The Nativity Of Our Lord
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle A
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Isaiah 9:2-7 (C, RC); Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7 (E)
This passage stands forth from all the Old Testament as the high moment of recognition, the declaration of history's crowning moment in time. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." That grand announcement signaled salvation, not only for a troubled people living nearly 2,600 years ago, but for all humanity. "For to us a child is born."
Honest exegesis requires us to recognize that some earnest scholars believe this announcement referred to a specific king of that era. But most Christian believers hear something so authentic, so beyond the criticism of our little minds in its truth, as to require that we claim it as our Christmas song. G.G.D. Kilpatrick, writing of this Isaiah passage, said: "When the Christian Church reads or sings these words, it is to exult in the gift of God's love in Jesus Christ. It is his song and we sing it in thanksgiving...."
Here, then, is the triumph song of a suffering people whose darkness will now be banished by the light, whose gloom will now be overwhelmed by joy. Words must surely fail us poor preachers as we try to understand the power of this declaration, much less tell it to the world. Yet that is our mission.
Lesson 2: Titus 2:11-14 (C, RC, E)
It's a good thing God has divine powers. Otherwise, one could hold little realistic hope for the fulfillment of this passage. "Live lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly," wrote Titus. That's hardly a popular sentiment these days, what with pornography on the internet, drug and alcohol abuse in the grade schools, rampant crime in the streets, daily headlines featuring stories of corruption. Few passages will depict a more vivid contrast between the recommendations of Titus and the favored lifestyle of most people today. Paul has presented us with an exalted standard of moral conduct in this passage, a shining goal indeed.
Robert Browning wrote: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for?" Paul understood this. A rough and ready man like Paul, used to associating with rowdy people just like Peter and James and John and perhaps Mary Magdalene -- all people whom Jesus loved with all their frailties -- understood that few could measure up to his lofty measure. One may even suspect that Paul himself often fell short. (I hope so. I always feel just a little uncomfortable with the rare person who comes close to what Paul commends. I find that most of my friends are fine Christian people, but all with faults as well, as I herewith confess is true of me.)
Paul urges us here to be the very best people we can be. His letter to the Romans makes it clear that he himself sometimes did things he didn't want to do, and that God will forgive us for some of our failures. The point here is that we are to try to live the life described, and we are to be honest in admitting our falling short, until day by day we will become a little more the kind of person Jesus wanted us to be.
Gospel: Luke 2:1-20 (C, E); Luke 2:1-14 (RC)
Almost every Christian knows the Christmas story by heart, not memorized perhaps, but its essence is dear to all of us. Perhaps its heart is these words in verse ten: "But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid -- for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.' "
This is not a time to debate the existence of angels or other details of this report. My old preacher used to say that "some things are true to fact, and some things are true to life." This is an example. The supreme event in all history, brought about by a God whose ways we shall never explain, is here announced. Familiar as the message may be to our hearers, it is well that we all hear it again.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "God's Bright Promise"
Text: Isaiah 9:2-7
Theme: Reading this as a foretelling of the Christ event (a debatable conclusion, yet regardless of the writer's intent, he, even if inadvertently, predicted the birth for which his people waited), we find the beginning of God's bright promise. As was true in Isaiah's time and in the time of Jesus, it's true today that many people "walk in darkness." That darkness takes many forms. Discouragement and depression are daily companions for many people. Illness, advanced age, addictions, dead-end jobs, feelings of failure, jealousy, bitterness over failed relationships -- the litany goes on. It's a rare person who arises every day to a bright expectation, who never weeps, never utters a silent cry. Saint Paul would identify the human dilemma when, in what may have been a moment of personal darkness, he said, "The whole creation groans in travail, waiting ..."
How grateful we must be then for the promise of this word from Isaiah, for the truth itself which he foretold. We have, homiletically, the perfect three-point outline.
First, it's true that many walk in darkness. In fact, I would guess many pastors, maybe even most pastors, have done so. We can easily think of those numerous events reported to us by our friends in the church who know the meaning of the darkness.
Second, Isaiah used the past tense. "The people who walked in darkness," he said. Of "those who lived in a land of darkness," he wrote. It can be over now. They "have seen a great light ... For a child has been born for us ... and he is named Wonderful ... and there shall be endless peace ... and the yoke of their burden ... shall be burned."
Third, through our relationship with this "Everlasting Father, Prince of peace," our darkness can be replaced by light, our burdens removed, or if not that, our strength increased. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."
Title: "Living A Fulfilled Life"
Text: Titus 2:11-14
Theme: Titus (Paul) commends to us a holy life. Most of us would desire this for others. Achieving it for ourselves, however, is another matter. And yet Paul argues here that this must be the goal of the true Christian. Paul suggests three ideas which make this call to a holy life possible for us.
First, Paul commends to us a life of moral excellence. We are to "renounce impiety and worldly passions."
Second, Paul assures us that this impossible demand becomes possible through the power of Christ working within us. "That he might redeem us from all iniquity," Paul says.
Third, Paul from the outset promises that inasmuch as we will all in varying degrees fall short, God will forgive and renew us. "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation ..." wrote Paul.
Title: "The Christian Meaning Of Christmas"
Text: Luke 2:2-20
Theme: I often receive so-called Christmas cards from friends at Christmas. I refer to the rather expensive production numbers with photographs of the family, maybe a nod to the true event with a Christmas tree in the background, or a Santa Claus hat on Dad's head. But really there is nothing to connect the card to Christmas. It's all right, I suppose. I'm glad to see how the kids have grown and all. (Please omit the brag letter which sometimes comes along as well.) But what is it really all about?
First, God created the world. Then, for reasons we sometimes may question, he created humanity so he would have someone to love. One of my excellent seminary professors once said he believed that God needs us almost as much as we need God.
Second, we discover in reading the Old Testament that God had a lot of difficulty getting through to us. We finally got the idea that God was power, but we couldn't quite understand that God was love. So God decided to approach us in a more direct way, yet one which wouldn't threaten the daylights out of us. He came to us in the form of a little child.
We still didn't quite get the message, though some people did sufficiently to record the event and interpret it for the rest of us in what we call the Bible. But God soon realized the salvation which was offered to us through that child was going to be difficult for us to accept. We were like middle schoolers who need a lot of love but have very little capacity to return that love.
Third, God gave us the ultimate example of divine love in the life and death of Jesus, then undertook a campaign which would require the rest of time (mine, at least) to consummate the divine-human love affair. So the Holy Spirit went to work. One day we'll grasp the colossal enormity of a love which puts up with us yet never for a moment ceases to pursue us. We are offered the supreme Christmas gift: our lives fulfilled. And it's all free.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
An ancient legend told of a baby born to a king in a palace far away. The child's back was deformed, making it impossible for the boy to walk upright as he grew. The king first ordered his finest sculptor to create a statue of a man as the boy might appear twenty years later. The final figure was tall, straight, and handsome. Then the king ordered every mirror removed from the palace, and each day the boy was taken to the courtyard where he could stare at the statue depicting an idealized figure of himself as a man.
The legend relates that twenty years passed. The boy grew to manhood, seeing himself in his mind's eye as he saw himself in the statue. On his twenty-first birthday, the boy received as a gift a mirror, a full-length one. What the boy saw in that mirror was an image of himself -- exactly like the statue in the courtyard.
Physically possible? I suppose not. Spiritually? Perhaps. Like the life Titus held before us. If we stand a little straighter each day ...
____________
A friend of mine was drafted at the age of eighteen into the United States Army in time to fight in World War II. Having been wounded, he was reassigned to a service unit stationed in Paris, France. It so happened his billet was in Place Pigalle, a notorious red-light district of that era. Each evening this red-blooded young man, thousands of miles from home, was approached by young women offering themselves in prostitution. Although my friend is far from being a prude, he says he lived there for several months but never lost his virginity. Why? "Because," he said, "my mom said she would pray for me every day and she would trust me to be true to the values of our home." Despite frequent temptations, he said, "I just couldn't betray that faith." (So God has faith in us, too.)
____________
Recently a network television news program featured the story of a young girl who had been picked up while a small child on a battlefield in Bosnia. Authorities assumed her parents were dead and placed her for adoption. Ten or so years passed. A recently established group, realizing that many lost children from that ravished land must have been adopted by foreigners, located some of them. One was this girl. She had been adopted by an American family and brought to this country. Unhappily, she'd had great difficulty adapting to American values and was a self-described unhappy young lady. Imagine her joy, then, when she was told her real family had been found and she was to visit them, offered the chance to return to her homeland and her true home.
A camera crew recorded the homecoming in Bosnia. It was a tragedy. The family lived in squalor, a totally foreign environment for a young woman used to wandering the malls. They spoke no English, the only language learned by the young girl. After some initial joy on both sides at the reunion, they found themselves unable to communicate, having nothing in common, including language. Sadly, the girl returned to America, as her brokenhearted blood-family said good-bye.
At the conclusion of the show, the interviewer asked the girl if she would return to her native Bosnia. With obvious sadness and disappointment, she replied, "No!"
So, too, when we think about the values held forth in the gospel as recorded by Titus, we wonder if there could come a time when many of us, having lived lives quite foreign to that standard, will discover that we no longer are able to go home.
____________
One day in the early thirties, a young man was driving a new model Ford, called the Model-T. He had engine trouble, the car quit working, and he coasted to the side of the road. Before long, a large touring car came along, chauffeur-driven, and pulled to the opposite side of the road and stopped. An old man got out of the car and asked the driver if he could help. The driver thanked the man, but seeing his obvious wealth and expensive clothes, he said there was no way this fellow could help. "What I need," he said, "is someone who knows something about cars."
Nevertheless, the old man said, "Let me just take a look." He lifted the hood and stared at the engine for a moment. Then he muttered, "Here's your problem," reached in and carefully made an adjustment, then asked the fellow to try to start the car. When it started right up running normally, the old man headed back to his chauffeur-driven car. "Thanks," the young fellow shouted. "But how did you know to do that?" "I invented it," he replied, and Henry Ford continued on to his office. True story.
God invented us. Who better to know what makes us run best?
____________
The Wall Street Journal recently quoted Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Bob Patterson, referring to the pitch that Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin had hit off him for a game-winning home run: "It was a cross between a screwball and a change-up. It was a screw-up." So with some people's lives.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 96 (C, RC, E) -- "Sing to the Lord a new song."
Prayer Of The Day
Eternal God, your relentless pursuit of all of us as we have turned away from thee has brought about our salvation, through Jesus Christ. Seeing this, we now offer up our most fervent thanks. In Christ's name. Amen.
Lesson 1: Isaiah 9:2-7 (C, RC); Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7 (E)
This passage stands forth from all the Old Testament as the high moment of recognition, the declaration of history's crowning moment in time. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." That grand announcement signaled salvation, not only for a troubled people living nearly 2,600 years ago, but for all humanity. "For to us a child is born."
Honest exegesis requires us to recognize that some earnest scholars believe this announcement referred to a specific king of that era. But most Christian believers hear something so authentic, so beyond the criticism of our little minds in its truth, as to require that we claim it as our Christmas song. G.G.D. Kilpatrick, writing of this Isaiah passage, said: "When the Christian Church reads or sings these words, it is to exult in the gift of God's love in Jesus Christ. It is his song and we sing it in thanksgiving...."
Here, then, is the triumph song of a suffering people whose darkness will now be banished by the light, whose gloom will now be overwhelmed by joy. Words must surely fail us poor preachers as we try to understand the power of this declaration, much less tell it to the world. Yet that is our mission.
Lesson 2: Titus 2:11-14 (C, RC, E)
It's a good thing God has divine powers. Otherwise, one could hold little realistic hope for the fulfillment of this passage. "Live lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly," wrote Titus. That's hardly a popular sentiment these days, what with pornography on the internet, drug and alcohol abuse in the grade schools, rampant crime in the streets, daily headlines featuring stories of corruption. Few passages will depict a more vivid contrast between the recommendations of Titus and the favored lifestyle of most people today. Paul has presented us with an exalted standard of moral conduct in this passage, a shining goal indeed.
Robert Browning wrote: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for?" Paul understood this. A rough and ready man like Paul, used to associating with rowdy people just like Peter and James and John and perhaps Mary Magdalene -- all people whom Jesus loved with all their frailties -- understood that few could measure up to his lofty measure. One may even suspect that Paul himself often fell short. (I hope so. I always feel just a little uncomfortable with the rare person who comes close to what Paul commends. I find that most of my friends are fine Christian people, but all with faults as well, as I herewith confess is true of me.)
Paul urges us here to be the very best people we can be. His letter to the Romans makes it clear that he himself sometimes did things he didn't want to do, and that God will forgive us for some of our failures. The point here is that we are to try to live the life described, and we are to be honest in admitting our falling short, until day by day we will become a little more the kind of person Jesus wanted us to be.
Gospel: Luke 2:1-20 (C, E); Luke 2:1-14 (RC)
Almost every Christian knows the Christmas story by heart, not memorized perhaps, but its essence is dear to all of us. Perhaps its heart is these words in verse ten: "But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid -- for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.' "
This is not a time to debate the existence of angels or other details of this report. My old preacher used to say that "some things are true to fact, and some things are true to life." This is an example. The supreme event in all history, brought about by a God whose ways we shall never explain, is here announced. Familiar as the message may be to our hearers, it is well that we all hear it again.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "God's Bright Promise"
Text: Isaiah 9:2-7
Theme: Reading this as a foretelling of the Christ event (a debatable conclusion, yet regardless of the writer's intent, he, even if inadvertently, predicted the birth for which his people waited), we find the beginning of God's bright promise. As was true in Isaiah's time and in the time of Jesus, it's true today that many people "walk in darkness." That darkness takes many forms. Discouragement and depression are daily companions for many people. Illness, advanced age, addictions, dead-end jobs, feelings of failure, jealousy, bitterness over failed relationships -- the litany goes on. It's a rare person who arises every day to a bright expectation, who never weeps, never utters a silent cry. Saint Paul would identify the human dilemma when, in what may have been a moment of personal darkness, he said, "The whole creation groans in travail, waiting ..."
How grateful we must be then for the promise of this word from Isaiah, for the truth itself which he foretold. We have, homiletically, the perfect three-point outline.
First, it's true that many walk in darkness. In fact, I would guess many pastors, maybe even most pastors, have done so. We can easily think of those numerous events reported to us by our friends in the church who know the meaning of the darkness.
Second, Isaiah used the past tense. "The people who walked in darkness," he said. Of "those who lived in a land of darkness," he wrote. It can be over now. They "have seen a great light ... For a child has been born for us ... and he is named Wonderful ... and there shall be endless peace ... and the yoke of their burden ... shall be burned."
Third, through our relationship with this "Everlasting Father, Prince of peace," our darkness can be replaced by light, our burdens removed, or if not that, our strength increased. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."
Title: "Living A Fulfilled Life"
Text: Titus 2:11-14
Theme: Titus (Paul) commends to us a holy life. Most of us would desire this for others. Achieving it for ourselves, however, is another matter. And yet Paul argues here that this must be the goal of the true Christian. Paul suggests three ideas which make this call to a holy life possible for us.
First, Paul commends to us a life of moral excellence. We are to "renounce impiety and worldly passions."
Second, Paul assures us that this impossible demand becomes possible through the power of Christ working within us. "That he might redeem us from all iniquity," Paul says.
Third, Paul from the outset promises that inasmuch as we will all in varying degrees fall short, God will forgive and renew us. "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation ..." wrote Paul.
Title: "The Christian Meaning Of Christmas"
Text: Luke 2:2-20
Theme: I often receive so-called Christmas cards from friends at Christmas. I refer to the rather expensive production numbers with photographs of the family, maybe a nod to the true event with a Christmas tree in the background, or a Santa Claus hat on Dad's head. But really there is nothing to connect the card to Christmas. It's all right, I suppose. I'm glad to see how the kids have grown and all. (Please omit the brag letter which sometimes comes along as well.) But what is it really all about?
First, God created the world. Then, for reasons we sometimes may question, he created humanity so he would have someone to love. One of my excellent seminary professors once said he believed that God needs us almost as much as we need God.
Second, we discover in reading the Old Testament that God had a lot of difficulty getting through to us. We finally got the idea that God was power, but we couldn't quite understand that God was love. So God decided to approach us in a more direct way, yet one which wouldn't threaten the daylights out of us. He came to us in the form of a little child.
We still didn't quite get the message, though some people did sufficiently to record the event and interpret it for the rest of us in what we call the Bible. But God soon realized the salvation which was offered to us through that child was going to be difficult for us to accept. We were like middle schoolers who need a lot of love but have very little capacity to return that love.
Third, God gave us the ultimate example of divine love in the life and death of Jesus, then undertook a campaign which would require the rest of time (mine, at least) to consummate the divine-human love affair. So the Holy Spirit went to work. One day we'll grasp the colossal enormity of a love which puts up with us yet never for a moment ceases to pursue us. We are offered the supreme Christmas gift: our lives fulfilled. And it's all free.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
An ancient legend told of a baby born to a king in a palace far away. The child's back was deformed, making it impossible for the boy to walk upright as he grew. The king first ordered his finest sculptor to create a statue of a man as the boy might appear twenty years later. The final figure was tall, straight, and handsome. Then the king ordered every mirror removed from the palace, and each day the boy was taken to the courtyard where he could stare at the statue depicting an idealized figure of himself as a man.
The legend relates that twenty years passed. The boy grew to manhood, seeing himself in his mind's eye as he saw himself in the statue. On his twenty-first birthday, the boy received as a gift a mirror, a full-length one. What the boy saw in that mirror was an image of himself -- exactly like the statue in the courtyard.
Physically possible? I suppose not. Spiritually? Perhaps. Like the life Titus held before us. If we stand a little straighter each day ...
____________
A friend of mine was drafted at the age of eighteen into the United States Army in time to fight in World War II. Having been wounded, he was reassigned to a service unit stationed in Paris, France. It so happened his billet was in Place Pigalle, a notorious red-light district of that era. Each evening this red-blooded young man, thousands of miles from home, was approached by young women offering themselves in prostitution. Although my friend is far from being a prude, he says he lived there for several months but never lost his virginity. Why? "Because," he said, "my mom said she would pray for me every day and she would trust me to be true to the values of our home." Despite frequent temptations, he said, "I just couldn't betray that faith." (So God has faith in us, too.)
____________
Recently a network television news program featured the story of a young girl who had been picked up while a small child on a battlefield in Bosnia. Authorities assumed her parents were dead and placed her for adoption. Ten or so years passed. A recently established group, realizing that many lost children from that ravished land must have been adopted by foreigners, located some of them. One was this girl. She had been adopted by an American family and brought to this country. Unhappily, she'd had great difficulty adapting to American values and was a self-described unhappy young lady. Imagine her joy, then, when she was told her real family had been found and she was to visit them, offered the chance to return to her homeland and her true home.
A camera crew recorded the homecoming in Bosnia. It was a tragedy. The family lived in squalor, a totally foreign environment for a young woman used to wandering the malls. They spoke no English, the only language learned by the young girl. After some initial joy on both sides at the reunion, they found themselves unable to communicate, having nothing in common, including language. Sadly, the girl returned to America, as her brokenhearted blood-family said good-bye.
At the conclusion of the show, the interviewer asked the girl if she would return to her native Bosnia. With obvious sadness and disappointment, she replied, "No!"
So, too, when we think about the values held forth in the gospel as recorded by Titus, we wonder if there could come a time when many of us, having lived lives quite foreign to that standard, will discover that we no longer are able to go home.
____________
One day in the early thirties, a young man was driving a new model Ford, called the Model-T. He had engine trouble, the car quit working, and he coasted to the side of the road. Before long, a large touring car came along, chauffeur-driven, and pulled to the opposite side of the road and stopped. An old man got out of the car and asked the driver if he could help. The driver thanked the man, but seeing his obvious wealth and expensive clothes, he said there was no way this fellow could help. "What I need," he said, "is someone who knows something about cars."
Nevertheless, the old man said, "Let me just take a look." He lifted the hood and stared at the engine for a moment. Then he muttered, "Here's your problem," reached in and carefully made an adjustment, then asked the fellow to try to start the car. When it started right up running normally, the old man headed back to his chauffeur-driven car. "Thanks," the young fellow shouted. "But how did you know to do that?" "I invented it," he replied, and Henry Ford continued on to his office. True story.
God invented us. Who better to know what makes us run best?
____________
The Wall Street Journal recently quoted Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Bob Patterson, referring to the pitch that Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin had hit off him for a game-winning home run: "It was a cross between a screwball and a change-up. It was a screw-up." So with some people's lives.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 96 (C, RC, E) -- "Sing to the Lord a new song."
Prayer Of The Day
Eternal God, your relentless pursuit of all of us as we have turned away from thee has brought about our salvation, through Jesus Christ. Seeing this, we now offer up our most fervent thanks. In Christ's name. Amen.
