to become a full-blown sermon for this day.)
A sermon on the Second Lesson, Galatians 4:4-7 - "No Accidental Birth."
1. The pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Christ were no accident; God had planned this, according to Paul, from the beginning of time (he says, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of woman.").
2. Christ had to be born under the law - as a human being - in order to accomplish God's purpose, "To redeem those who were born under the law." This, Paul knows, will cost him his life.
3. Believers become "sons" or "children' of God by the sacrifice of Christ, and they are no longer slaves to Satan and sin. They are heirs, through Christ, of the Kingdom of God, and they are able - through the Holy Spirit - to dare to address their God and Father, "Abba! Father!", in confidence and faith, as Jesus did.
