Christmas 2020: Christmas Courage

Luke 2:1-20John 1:1-18Luke 2:22-40 Dear Partner, I’m going to offer just a few sentences on each of the three preaching occasions this week – Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the 1st Sunday of Christmas. All are offered in the context of what a different, strange, and difficult Christmas it will be, attended by losses small and large, and yet they are also offered in the confidence that it is still Christmas and there is still much over which to rejoice. Christmas Eve While so incredibly familiar to us, Luke’s nativity story has the capacity not just to sound different in light of our present circumstances but also...

Christmas 1 B: Christmas Courage

Luke 2:22-40 Dear Partner in Preaching, It’s amazing how quickly Christmas passes, isn’t it? After all the preparations – both in church and at home – after four weeks of Advent, after carols and service projects, special music and Christmas Eve services…. After all this, it’s suddenly done. The presents are opened, the wrapping paper put in the recycling bin, needles are falling from the tree, and it’s 364 more days until next year’s celebration. Of course, Christmas isn’t done. The church knew that there was no way you could really celebrate, let alone comprehend, the Incarnation in a day, so it recognized twelve days of...

Luke 2:25-38

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided...

Luke 2:22-38

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is...