Sermon Illustrations on Christmas Love

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Background

Christmas Carols

Christmas carols always seem to bring out the best in people. It’s as if we can travel back in time to a place where life was less complicated and Christmas was full of joy and magic. The churches fill with people and in our villages, towns and cities people meet to stand together in the cold to sing songs.

Dominic Walker, Taken from Mark. Lawson-Jones, Why Was the Partridge in the Pear Tree?: The History of Christmas Carols (p. 8). The History Press.

A Force of Love and Logic

The idea that there’s a force of love and logic behind the universe is overwhelming to start with, if you believe it. Actually, maybe even far-fetched to start with, but the idea that that same love and logic would choose to describe itself as a baby born in straw and poverty is genius, and brings me to my knees, literally. To me, as a poet, I am just in awe of that. It makes some sort of poetic sense. It’s the thing that makes me a believer, though it didn’t dawn on me for many years.

Bono

Mary & Joseph were Poor

They were poor. We know this because the two young turtledoves Joseph and Mary brought was the smallest offering they were allowed as devout Jews and yet the largest they likely could afford.

With two birds, they presented the Incarnate Word on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem. Poor and yet the richest people on the planet. Paradox upon paradox in the person of Jesus: God and man, divine and human, gentle and demanding, servant and king conquering death through death.

Taken from A Spacious Life: Trading Hustle and Hurry for the Goodness of Limits by Ashley Hales Copyright (c) 2021 by Ashley Hales. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

Stories

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree

God’s love for the vulnerable is illustrated well in the beloved animated film Charlie Brown’s Christmas. Who can forget the climactic moment when Linus with his stocking cap and blanket walks to the spotlight and recites a portion of Luke’s Gospel to explain the meaning of Christmas? But it’s the arc of the entire story that demonstrates God’s love so beautifully. Charlie Brown chooses the ugliest, most bedraggled tree for the Christmas play, to the chagrin of his peers. We might say Charlie Brown leaves the ninety-nine beautiful trees for the one lost and downtrodden tree.

But as the story progresses, Chuck’s instincts are proved correct. The ugly tree is made lovely by being beloved; the lowliest tree is made glorious by being chosen and set apart. I’ll admit I didn’t understand the point of this story as a child. I found the whole thing rather baffling, to be honest. But now I see the deep Christian wisdom in the cartoon. In Charlie Brown’s insistence on choosing the detestable tree to adopt and adorn, we get a small but vivid glimpse of God’s compassion for the overlooked and forgotten.

Luke’s version of the nativity, which Linus quotes so movingly, further elaborates on this theme. In Luke 2, Joseph and Mary are forced to leave their hometown due to the emperor’s desire for a census of the empire. “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child” (Luke 2:4-5).

The Christmas Gift

A preaching professor at Harvard University tells the story of the year his 5-year-old son was working on an art project in his kindergarten class. It was made of plaster, resembled nothing in particular, but with some paint, sparkle and time in a kiln, it was ready to be wrapped as a gift. He wrapped it himself, and was beside himself with excitement. It would be a gift for his father, one three months in the making.

Early in December, when the child could hardly contain the secret, the last day of school finally came. All the parents arrived for the big Christmas play, and when the students left for home, they were finally allowed to take their ceramic presents home. The professor’s son secured his gift, ran toward his parents, tripped, and fell to the floor. The gift went airborne, and when it landed on the cafeteria floor, the shattering sound stopped all conversations. It was perfectly quiet for a moment, as all involved considered the magnitude of the loss. For a 5-year-old, there had never been a more expensive gift. He crumpled down on the floor next to his broken gift and just started crying.

Both parents rushed to their son, but the father was uncomfortable with the moment. People were watching. His son was crying. He patted the boy on the head and said, “Son, it’s OK – it doesn’t matter.” His wife glared at the great professor. “Oh yes, it matters,” she said to both of her men, “Oh yes, it does matter.” She cradled her son in her arms, rocked him back and forth, and cried with him.

In a few minutes, the crying ceased. “Now,” said the mother, “let’s go home and see what can be made with what’s left.” And so with mother’s magic and a glue gun, they put together from the broken pieces a multi-colored butterfly. Amazingly, the artwork after the tragedy was actually much more beautiful than what it had been in a pre-broken state.

At Christmas, the gift was finally given, and as long as he taught at Harvard, the professor kept the butterfly on his desk. It was a constant reminder that grief is real, and that loss hurts. It was also a reminder that from great loss, great beauty can eventually emerge.

Andy Cook

Our Christmas is Complete

There is a story from Czech bishop Monsignor Hnilica of a Christmas Eve with Saint Teresa of Calcutta. There was a knock on the convent’s door during their simple but festive dinner, and the nun who went to answer the door returned with a basket covered in a cloth.

“A woman gave it to me, then rushed off,” she said—then added as she handed the basket to Teresa, “She was probably a benefactor who wanted to donate some food to us for Christmas.” Teresa’s eyes sparkled as she removed the cloth and lifted up a sleeping baby boy. “Jesus has arrived,” she said with a smile. The baby was only a few days old, and the boy’s mother had probably entrusted him to the nuns because she felt unable to raise him. The boy woke up and began to cry. Teresa said with tears in her eyes, “Look, now we can say that our Christmas is complete. Baby Jesus has come to us.”

Tsh Oxenreider, Shadow & Light: A Journey into Advent, Harvest House, 2020.

Analogies

The Great Exchange

The incarnation has often been described as “The Great Exchange,” whereupon God took on human form so that we might participate in God’s divine life (through the Holy Spirit). In a sermon on the nativity by John Chrysostom, this is how de describes the ineffable beauty of the incarnation:

The Ancient of Days has become an infant. He who sits upon the sublime and heavenly throne now lies in a manger. And he who cannot be touched, who is without complexity, incorporeal, now lies subject to human hands. He who has broken the bonds of sinners is now bound by an infant’s bands. But he has decreed that the ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and abject humiliation the measure of his goodness. For this he assumed my body, that I may become capable of his word; taking my flesh, he gives me his spirit; and so he bestowing and I receiving, he prepares for me the treasure of life.

John Chrysostom, “The Joys of Christmas”, Quoted in Vassilios Papavassiliou, Meditations for Advent; Preparing for Christ’s Birth.