Preaching at Christmas

Preaching is at the heart of ministry. Many would maintain with Martyn Lloyd Jones that the preaching of the Word of God is “the primary task of the Church and of the Word of God”. It is, said Eugene Peterson, the “one thing needful” for any pastor: “Lest the ‘one thing’ get buried in the frenzy of multi-tasking, we need continual reaffirmation of the ‘one thing’ as both glory and mystery anchors our vocation”.

Nonetheless finding a fresh word Sunday by Sunday in the same church can be challenging for pastors. Not for nothing did Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, describe preaching as a “joyful tyranny”. However, as a minister who pastored one church for thirteen years and another church for twenty-one years, I know that preaching at Christmas is even more challenging. It is not as if there is just one sermon to prepare – each year there are a host of occasions. There are the four Sundays in Advent (for me that always meant morning and evening) and of course Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then there are all the many carol services targeted for the many various age groups. How can we find a fresh word to say about the coming of Jesus, year in and year out?

In my experience the one way to keep fresh is to engage in expository preaching, expounding God’s Word as distinct from imposing our ‘word’ upon a biblical text. Expository preaching wrestles with the message contained within the text; it does not allow the text to become a peg for our ideas and preconceptions.

It involves too relating God’s Word to our world today. In preparing to preach at Christmas, I will go onto various website for contemporary illustrations: the website of the Evangelical Alliance, for instance, has all kinds of useful statistics relating to how people view or celebrate Christmas. But these illustrations simply garnish the sermon, rather than create the sermon. Topical’ preaching not rooted in God’s Word, all too often becomes repetitious preaching.

Although I use the Lectionary for my daily devotions, I have not been a Lectionary preacher. Instead, I have normally preached in ‘series’. As I look back on my past preaching plans I see a variety of sermons series. The sermon series which I most enjoyed, were when I limited my preaching to one part of Scripture. For instance:

The Good News according to Matthew
1. The genealogy of Jesus the Messiah (Matt 1.1-17)
2. The birth of Jesus (Matt 1.18-25)
3. The visit of the wise men (Matt 2.1-12)
4. The aftermath of the wise men’s visit (Matt 2.13-23)
5. An overview: Who is Jesus?

. The Good News according to Luke
1. The dedication to Theophilus (Luke 1.1-4)
2. The birth of Jesus foretold (Luke 1.26-38)
3. The visit of Mary to Elizabeth (Luke 1.39-45)
4. Mary’s song of praise (Luke 1.46-55)
5. Zechariah’s prophetic song (Luke 1.67-79)
6. The census (Luke 2.1-2)
7. The birth of Jesus (Luke 2.3-7)
8. The shepherds and the angels (Luke 2.8-20)
9. The presentation of Jesus in the temple (Luke 2.22-36)
10. An overview: Jesus the revolutionary

. The Good News according to John
1. Jesus is the universal Word (John 1.1-5)
2. A witness to the light (John 1.6-8)
3. Good news is for telling (John 1.10-13)
4. The Word became flesh (John 1.14-18)
5. God’s Christmas gift (John 3.16)
6. An overview: The real meaning of Christmas

. The Good News anticipated in the Old Testament
1. The sign of Immanuel (Isaiah 7)
2. A new king is coming (Isaiah 9.2-7)
3. The dream of God’s kingdom (Isaiah 11.1-9)
4. The ruler from Bethlehem (Micah 5.2-5)
5. An overview: Dreaming of peace

. The Good News reflected upon in the Epistles
1. Freedom begins in Bethlehem (Romans 8.3)
2. The Christmas jackpot (2 Cor 8.9)
3. God’s timing is always right (Gal 4.4-5)
4. Jesus the servant-king (Phil 2.6-11)
5. Jesus the king of creation (Col 1.15-17)
6. Jesus the saviour (Titus 2.11)
7. Jesus the Word of God (Hebs 1.1-4)
8. An overview: Christmas is good news for all

At this point some observant readers may note that I have just reproduced the contents page of my book, Joy to the World: Preaching the Christmas story (IVP, 2005). Still in print, at just over 200 pages, I dare to think it is still worth £9.99! The principal aim behind this particular book is to help preachers tell the Christmas story by engaging with Scripture. So, if you are stuck to know what to preach on at Christmas, maybe this might be a pointer in a helpful direction.