7 Christmas Sermon Quotes to Inspire Your Last-Minute Prep

'Twas just two days before Christmas and the reverend was stressing. There's a sermon to write and prayers of confessing...

If that's you—we see you. You're definitely not alone, and we, along with our other readers in the ministry have been there and are saying a quick prayer for you. (Come on folks, don't make a liar out of me.) We hope you find a cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa, take a deep breath, ask for a little divine calm and inspiration, and keep at it.

This post is for you. Here are 7 great Christmas quotes we hope offer you a little bit of last-minute inspiration—ones that might just plug a little gap in your sermon—or just even be an occasion for a little calm reflection.

Whether you're finalizing a Christmas Eve sermon or preparing for Christmas Day, these quotes offer fresh inspiration from diverse Christian voices.

(Don't miss our Christmas worship guide. We have free and subscription resources to help you wrap up your Christmas prep.)

7 Quotes to Enrich Your Christmas Sermons

Dale Evans on Love in Action

"Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas."

— Dale Evans, Christmas is Always

There are so many sappy lines about Christmas out there. But if you think about this—Evans is right. The essence of Christmas is God's self-giving in the Incarnation. We might miss this amid the commercialization of giving in this season—the Incarnation comes out of God's loving nature (so deep that John says he is love. Christmas exists because he "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son."

So, when we give out of love, especially when we give sacrificially, we really are acting out the very nature of Christmas.

Thomas Merton on Christ Breaking into the World

"Into this world, this demented inn in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited."

—Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable

It may have been a silent night in Bethlehem, but it was the spiritual equivalent of D-Day, but instead of violence, he arrives with unexpected mercy, and through the love of a young mother. But he comes in opposition to the spiritual darkness of this world, seen in the spirits he casts out and through the rulers who wanted him dead from infancy.

Merton's application of "no room in the inn" applied to the world captures this reality so succinctly.

(Bonus: a heartwarming illustration about "no room at the inn.")

Bette Dickinson on Shepherds and Celebrities

"The shepherds show us that we don't prepare to receive the king of heaven the same way we prepare to meet the celebrities of our day, through earthly displays of showiness. In fact, receiving our King requires we do just the opposite: we must empty ourselves of any human glory that gets in the way of receiving a heavenly one. We must instead journey to the margins, because it is there where the veil to heaven becomes thin enough to glimpse the divine."

— Bette Dickinson, Making Room in Advent

If you go to the Oscars, you dress up. So much so that the ostentatious fancy-dress on the red carpet is just as much a news story as the awards themselves. To be present, you must promote yourself with the most expensive (or outlandish) clothes possible. Hollywood does not reward humility.

Jesus turns the world of self-promotion upside down, not only in the way he, the king, comes to us, but in his teachings which tell us that to be great in his kingdom, we "must be the servant of all." And, as Dickinson points out, we should not look for advancement by turning to the "in crowd," we should be looking for "the least of these, my brothers."

(Bonus: A guest post by Bette Dickinson on the TPW blog on Mary's response to the angel.)

Brian McLaren on True Power in the Manger

"Politicians compete for the highest offices. Business tycoons scramble for a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. Armies march and scientists study and philosophers philosophise and preachers preach and labourers sweat. But in that silent baby, lying in that humble manger, there pulses more potential power and wisdom and grace and aliveness than all the rest of us can imagine."

— Brian D. McLaren, Seeking Aliveness

Our jobs do not define us. Jesus, in the manger, is a pure example of humanity, untouched by sin, as God intended. He is also God—which we have fancy Greek words for which are more or less shorthand for: he's God and he's man, and we don't know how, but it's the most important thing in the world. Jesus is all of that before he does anything at all. A few chapters later, at his baptism, God declares him beloved son, in whom he is "well pleased." All of this before he does anything in his ministry.

He, like us, is beloved before he earns any merit through ministry. (Unlike us, he is untouched by sin.)

C. S. Lewis on What Was In the Stable

"Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world."

— C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

This line is spoken by Lucy, the most clear-sighted of all the Pevensie children, to the last king of Narnia. Jesus was bigger than our whole world, and yet contained in a stable—indeed, contained in human flesh—though not as a vessel. He became us.

Sci-fi fans may also think of the T.A.R.D.I.S from Doctor Who, which is always surprising people by "being bigger on the inside." That stable truly was bigger on the inside, as it contained its own creator in infant form.

Daniel Darling on What is New at Christmas

"The message of Christmas, then, is not about manufacturing sentimental feelings in vain hopes of a miracle. It's about believing the reality that God has birthed something new in Jesus and because of this, God will birth something new in you and in me. And that newness is breaking out, still today, in the hearts of God's people amidst a broken world. Sinful, dead hearts finding life again. And we, at Christmas, sit in silence and await another Advent, when that child returns as the King, to complete His mission to restore hearts and renew the world."

— Daniel Darling, The Characters of Christmas

Christmas miracles play a big role in Christmas movies and TV shows. Pious cynics may roll their eyes at the cheap secular art aimed at raking in Christmas cash that trades on convenient divine interventions—but we shouldn't lose track of the fact that this entertainment remembers that Christmas is a miracle: and that part is true.

The real Christmas miracle that is always happening is how the Incarnation of Jesus changes us. Jesus offers us eternal life—not just someday—but now, through initiating a new relationship between us and the God from whom we were estranged by sin. And every day, as the Holy Spirit works in us to sanctify us and bring us closer and closer to God—that's another Christmas miracle.

(Bonus: What makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie? It has to do with home.)

Howard Thurman on the Real Work of Christmas

"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with the flocks, then the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal those broken in spirit, to feed the hungry, to release the oppressed, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among all peoples, to make a little music with the heart… And to radiate the Light of Christ, every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say. Then the work of Christmas begins."

— Howard Thurman

We miss something huge about Christmas if we don't remember that Christmas is the beginning and not the end.

Jesus came to earth on a mission and though Christmas is necessary for that mission, it is not the completion of the mission. Jesus had work to do. Mary knew this... it's all over her song in Luke 1. Jesus was going to upend the world. And he did, though not in the way people expected. And the church is to carry on that mission. After Christmas, we, too, have work to do.

We don't really get to choose that work—Jesus set the agenda already: we are to deal with the sin problem and the suffering problem. Different stripes of Christianity are better at one than the other (and sometimes seem to forget the other). But personal salvation from the sin which ensnares us through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross—that's essential. The kingdom came with repentance of sin. The sacrifice of Jesus wasn't an afterthought.

And confronting the brokenness of the world, carrying on the healing ministry of Jesus and giving a glimpse of the justice offered by our king—that's essential, too. Jesus preached against the rich who exploited the poor. He healed the sick. He met with the people society rejected. Jesus' ministry wasn't an afterthought, either.

We don't get to choose. It's all Gospel.

That's what Howard Thurman reminds us of, here. Christmas is a gift—but it is like the gifts of Father Christmas given to the children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—they are tools, not toys. They are good in themselves... but they have a purpose. The same is true of Christmas.