Sermon Illustrations for The Nativity of Our Lord (2024)
Illustration
Isaiah 62:6-12
Isaiah proclaims, “Look, your savior comes.” We celebrate on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day the coming of our savior into the world – not as one full of power, but as a babe, vulnerable and human, as one born among us. Yes, God has great things in store for this babe, great lessons to teach us and for us to absorb as we watch this babe become a child and then a man. But in this quiet moment, this moment in a stable, born of indigent, immigrant parents, we see our own vulnerability portrayed in the Christ child.
Pause for a moment please and think about Mary and Joseph, new parents, with a baby resting in a manger, among the animals and the straw, in the chill of the evening. Pause for a moment and remember the infants you have know and recognize the anxiety that could have been felt in that stable – and then prepare for the rest of the story, the quiet confidence with which strangers are welcomed and the birth is celebrated. Breath in the moment and be thankful.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Isaiah 62:6-12
During the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James of England, it was the practice for them to process through their kingdoms, granting certain cities and certain estates the signal honor of hosting them. The grounds would be cleared, roads repaired, streets cleared, pageants written, practiced, and performed, banquets planned, guilds costumed at great expense – all for the purpose of welcoming royalty. Occasionally the plague or politics prevented their majesties from arriving. No doubt there was great disappointment that all these preparations had been made for nothing.
In the same way Isaiah told the people, “Look, your savior comes….” (62:11) The Savior comes bring reward and recompense. A verse earlier it talks about preparations for that visit, but what it says is “Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up an ensign over the peoples.”
The cool thing is that in scripture all this roadwork is not for royalty. It’s for our benefit, to make it easier to come to Jerusalem to see this savior. We already know from earlier chapters that this is not standard royalty. This is the suffering servant, the one bearing the blows that should have felled us, the one almost unrecognizable as a result of his suffering. And when we come to gaze upon this savior the preparations are for our benefit to make it easier to come together.
So, there’s nothing wrong with someone playing the Christmas carols the old folks like, putting on the traditional pageant that kids enjoy, decorating the church with all the pagan symbols that purists frown upon and which Christians for the past two thousand years have embraced. We’ve all had a tough enough road getting here. And our Savior has paid the ultimate price to save us. Let us come together in joy and for joy, that truly we may be called, in Isaiah’s words, “The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord….” (62:12)
Frank R.
* * *
Isaiah 62:6-12
President Calvin Coolidge once well explained the Christmas season: "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." Late 19th-century writer Hamilton Wright Mabie put it this way concerning Christmas: "Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." This peace is only possible because of the child in the manger we worship. Martin Luther explained why:
Christ is therefore called the prince of peace because everything in his kingdom proceeds in goodness. He rules those who are his in a friendly way, gently and kindly causes them to be at peace and overflowing with all spiritual gifts. (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, p.253)
This is a peace for the rich and the opinion-makers. Peace includes justice, a concern for the poor and outcaste. Luther put it this way:
God is the God of none but the lowly, the oppressed, the groaning, and the sighing. (Luther's Works, Vol.16, p.102)
Be sure your Christmas spirit and its commitment to the conspiracy of love has not left out the food insecure, people in the street, and the illegal immigrants.
Mark E.
* * *
Titus 3:4-7
Years ago, I clipped an article in The New Yorker the actor, comic, writer Tina Fey, listed some of the things she learned from producer Lorne Michaels during the years she acted on the show Saturday Night Live. One of those things was, “The show does not go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30 on Saturday night.”
It’s the same with our Christmas preparations. There isn’t enough time to necessarily get all our ducks in a row for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship. The sermon won’t be perfect. We could all use a couple more days with peace and quiet to really feel like we’ve got something. Certain people backed out at the last second, somebody got Covid or the flu, unexpected visitors came from out of town expecting a meal so the choir won’t have all the troops in place – but it’s time. Let God be glorified.
Writing to Titus the apostle tells us Jesus was born “…when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared…” (Titus 3:4) because that’s when and where it happened. Not because it would have been easier in Nazareth, it would have been better if Herod the Great had been out of the picture first, not because the census was over so everyone could stay put, but because it happened, and because it happened great things occurred for all of us.
Frank R.
* * *
Titus 3:4-7
In 1 Samuel 7 we find a reference to the term “Ebenezer.” Samuel raises a stone after leading the Israelites in defeating the Philistines after having been defeated by them earlier. The word literally means, “stone of help.” I thought about that as I considered Charles Dickens famous work, A Christmas Carol. As you know, Ebenezer Scrooge is the main character. I think Dickens may have chosen the first name of his protagonist purposefully. In my opinion, A Christmas Carol is much more about redemption and transformation than it is just a story about Christmas. Scrooge becomes a new man after getting a glimpse of who he was and what he was doing. Waking on Christmas morning after the visits of the three ghosts, he calls out, “It’s not too late.” God had helped Ebenezer see the world in a different light.
In many ways, transformation is what Paul is describing to Titus. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. It wasn’t because of our works. It was an act of mercy facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Paul then reiterates that we, “having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (vs. 7).
A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” May all of us, this Christmas, experience the incredible transformation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As the narrator of “A Christmas Carol” summarizes, “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone!”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 2:1-20
The movie, The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, based on a book with the same title, tells the story of the Herdman children and their involvement in the annual Sunday school Christmas pageant. The Herdman kids are rowdy, undisciplined, and out of control. They smoke cigars, drink, cuss, shoplift and bully the other kids in the town. They go to Sunday school for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. As they are there, they volunteer for the main parts in the Christmas pageant. It is a wonderful story, the theme of which is “when Jesus said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me,’ Jesus meant all the children, including Herdmans.”
That’s the message of this text, too. God has provided a way for all people to come back to him. Angels broke through the stillness of the night to announce to lowly shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger” (vs. 10-12). All people can celebrate the good news. Jesus Christ is born!
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 2: (1-7) 8-20
We might not take the Christmas story for granted so much as we do if we considered existentialist Søren Kierkegaard's claim that the Incarnation, the Christian belief that a baby in a manger could be the creator of the cosmos, is offensive to reason. Kierkegaard put it this way:
... Is it possible to conceive of a more foolish contradiction than that of wanting to prove... that a definite individual man is God? That an individual man is God, declares himself to be God, is indeed the "offence." (Training in Christianity, p.28)
As long as we don't appreciate how startling Christmas is we are likely to behave like the fickle people Luther described in one of his Christmas sermons. As he put it:
However, the wicked people who let the word come into one ear and go out through the other ear are the sort of people to whom you could preach as long and as frequently as you wish; they'll remember it as long as it takes for the waves activated by a slap of the water to disappear from sight.
But something happens to you, you are really changed, when you hold on to the true Christmas gift, appreciating its miraculous character. You start carrying this Christ everywhere you go and He starts making a difference in who you are and how you live. As Luther said:
If Christ has now become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through Him... it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/1, p.145)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
We know the story of why Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. We know the census being taken and the journey they made. We even know, all too well, the birth narrative and the laying the babe in a manger in a stable, on that chilly and magical night. Not many of us have experienced anything like this. Some have delivered babies at home or even in their cars on the way to the hospital, but few have their babies born in a stable. Fewer still have a variety of strangers come to visit on that fateful night.
Few of us have been shepherds, keeping watch over our flocks on the hillside. Few of us have had angels appear before us to celebrate a birth. And had an angel appeared to us, few would walk away from safety and wander to a far-off place to kneel before a baby and his parents. And yet we revel in this story. We celebrate the confidence of the shepherds. We celebrate the courage and fortitude of Mary and Joseph. We are joyous at the coming of this wee babe, who we know has come to save us. Savor the joy this night. Know the wonder and the blessing that has come.
Bonnie B.
Isaiah proclaims, “Look, your savior comes.” We celebrate on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day the coming of our savior into the world – not as one full of power, but as a babe, vulnerable and human, as one born among us. Yes, God has great things in store for this babe, great lessons to teach us and for us to absorb as we watch this babe become a child and then a man. But in this quiet moment, this moment in a stable, born of indigent, immigrant parents, we see our own vulnerability portrayed in the Christ child.
Pause for a moment please and think about Mary and Joseph, new parents, with a baby resting in a manger, among the animals and the straw, in the chill of the evening. Pause for a moment and remember the infants you have know and recognize the anxiety that could have been felt in that stable – and then prepare for the rest of the story, the quiet confidence with which strangers are welcomed and the birth is celebrated. Breath in the moment and be thankful.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Isaiah 62:6-12
During the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James of England, it was the practice for them to process through their kingdoms, granting certain cities and certain estates the signal honor of hosting them. The grounds would be cleared, roads repaired, streets cleared, pageants written, practiced, and performed, banquets planned, guilds costumed at great expense – all for the purpose of welcoming royalty. Occasionally the plague or politics prevented their majesties from arriving. No doubt there was great disappointment that all these preparations had been made for nothing.
In the same way Isaiah told the people, “Look, your savior comes….” (62:11) The Savior comes bring reward and recompense. A verse earlier it talks about preparations for that visit, but what it says is “Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up an ensign over the peoples.”
The cool thing is that in scripture all this roadwork is not for royalty. It’s for our benefit, to make it easier to come to Jerusalem to see this savior. We already know from earlier chapters that this is not standard royalty. This is the suffering servant, the one bearing the blows that should have felled us, the one almost unrecognizable as a result of his suffering. And when we come to gaze upon this savior the preparations are for our benefit to make it easier to come together.
So, there’s nothing wrong with someone playing the Christmas carols the old folks like, putting on the traditional pageant that kids enjoy, decorating the church with all the pagan symbols that purists frown upon and which Christians for the past two thousand years have embraced. We’ve all had a tough enough road getting here. And our Savior has paid the ultimate price to save us. Let us come together in joy and for joy, that truly we may be called, in Isaiah’s words, “The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord….” (62:12)
Frank R.
* * *
Isaiah 62:6-12
President Calvin Coolidge once well explained the Christmas season: "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." Late 19th-century writer Hamilton Wright Mabie put it this way concerning Christmas: "Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." This peace is only possible because of the child in the manger we worship. Martin Luther explained why:
Christ is therefore called the prince of peace because everything in his kingdom proceeds in goodness. He rules those who are his in a friendly way, gently and kindly causes them to be at peace and overflowing with all spiritual gifts. (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, p.253)
This is a peace for the rich and the opinion-makers. Peace includes justice, a concern for the poor and outcaste. Luther put it this way:
God is the God of none but the lowly, the oppressed, the groaning, and the sighing. (Luther's Works, Vol.16, p.102)
Be sure your Christmas spirit and its commitment to the conspiracy of love has not left out the food insecure, people in the street, and the illegal immigrants.
Mark E.
* * *
Titus 3:4-7
Years ago, I clipped an article in The New Yorker the actor, comic, writer Tina Fey, listed some of the things she learned from producer Lorne Michaels during the years she acted on the show Saturday Night Live. One of those things was, “The show does not go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30 on Saturday night.”
It’s the same with our Christmas preparations. There isn’t enough time to necessarily get all our ducks in a row for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship. The sermon won’t be perfect. We could all use a couple more days with peace and quiet to really feel like we’ve got something. Certain people backed out at the last second, somebody got Covid or the flu, unexpected visitors came from out of town expecting a meal so the choir won’t have all the troops in place – but it’s time. Let God be glorified.
Writing to Titus the apostle tells us Jesus was born “…when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared…” (Titus 3:4) because that’s when and where it happened. Not because it would have been easier in Nazareth, it would have been better if Herod the Great had been out of the picture first, not because the census was over so everyone could stay put, but because it happened, and because it happened great things occurred for all of us.
Frank R.
* * *
Titus 3:4-7
In 1 Samuel 7 we find a reference to the term “Ebenezer.” Samuel raises a stone after leading the Israelites in defeating the Philistines after having been defeated by them earlier. The word literally means, “stone of help.” I thought about that as I considered Charles Dickens famous work, A Christmas Carol. As you know, Ebenezer Scrooge is the main character. I think Dickens may have chosen the first name of his protagonist purposefully. In my opinion, A Christmas Carol is much more about redemption and transformation than it is just a story about Christmas. Scrooge becomes a new man after getting a glimpse of who he was and what he was doing. Waking on Christmas morning after the visits of the three ghosts, he calls out, “It’s not too late.” God had helped Ebenezer see the world in a different light.
In many ways, transformation is what Paul is describing to Titus. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. It wasn’t because of our works. It was an act of mercy facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Paul then reiterates that we, “having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (vs. 7).
A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” May all of us, this Christmas, experience the incredible transformation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As the narrator of “A Christmas Carol” summarizes, “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone!”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 2:1-20
The movie, The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, based on a book with the same title, tells the story of the Herdman children and their involvement in the annual Sunday school Christmas pageant. The Herdman kids are rowdy, undisciplined, and out of control. They smoke cigars, drink, cuss, shoplift and bully the other kids in the town. They go to Sunday school for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. As they are there, they volunteer for the main parts in the Christmas pageant. It is a wonderful story, the theme of which is “when Jesus said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me,’ Jesus meant all the children, including Herdmans.”
That’s the message of this text, too. God has provided a way for all people to come back to him. Angels broke through the stillness of the night to announce to lowly shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger” (vs. 10-12). All people can celebrate the good news. Jesus Christ is born!
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 2: (1-7) 8-20
We might not take the Christmas story for granted so much as we do if we considered existentialist Søren Kierkegaard's claim that the Incarnation, the Christian belief that a baby in a manger could be the creator of the cosmos, is offensive to reason. Kierkegaard put it this way:
... Is it possible to conceive of a more foolish contradiction than that of wanting to prove... that a definite individual man is God? That an individual man is God, declares himself to be God, is indeed the "offence." (Training in Christianity, p.28)
As long as we don't appreciate how startling Christmas is we are likely to behave like the fickle people Luther described in one of his Christmas sermons. As he put it:
However, the wicked people who let the word come into one ear and go out through the other ear are the sort of people to whom you could preach as long and as frequently as you wish; they'll remember it as long as it takes for the waves activated by a slap of the water to disappear from sight.
But something happens to you, you are really changed, when you hold on to the true Christmas gift, appreciating its miraculous character. You start carrying this Christ everywhere you go and He starts making a difference in who you are and how you live. As Luther said:
If Christ has now become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through Him... it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/1, p.145)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
We know the story of why Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. We know the census being taken and the journey they made. We even know, all too well, the birth narrative and the laying the babe in a manger in a stable, on that chilly and magical night. Not many of us have experienced anything like this. Some have delivered babies at home or even in their cars on the way to the hospital, but few have their babies born in a stable. Fewer still have a variety of strangers come to visit on that fateful night.
Few of us have been shepherds, keeping watch over our flocks on the hillside. Few of us have had angels appear before us to celebrate a birth. And had an angel appeared to us, few would walk away from safety and wander to a far-off place to kneel before a baby and his parents. And yet we revel in this story. We celebrate the confidence of the shepherds. We celebrate the courage and fortitude of Mary and Joseph. We are joyous at the coming of this wee babe, who we know has come to save us. Savor the joy this night. Know the wonder and the blessing that has come.
Bonnie B.
