Dear Partner in Preaching, There are so many themes worth exploring in the Prologue to the Gospel of John that it can be difficult to decide just where to land for a sermon. Do we make the connection between the first verse of John and that of Genesis, calling attention to John’s audacious claim to be writing a new Genesis? Do we let our gaze settle instead on the fourteenth verse, John’s Christmas story and the heart of the doctrine of the Incarnation? Either of these elements of John’s magnificent “hymn to the Word” would make for a fine sermon on this second Sunday of Christmas. But I’m going to suggest two other verses, not...

Fifty years ago Charles Schulz somehow managed to convince TV execs to break all the rules – no laugh track, the use of children’s voices only, a sober message critical of commercialization, a long and unaccompanied reading of the Bible at the climax of the show – to produce “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Given what has transpired since, Schulz’s concern about he commercialization of Christmas seems almost quaint. In truth, it turns out he was simply prescient…and perhaps prophetic, never more so than in the seven minutes of that television spectacle captured below. Amid the hustle and bustle of the...

Ever since a friend first emailed me a link to St. Paul Arts & Media group’s incredibly cute re-telling of the Christmas story a few years ago, it feels like it almost wouldn’t be Christmas without something front the creative folks at St. Paul’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand. Totally unfair, of course, to keep assuming these folks will come up with more creative videos every year, let alone to have them make or break my Christmas. 🙂 And yet so far they have never disappointed. This year’s effort is from St. Paul’s Arts ‘n Kids team (SPANK) and is a take on what media coverage might have been in...