Christmas 2020: "And They All Missed It"
Think back over the last 365 days, since last Christmas. Think of all the things that have happened: a global pandemic, civic unrest, a presidential election, etc.
How do you know you were paying attention to what really mattered?
It’s easy to be distracted by what the world considers important: politics and war and wealth and the like.
But, what if God is up to something else entirely? What if God is at work in other ways? What if you and I on our own are completely unable to tell what’s truly important from what is just distraction?
What if you’ve been distracted this entire year and missed what’s really been happening?
After all, when the first Christmas came it happened in a surprising and unexpected way.
And they all missed it.
Sermon References:
Painting: “The Census at Bethlehem,” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Good 48 minutes BBC documentary on the painting: “Private Life of a Masterpiece: Census at Bethlehem”
Gallup survey: “Americans' Mental Health Ratings Sink to New Low”
Merry Christmas and Christmas War
Preaching on Christmas Eve is difficult. For me, it’s the most difficult occasion I preach all year. The reason is that I feel as if I’ve already said everything interesting about the Incarnation and used every good illustration and analogy I can come up with in prior years. I’ve honestly been worried about this year’s Christmas sermon for months. (I really liked my Christmas Eve sermon from last year and I knew I couldn’t top it this year.)
At Munger we put on a Christmas Travelers Service the week before Christmas for folks who can’t be at our church on Christmas Eve, and I preach my Christmas sermon at that service as a kind of dress rehearsal. This year’s Travelers service was on Thursday, 12/19; I ended up being disappointed with my sermon, so I threw the whole thing out and started over!
My new Christmas sermon never came together the way I wanted it and I changed it a lot over the course of the day, from service to service, but I can honestly say it wasn’t like any Christmas sermon I’ve ever heard or anything I’d preached before, so that’s something.
Merry Christmas to you all. Love and courage in 2020.
[My Christmas Eve 2019 sermon is called “Christmas War,” and I’ve included the video below, recorded at 7 PM on 12/24/19.]
Christmas War
Christmas means war. Brothers and sisters, here’s how to fight.
Sermon Links
Scripture: Luke 2:13
References:
Painting: Washington Crossing the Delaware
Poem: New Heaven, New War, by Robert Southwell
Watch: Linus and his blanket [it happens at 1:01]
Churchill and FDR, Christmas Eve 1941
Merry Christmas
Of all the things I could say to you tonight, this is what I want to say most. [Recorded at 11 PM on Christmas Eve 2018. Munger Place Church, Dallas, TX.]
One More Year
One more year. We've been spared to see another year. Last Sunday, my wife and I knelt at the communion rail at our church and prayed and thanked the Lord for his provision over the previous twelve months. Another year wasn't promised to any of us, and yet we made it. We thanked God for all the cool stuff that had happened since Christmas Commitment Sunday last year, and all the blessings we received, and all the joys we experienced, and we were grateful. Thank you Jesus! We then prayed for God's blessing on our family and our work for the year to come. We asked for his favor on our lives and for him to give us strength for today and a bright hope for tomorrow.One more year.Amen.
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Nine Months
Nine months ago today, our baby daughter was born and my wife coded afterwards, an event which caused her to be hospitalized twice in the ICU and to undergo emergency, life-saving, life-altering surgery.This past Sunday was Christmas Commitment Sunday at our church. It's like our 21st century urban version of what used to be called Harvest Sunday in rural, agricultural churches: we thank God for his provision toward us in the 12 months past, and ask for his protection and provision in the year to come. Folks come forward and kneel and make a gift to finish strong in their current year giving toward the church, and make a commitment to give back a portion of God's blessings in the year to come. It's a powerful moment to see hundreds of households come forward and kneel and pray.When it was our family's turn, all four of us knelt and prayed and praised the Lord for his mercy toward our family these past 12 months and desperately asked God to be with us in the next 12 months. I find that I pray for God to protect us and prosper us almost constantly now; I am under no illusions regarding my utter dependence on the grace of God.The day before we were kneeling at the rail, we'd picked out a Christmas tree and were decorating it: my wife--completely healed--perched on a ladder stringing lights, and our little baby chirping and squeaking and scuttling underfoot like a some kind of huge, curious, terrestrial crab.As I look back over these past 12 months, I am overwhelmed: God has been‘so good?to us.A few weeks ago, Elaine and I made a brief video about some things we learned while she was in the hospital. (I've posted the video below.) Afterwards, of course, we thought of things we'd wished we said or said in a different way, and we share these thoughts humbly, knowing that this is our story, and your stories are different. Even so, we've seen the faithfulness of God firsthand and we feel as if we're supposed to tell other people about it.One day, of course, death will come for one or both us us, and for everyone we love. Maybe I will die first and leave Elaine behind, or maybe she will die first and leave me behind. But, even when that day comes, God is faithful, and Jesus is risen, so the words the angels shared with the shepherds are still meant for us today:Do not be afraid.[embed]https://vimeo.com/246001538[/embed]
A Christmas Hymn
A poem for you and yours. Merry Christmas.!["Census at Bethlehem," by Pieter Bruegel [1566]](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d70f59aefca59000162e4e6/5d7fcef39f682762992c8aca/5d7fcefe9f682762992c8c1c/1568657150715/census-at-bethlehem-1566.jpg?format=original)
A Christmas Hymn
by Richard Wilbur A stable-lamp is lightedWhose glow shall wake the sky;The stars shall bend their voices,And every stone shall cry.And every stone shall cry,And straw like gold shall shine;A barn shall harbor heaven,A stall become a shrine. This child through David‘s cityShall ride in triumph by;The palm shall strew its branches,And every stone shall cry.And every stone shall cry,Though heavy, dull, and dumb,And lie within the roadwayTo pave his kingdom come. Yet he shall be forsaken,And yielded up to die;The sky shall groan and darken,And every stone shall cry.And every stone shall cryFor stony hearts of men:God‘s blood upon the spearhead,God‘s love refused again. But now, as at the ending,The low is lifted high;The stars shall bend their voices,And every stone shall cry.And every stone shall cryIn praises of the childBy whose descent among usThe worlds are reconciled.