The Nativity of our Lord
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle B
Revised Common
Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
Roman Catholic
Isaiah 9:1-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
Episcopal
Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Note: The comments below are on the Proper I texts. Proper II and III texts (alternates for this day) are as follows:
Proper II
Revised Common
Isaiah 62:6-12
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
Proper III
Revised Common
Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
John 1:1-14
Theme For The Day
The good news of Christmas is for everyone -- no exceptions.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 9:2-7
To Us A Child Is Born
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" -- and that great light, the prophet says, is the birth of a child. And who is this child? In Isaiah's historical context it can only be Hezekiah, son of King Ahaz of Judah. In young Prince Hezekiah the people can see God's future incarnate, living in flesh and blood in their midst. By the end of Hezekiah's reign, the dire threat from Assyria will be no more, and the nation will have regained a measure of stability. Isaiah says this new king will be called "wonderful counselor" and "prince of peace." The titles fit -- but not the other ones Isaiah uses. Mighty God? Everlasting Father? No, these titles must await the birth of another....
New Testament Lesson
Titus 2:11-14
Grace Has Appeared
"The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all ..." (v. 11). The word for "appeared" is a form of epiphaino -- source of the word "epiphany." Epiphany has connotations both of sudden appearing and of illumination -- fitting thoughts for a midwinter candlelight service, when days are short, but flickering flames symbolize the hope and confidence of light's return.
The Gospel
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Good News For All People
For many people, these verses from Luke are the Christmas story. Significant in this passage is the care Luke takes to tell us that Jesus' coming is, in the angel's words, "good news of great joy for all the people" (v. 10). The Greek laos means people in general; adding the adjective "all" intensifies the gospel's universality. The Savior of the world comes not to princes, but to disreputable shepherds. He is born not in a palace, but in a stable. Over against the universal tendency of human governments to form hierarchies and favor special-interest groups, God's new order is truly egalitarian.
Preaching Possibilities
A particular difficulty in interpretation is the tendency to harmonize the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, deftly ignoring the numerous differences and contradictions between them. Here's a quick comparison of those differences:
Matthew
Luke
Genealogy
From Abraham (1:1-17) --
From Adam (3:23-28) --
Judaic
Universal
Annunciation
To Joseph, in a dream (1:20)
To Mary, in person (1:28)
Joseph's role
Adoptive father (2:24)
Supposed father (3:23)
Parallel story of Elizabeth
and Zechariah
No
Yes
Appearance of angels to
shepherds
No
Yes
Description of birth
Minimal (2:1a)
Detailed (2:1-21)
Location of birth
Unclear; Magi find Jesus in
A stable (2:7)
a "place" (2:9)
Visit of Magi
Yes
No
Massacre of Innocents /
Flight into Egypt
Yes
No
Final destination
Joseph settles in Nazareth
Joseph's already from
(2:22-23)
Nazareth (1:26)
Harmonization is hard to resist, especially with the well-loved traditions of Christmas pageants and "services of lessons and carols." Rather than depicting each birth-narrative in its individuality and integrity, however, such observances uncritically lump the two together. Preachers long accustomed to displaying historical-critical insights in their sermons may blanch at doing so on Christmas Eve; it's hard enough to explain that kind of stuff to the every-Sunday crowd, let alone to a roomful of near strangers!
Yet it's simply wrong to continue to encourage our listeners in the naive belief that Matthew's and Luke's nativity stories are like two halves of a treasure map; or, to use another metaphor, that Matthew and Luke are like tag-team historians. Just try to combine the two stories, and the contradictions multiply.
The length to which interpreters have gone, over the years, attempting to meld these two stories into one, approaches the comical. Pastoral sensitivity considers it a poor idea to reveal all these exegetical intricacies to an unsuspecting Christmas Eve congregation -- particularly the biblically semi-literate, who will be out in great numbers. "Pay no attention to the preacher behind the curtain," we're tempted to mutter, if our exegesis should happen to show -- all the while continuing to pull the levers and rotate the wheels that crank the star up into the sky, and cause the angel song to rumble over the hills in surround-sound. (Ain't it a great show, Christmas Eve? One of the best!)
Yet there is an alternative to simply capitulating to the harmonizers. That solution is, simply, to preach on one passage -- scrupulously resisting the temptation to haul in details that occur only in the other book. Each birth-narrative has its own narrative and theological integrity -- and while perhaps it's unwise to trumpet that fact from the rooftops without a whole lot of good, educational preparation beforehand, it can inform the direction we choose to go.
Luke, for example, has several distinctive theological themes, all of which lend themselves to preaching:
1.
Jesus' coming prefigures the reversal of the existing social order (as Mary sings in the Magnificat, God "fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty" -- 1:53).
2.
The gospel comes first to the poor and the outcast (as symbolized by the shepherds, and by Jesus' birth in a stable).
3.
The gospel is for all people, not simply the Jews (as symbolized by Luke's taking Jesus' genealogy back to Adam and Eve, and by the universality of the angels' song).
Prayer For The Day
Christmas! Holy night of nights
that made the very richest poor --
you pierce the darkness with your light;
powers of night cannot endure.
Jesus is the light of stars.
Jesus is the strength of life!
And he does for the world's poor,
things beyond the world's belief.
Make us poor through your great love,
Jesus, poor like you, we plead.
Make us weak -- weak in your strength.
Show us mercy in our need.
-- Eberhard Arnold
To Illustrate
As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the gospel concentrates the rays of God's light and fire to a point that sets fire in the spirit of man....
God is everywhere. His truth and his love pervade all things as the light and the heat of the sun pervade our atmosphere. But just as the rays of the sun do not set fire to anything by themselves, so God does not touch our souls with the fire of supernatural knowledge and experience without Christ.
-- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1949)
***
In 2003, the Christians of Iraq were wondering how they were going to celebrate Christmas, amidst the political instability of a nation at war. An article in the New York Times told the story:
Fears of guerrilla fighters and armed bandits called Ali Babas have led churches to move up the traditional midnight Mass. People are now resigned to celebrating Christmas barricaded in their homes. Some Christians are worried that churches will be bombed and congregations attacked, a fear given credence by American military officials who cite intelligence reports saying guerrillas may stage a wave of assaults this week partly to avenge the capture of the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The article included an interview with Father Yousif Thomas Mirkis of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Baghdad. "Christmas this year will not be as special a day as it has been," Father Mirkis told the Times. "But maybe families will still celebrate it with trees and cake, and maybe it will be closer in spirit to the first Christmas. The first one took place in poverty and under difficult circumstances for that small family. Maybe that's our one consolation this year. We're having a true Christmas."
A true Christmas: what is that? Holly and carols and eggnog? Brightly-wrapped packages bound up with ribbon? Strings of icicle lights hanging from the eaves of the house? Or is it the birth-cry of a naked, shivering baby, held tightly in the apprehensive arms of his peasant-girl mother, his body covered with bits of straw from the feeding-trough in which he was born?
-- Edward Wong, "In Iraq, Christians Warily Prepare an Early Christmas," New York Times, December 23, 2003
***
Gerald Coffee was an American navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam, and spent seven years as a prisoner of war. In his book, Beyond Survival, he writes of one of his Christmases as a prisoner.
For some reason -- maybe because it was Christmas -- his captors had given him three chocolate bars. The chocolate itself was almost inedible, but each bar had come wrapped in foil, red on one side and shiny silver on the other.
Taking one wrapper, Coffee flattened it, and folded it into an origami swan. The second he fashioned into a flower. The third he began folding, not sure of what it would become.
It became a star -- the star of Bethlehem, he thought to himself. Plucking three straws from the broom in his cell, he jammed them into a crack in the wall, and used the straws to hang his homemade ornaments above his bunk, where he could lie and gaze up at them.
Captain Coffee thought, then, of the simplicity of the first Christmas -- and of the faith that was sustaining him through his long ordeal. In his own words,
Here there was nothing to distract me from the awesomeness of Christmas -- no commercialism, no presents, little food. I was beginning to appreciate my own spirituality, because I had been stripped of everything by which I had measured my identity: rank, uniform, money, family. Yet I continued to find strength within. I realized that although I was hurting and lonely and scared, this might be the most significant Christmas of my life.
***
Where are his courtiers, and who are his people
Why does he wear neither scepter nor crown.
Shepherds his courtiers, the poor for his people,
With peace for his scepter and love for his crown.
-- From John Rutter's "Christmas Lullaby"
***
When we say "it is Christmas" we mean that God has spoken into the world his last, his deepest, his most beautiful word in the incarnate word, a word that can no longer be revoked because it is God's definitive deed, because it is God himself in the world. And this word means: I love you, you, the world and humankind. And God has spoken this word by being himself born as a creature.
-- Karl Rahner
Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
Roman Catholic
Isaiah 9:1-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
Episcopal
Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Note: The comments below are on the Proper I texts. Proper II and III texts (alternates for this day) are as follows:
Proper II
Revised Common
Isaiah 62:6-12
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
Proper III
Revised Common
Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
John 1:1-14
Theme For The Day
The good news of Christmas is for everyone -- no exceptions.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 9:2-7
To Us A Child Is Born
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" -- and that great light, the prophet says, is the birth of a child. And who is this child? In Isaiah's historical context it can only be Hezekiah, son of King Ahaz of Judah. In young Prince Hezekiah the people can see God's future incarnate, living in flesh and blood in their midst. By the end of Hezekiah's reign, the dire threat from Assyria will be no more, and the nation will have regained a measure of stability. Isaiah says this new king will be called "wonderful counselor" and "prince of peace." The titles fit -- but not the other ones Isaiah uses. Mighty God? Everlasting Father? No, these titles must await the birth of another....
New Testament Lesson
Titus 2:11-14
Grace Has Appeared
"The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all ..." (v. 11). The word for "appeared" is a form of epiphaino -- source of the word "epiphany." Epiphany has connotations both of sudden appearing and of illumination -- fitting thoughts for a midwinter candlelight service, when days are short, but flickering flames symbolize the hope and confidence of light's return.
The Gospel
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Good News For All People
For many people, these verses from Luke are the Christmas story. Significant in this passage is the care Luke takes to tell us that Jesus' coming is, in the angel's words, "good news of great joy for all the people" (v. 10). The Greek laos means people in general; adding the adjective "all" intensifies the gospel's universality. The Savior of the world comes not to princes, but to disreputable shepherds. He is born not in a palace, but in a stable. Over against the universal tendency of human governments to form hierarchies and favor special-interest groups, God's new order is truly egalitarian.
Preaching Possibilities
A particular difficulty in interpretation is the tendency to harmonize the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, deftly ignoring the numerous differences and contradictions between them. Here's a quick comparison of those differences:
Matthew
Luke
Genealogy
From Abraham (1:1-17) --
From Adam (3:23-28) --
Judaic
Universal
Annunciation
To Joseph, in a dream (1:20)
To Mary, in person (1:28)
Joseph's role
Adoptive father (2:24)
Supposed father (3:23)
Parallel story of Elizabeth
and Zechariah
No
Yes
Appearance of angels to
shepherds
No
Yes
Description of birth
Minimal (2:1a)
Detailed (2:1-21)
Location of birth
Unclear; Magi find Jesus in
A stable (2:7)
a "place" (2:9)
Visit of Magi
Yes
No
Massacre of Innocents /
Flight into Egypt
Yes
No
Final destination
Joseph settles in Nazareth
Joseph's already from
(2:22-23)
Nazareth (1:26)
Harmonization is hard to resist, especially with the well-loved traditions of Christmas pageants and "services of lessons and carols." Rather than depicting each birth-narrative in its individuality and integrity, however, such observances uncritically lump the two together. Preachers long accustomed to displaying historical-critical insights in their sermons may blanch at doing so on Christmas Eve; it's hard enough to explain that kind of stuff to the every-Sunday crowd, let alone to a roomful of near strangers!
Yet it's simply wrong to continue to encourage our listeners in the naive belief that Matthew's and Luke's nativity stories are like two halves of a treasure map; or, to use another metaphor, that Matthew and Luke are like tag-team historians. Just try to combine the two stories, and the contradictions multiply.
The length to which interpreters have gone, over the years, attempting to meld these two stories into one, approaches the comical. Pastoral sensitivity considers it a poor idea to reveal all these exegetical intricacies to an unsuspecting Christmas Eve congregation -- particularly the biblically semi-literate, who will be out in great numbers. "Pay no attention to the preacher behind the curtain," we're tempted to mutter, if our exegesis should happen to show -- all the while continuing to pull the levers and rotate the wheels that crank the star up into the sky, and cause the angel song to rumble over the hills in surround-sound. (Ain't it a great show, Christmas Eve? One of the best!)
Yet there is an alternative to simply capitulating to the harmonizers. That solution is, simply, to preach on one passage -- scrupulously resisting the temptation to haul in details that occur only in the other book. Each birth-narrative has its own narrative and theological integrity -- and while perhaps it's unwise to trumpet that fact from the rooftops without a whole lot of good, educational preparation beforehand, it can inform the direction we choose to go.
Luke, for example, has several distinctive theological themes, all of which lend themselves to preaching:
1.
Jesus' coming prefigures the reversal of the existing social order (as Mary sings in the Magnificat, God "fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty" -- 1:53).
2.
The gospel comes first to the poor and the outcast (as symbolized by the shepherds, and by Jesus' birth in a stable).
3.
The gospel is for all people, not simply the Jews (as symbolized by Luke's taking Jesus' genealogy back to Adam and Eve, and by the universality of the angels' song).
Prayer For The Day
Christmas! Holy night of nights
that made the very richest poor --
you pierce the darkness with your light;
powers of night cannot endure.
Jesus is the light of stars.
Jesus is the strength of life!
And he does for the world's poor,
things beyond the world's belief.
Make us poor through your great love,
Jesus, poor like you, we plead.
Make us weak -- weak in your strength.
Show us mercy in our need.
-- Eberhard Arnold
To Illustrate
As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the gospel concentrates the rays of God's light and fire to a point that sets fire in the spirit of man....
God is everywhere. His truth and his love pervade all things as the light and the heat of the sun pervade our atmosphere. But just as the rays of the sun do not set fire to anything by themselves, so God does not touch our souls with the fire of supernatural knowledge and experience without Christ.
-- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1949)
***
In 2003, the Christians of Iraq were wondering how they were going to celebrate Christmas, amidst the political instability of a nation at war. An article in the New York Times told the story:
Fears of guerrilla fighters and armed bandits called Ali Babas have led churches to move up the traditional midnight Mass. People are now resigned to celebrating Christmas barricaded in their homes. Some Christians are worried that churches will be bombed and congregations attacked, a fear given credence by American military officials who cite intelligence reports saying guerrillas may stage a wave of assaults this week partly to avenge the capture of the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The article included an interview with Father Yousif Thomas Mirkis of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Baghdad. "Christmas this year will not be as special a day as it has been," Father Mirkis told the Times. "But maybe families will still celebrate it with trees and cake, and maybe it will be closer in spirit to the first Christmas. The first one took place in poverty and under difficult circumstances for that small family. Maybe that's our one consolation this year. We're having a true Christmas."
A true Christmas: what is that? Holly and carols and eggnog? Brightly-wrapped packages bound up with ribbon? Strings of icicle lights hanging from the eaves of the house? Or is it the birth-cry of a naked, shivering baby, held tightly in the apprehensive arms of his peasant-girl mother, his body covered with bits of straw from the feeding-trough in which he was born?
-- Edward Wong, "In Iraq, Christians Warily Prepare an Early Christmas," New York Times, December 23, 2003
***
Gerald Coffee was an American navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam, and spent seven years as a prisoner of war. In his book, Beyond Survival, he writes of one of his Christmases as a prisoner.
For some reason -- maybe because it was Christmas -- his captors had given him three chocolate bars. The chocolate itself was almost inedible, but each bar had come wrapped in foil, red on one side and shiny silver on the other.
Taking one wrapper, Coffee flattened it, and folded it into an origami swan. The second he fashioned into a flower. The third he began folding, not sure of what it would become.
It became a star -- the star of Bethlehem, he thought to himself. Plucking three straws from the broom in his cell, he jammed them into a crack in the wall, and used the straws to hang his homemade ornaments above his bunk, where he could lie and gaze up at them.
Captain Coffee thought, then, of the simplicity of the first Christmas -- and of the faith that was sustaining him through his long ordeal. In his own words,
Here there was nothing to distract me from the awesomeness of Christmas -- no commercialism, no presents, little food. I was beginning to appreciate my own spirituality, because I had been stripped of everything by which I had measured my identity: rank, uniform, money, family. Yet I continued to find strength within. I realized that although I was hurting and lonely and scared, this might be the most significant Christmas of my life.
***
Where are his courtiers, and who are his people
Why does he wear neither scepter nor crown.
Shepherds his courtiers, the poor for his people,
With peace for his scepter and love for his crown.
-- From John Rutter's "Christmas Lullaby"
***
When we say "it is Christmas" we mean that God has spoken into the world his last, his deepest, his most beautiful word in the incarnate word, a word that can no longer be revoked because it is God's definitive deed, because it is God himself in the world. And this word means: I love you, you, the world and humankind. And God has spoken this word by being himself born as a creature.
-- Karl Rahner
