Pretty Much a Wrap 12.25.2025

    My blog publishing day is Thursday. This week Thursday is Christmas Day. Next week Thursday will be…next year. So, in this space this is the last word for the year. If you are a regular reader of this blog, thank you. If you are a regular reader that also indicates, that, for all intents and purposes, I harass you with content. I hope that you benefit from these words. 

    Most of what I write is specifically intended for preachers. There are other issues that come up during the year, but my central purpose is to encourage good habits of study, writing, and review for those who are engaged in the weekly preaching and teaching of Scripture. I think everyone can benefit from the knowledge that there are some of us who take this task seriously enough to encourage others to do it well, to improve, to do the hard work, and to trust God to use our humble words to lift up the risen Christ. 

    I write many words during the course of a week. Sermons, lessons, these blog essays, Newsletter content, and continuing drafting on my next book. Everything I write is an extension of my local preaching ministry at the Grayville First Christian Church. I am a firm believer in the ongoing work of the Body of Christ. The church. We outsource far too much of our preaching, teaching, and other instruction to para-church organizations. This reliance on bodies which are not anchored in local worshipping communities is a part of the broader weakening of the Church—which is local and catholic (universal) by design. Jesus called disciples to literally follow Him, in the flesh, not via Social Media or through external neutral organizations. Jesus whole ministry from the birth we celebrate this week to the cross we will consider at Easter—all of it reminds us that Jesus, literally had skin in the game. 

There is no better job description than what Paul wrote to the Ephesian and Colossian believers:

“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” (Ephesians 3:8 ESV)

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:28 ESV)

Thank you for letting me minister to you through the written word. If you’re ever in Grayville, we’d be tickled to have you worship with us. You do need to know that whilst you are here, we will just go ahead and treat you like family. That is what the Church does. Jesus didn’t have any enemies—only neighbors. If you are our neighbor—as we must consider you—then you will be loved, accepted, and told the truth. That’s how you treat family. 

    And that’s the point of this ongoing barrage of information. A part of my pastoral task is to help preachers, particularly those who are young, learning, and growing to improve their preaching as they serve in local churches. Again, thank you for allowing me to share with you as I address the issues confronting the contemporary pulpit. And never forget; every believer has some call of ministry on their life. If you are set-apart to preach, the equipment is the call, and it is your responsibility to develop that gift. I will do everything I can to teach, guide, and encourage you in the coming year. But as for 2025? That’s a wrap.

Walking the Risky Road to the Manger 12.18.2025

    Just about everyone regardless of their faith commitment—whether secular or Christian—thinks of Christmas as a safe time of year. Whether you are more focused on the Biblical nativity stories and their descriptions of Jesus’ birth, or on your Christmas tree and fancy wrapping paper, you likely consider it joyful or at least happy. 

    It is true that some will enter this festive time of year with heavy hearts weighed down by loss or general sadness. Even for them the expectation of happiness, albeit violated, forms part of their angst. No one associates this time of year nor the Child whom we celebrate with any real, tangible, noteworthy risk. In this thinking virtually everyone is wrong. Let me explain why.

    If Jesus is who He claims to be, if these stories are God’s word for us as the historic Church has claimed, if in them we encounter a revelation of God unlike any that we could have imagined or expected, if Jesus is—in fact God in Flesh—then accepting or rejecting, believing or disbelieving, celebrating or dismissing the Christ Child is a very grave matter indeed. 

    Before the Great Church began to celebrate the feast of Christmas it observed the fast of Advent. In the structured anticipation of the coming of Christ there is a tangible recognition that His Advent changes everything. And when everything is being challenged, changed, and chosen anew there is risk. Real risk that we acknowledge every year at Christmas by making this perilous, risky, winding walk to the manger. 

    It has become a cultural expectation. Thanks to Chuck Dickens and a few other hearty souls who recognized the benefits of risky faith it has become embedded in our broader culture in such a way that virtually all unbelievers of any stripe feel oddly comfortable singing Joy to the World, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!  I’m pretty sure our adversary never saw that one coming. Yet, in his sniveling, conniving way he has managed to twist this beautiful story into a silly caricature of the humble self-giving of the Word. 

    John did not include a nativity story in his Gospel. His story concerns the entry—invasion really of God’s own indomitable Word into human history, our muddled mess of time and space, of evil, worry, and disgrace. He did, in another place, tell the same story in a graphic, symbolic, terrifying fashion. In Revelation 12 the nativity of our memories is envisioned as a vicious dragon stalking a pregnant woman, seeking to destroy the child she carried. When Christians who already knew the story of Jesus’ birth read what John wrote in Revelation 12, it was not very hard to identify the characters. They knew the woman as Mary. They knew the dragon under many names, Rome, Caesar, Herod. And they had long worshipped the Child, the little Lord Jesus—not asleep on the hay but fleeing for His life. 

    God risked everything. Ev-er-y thing. Every single thing, to rescue us from our sin. If you think that you can sidle up to the cradle of the Christ Child and not even risk a splinter, you have not been following the story very closely. 

    Now we’re all in that wilderness. Either we pledge our allegiance to Jesus, or we pledge it to something or someone else. Each of us makes that choice. We either follow and suffer with Him, or we are a part of the dragon horde that began to hound Him in infancy, rejected Him in adulthood, cried for His crucifixion, and then maligned His body the Church. Risk? The term works, but it hardly covers the complexity, the depth, the pathos that faces the contemporary Christian. We are called to sacrificial discipleship. We are called to follow the crucified and risen Christ. Truthfully, there are many who are perfectly satisfied to bow their heads and shed their tears at the manger who will forget all about this Jesus in a few short weeks. So why even brave this walk to the manger if you choose not to follow the one who lay there? 

    The risk is not Santa Claus, the grinch, commercialism, secularism, or even sheer greed. The real risk is apathy. If you care enough to come to Bethlehem and see, if you are brave enough to traverse field and fountain, moor, and mountain—if you ring the bells and join the angels in singing Joy to the World…then for pity’s sake risk a faithful life. The snow’s going to melt. The seasons will change. The manger will be stowed away for another year. Jesus will still be Lord. And you are still going to have to decide. Will you take the risk of faith and continue to walk with the one who was in that Manger? Merry Ho, Ho, Ho, and all that. 

Leaning into the Legend 12.11.2025

    People like a good legend. Sometimes the legends are even (partly) true. Many other legends are grounded in realities which have been in some way been magnified to make a moral point, explain a difficult historical reality, or highlight heroic behaviors. This Sunday I will be using Father Christmas or as we call him in the US Santa Claus, to illustrate my message. This legendary figure is of course grounded in the historic life of Nicolas of Myra—St. Nicolas. 

    It’s easy to complain about focusing on the wrong thing during Christmas. Presents, and trees, and decorations, and cookies and all the other seasonal traditions which define a 21st century Christmas. There was a time that I felt the need to correct, browbeat, cajole, and enlighten everyone about the “true meaning” of this tradition or that. What a silly, pointless, graceless way to behave! If I ever engaged in this behavior with you, I am sorry, please forgive me. 

    I think it is far better to lean into the legends and leverage them for Kingdom purposes. Yes, red-suited Coca Cola Santa is a far cry from the real Nicolas sneaking around at night tossing bags of dowry-gold through the open widows of impoverished families. Yet that spirit of giving informed the evolution of the legendary Santa Claus whose presence (and presents) will be ubiquitous during the holiday season. 

    When we lean into the legends of Christmas, whether Santa, Rudolph, Ralphie, or Frosty we are not compromising our principles but inhabiting our cultural moment. Or perhaps I should say incarnating our cultural moment. That is really the issue. When we participate in all the hall-decking holiday cheer we have a seat at the table and can peel back the opaque wrapping of legend helping people discover the truths we really celebrate at Christmas. When we are gruff and humorless, when we allow our approach to these legendary accouterments of Christmas to be Grinch-driven rather than grace-driven we risk being thought of as cranks and scolds rather than warm and welcoming. During Christmas we don’t want to be the one who slams the door on Santa any more than we would slam to door to the inn on Jesus. To be blunt—no one has a Herod in their Nativity. 

How do we, then, lean into these legends. A couple of thoughts.

Childlike Wonder

    It took me several years to convince my custodial staff to leave the Christmas tree always illuminated in our Church sanctuary during the Christmas season. There is nothing I like more than walking in at 6.50 a.m. On a cold, dark December morning and being greeted by the twinkling lights of the season falling upon the greenery and the faces of the figures in the Nativity. Even at 63 years of age the sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas fill me with joy. 

    When we approach Santa and Rudolph with childlike wonder and lean into the legend, we make connections with those whose hearts sincerely long for something more, something better, something different from the painful realities of life. 

    The legends (fictions if you must) of Christmas can be steppingstones allowing us to broach deeper, spiritual subjects with those who feel discarded and abused by our society. They may not be ready for the truth until they have moved past their pain. The joyful wonder of our holiday celebrations may be the next, necessary step for hurting hearts to find the very real redeeming love of Jesus. 

Choose Whimsy

    I have a Peanuts illuminated sweatshirt my daughter gave me a few Christmases ago. I wore it last Sunday, will likely wear it this Sunday. I can, and mostly do, wear a Christmas tie every day from Thanksgiving to Orthodox Christmas (January 6). I’ve already watched the story of George Bailey, heard Linus Van Pelt recite the Christmas story, and viewed Rudolph. Are these life-changing, destiny defining, character forming toeholds for preaching? Nope. I like these whimsical things, and I choose to do them if only for whimsy’s sake.

    Maybe you like to Christmas Carol or Sled or decorate the exterior of your house. Go for it! Hiding from Christmas and pretending like it’s beneath us or some culturally compromising theological assault on our collective pride doesn’t sound much like Jesus. He was famous for attending wedding feasts and contributing to the catering. 

    Keep it personal, light, friendly, and real. People will be drawn to your Church because you will help them to feel like they are a part of something special. Something that comforts them amid the decay of culture. There will be some people who only sing Christmas Carols at your worship services. Some will only smile this Christmas season because someone at your Church makes them feel warm, welcomed, and loved. Let our Churches be the place that people laugh at Christmas. As people attend your church, become more regular, and start asking questions you can go beyond whimsy and wonder and begin to deal with serious, Biblical and Theological issues. But you cannot have conversations with people who are not there or who have left because you’re simply not approachable. 

Chase Wow

    Parties. Festivities. Hall-decking, Holly-jollies, Ho-Ho-Ho-ing, and wassailing. Go for it. The pattern of evolving Christianity was fasting and feasting. We don’t really practice the former and we misunderstand the purpose of the latter. Chase wow! Not exclusively—not instead of Biblical focus, but as a part of what it means for Christians to celebrate a significant part of the year. 

    Yes, there are limits. There are some things which are inappropriate with respect to time or place, but we need divine distractions to drag us away from the digital delusions that confuse clicks, likes, and followers with the actual wow of life-affirming human experiences. 

    Let’s make the Church the place where people connect. It may be a cookie, a cup of coffee, a carol shared in a darkened sanctuary, or a meal of celebration. Make chasing the wow a part of your Christmas season…or maybe stop using words like “festive.”

Conclusion

    Jesus is not less God because we let children have their pictures taken with Santa Claus or have a family movie night and watch Elf. If your Gospel is that fragile you probably never take it out for a spin anyway. A message that can be harmed by a child’s joy is of itself, quite likely harmless. Therapeutic Deism is as much a threat to the redeemed as it is to the reprobate. 

    When we lean into the legends, we can use them as springboards to impactful, Biblical messaging. It can be a heavy lift if every spiritual or biblical conversation, begins wholly untethered from actual human experience.  We human beings live our fallen lives within, and a part of the otherwise good world created by God. The stuff of earth is not all that there is—but it does matter. Some of the high horses that we insist on riding are actually Trojan horses for our own pride and prejudice. 

    Finally, If Christmas cheer during the month of December confuses the people in your community with respect to the Lordship of Christ, the Authority of Scripture, or the role of your Church—Santa Claus isn’t your problem. 

    

Preaching the Obvious 12.4.2025

Every person coming to Church this Sunday expects that you will be at least sneaking up on Christmas. You may not make it central to your message 21 days out, but you won’t ignore it either. There is a good chance that your building is already, or will soon be, decorated, plans have been set, parties scheduled and people’s minds are fixed on Christmas. 

    Our liturgical brethren will have begun the methodical march to Christmas with the first Sunday in Advent—last Sunday. Others will be considering big programs and promotional opportunities. I hope that you, as a preacher, have already begun to consider your approach and even compose your thoughts, if not your messages. 

    Christmas should not surprise us. In Post Modern U.S. Culture, it is a signal time of year both socially and economically. It is a great opportunity for ministry in general and preaching in particular because during the month of December people in our communities, who never otherwise darken the door of the Church, who have only a passing concern for Church, and barely a conception of what is taught in Scripture will, nonetheless sing songs that describe the birth of Jesus and all of the attendant highlights. 

    For that reason, Christmas preaching is exhilarating and challenging. The exhilaration comes from knowing that individuals who come only from some lingering sense of duty, may, by the intervention of God’s Holy Spirit, move through the season toward becoming genuinely interested in the claims of Christ. The challenge comes from preaching texts so familiar that virtually every auditor has some idea of how they could/should be handled. I describe this phenomenon as Preaching the Obvious.

    I want to consider a couple of risks that come from regularly approaching familiar texts as well as a couple of rewards that come from working diligently to come up with creative and refreshing approaches to this common material. The risks are Boredom and Triviality, and the rewards are Insight and Inclusion. First, we will look at the risks. 

Boredom

    There is nothing worse than a preacher who is so bored with his text and the task of telling the story that his/her boredom is evident. Don’t be that preacher. I will admit that familiarity with these texts can make it more difficult. But when we work through our own ennui and consider the good to be accomplished by faithful, prayerful, humble work we give God the space He needs to move. 

    In very real sense we can think of the Bible as a “Closed Corpus”. It’s already fully written. Our words of proclamation neither add to nor detract from the words of Scripture. We are explaining and clarifying. If we wanted to be petulant and childish any preacher with more than ten years of experience could be bored with virtually any text in the Bible. Our Christmas text(s) are only obvious because the Great Church has chosen to seasonally focus on the birth of Jesus at this time of year. 

    There are 162 games in a baseball season. The World Series always comes at the end. It is the most widely watched part of the whole year. Boredom tends not to be an issue. The game play may be at a different level than a July Thursday afternoon, but it is the same game. These 3 or 4 Sundays are more like the other 48 or 49 than they are different. Either you choose to be focused, excited, invested, and prepared or you don’t. If you get bored with the Christmas stories maybe there is a deeper problem that you need to address. 

Triviality

    The second risk is that we treat the material preached during Christmas as less important, even trivial compared to other texts or topics dealt with during the other seasons of the year. The seed of triviality like boredom is sown in familiarity. We know Luke’s Nativity. We know Matthew’s Nativity. We mix them. We confuse them. We misunderstand them. One thing we should never do is minimize them. There is no cross without the cradle. There is no Jerusalem noon darkness without the light in the stable. 

    We must take these well-worn, oft-told stories seriously as scripture. As well as we know them, they are God’s word to us addressed to our sinful condition. 

Insight

    Boredom with and trivializing of Christmas are problems for the preacher to solve in the Study and central to resolving those struggles is the understanding that what our hearers know, think, understand, and accept about the text is more important than our struggles. So, these two rewards need to be kept fully in mind during our study and preparation. 

    You have the chance to help believers develop greater insight into the life of Jesus, the clarity of scripture, and the real point of Christmas through your preaching. It’s not all about me (us). Those who listen have a stake in the preaching moment. Young Christians need insight into the long road of discipleship. They need to think of themselves like Mary and Jospeh walking an unknown path hand in hand with the Father. Other, more mature Christians need to know that their work—like Simeon or Anna’s is still valid and important to the Church. 

    You will have others that come to Church with unseen spiritual struggles. Some of your words will give the Holy Spirit purchase in their lives. Insight can very rarely be found when it is something we seek. It sneaks up on us when in the quietness of our heart the Word of God brings clarity. 

Inclusion

    Another reward accrues when people come to Church, maybe hurting or hopeless and they find that this story of Jesus can truly be their story. It is not just for holier-than-thou types, or people who grew up in Church. Christmas is a reminder that the story is about Peace for everyone who finds favor before God through faith in Christ. Christmas is a reminder that there is nothing exclusive about the Christian faith. Everyone is a prospective “whosoever” whose believing faith finds favor before God. 

    There is no more inclusive time in the Christian community than the Christmas season. Virtually every congregation expects and prepares for visitors. The real trick is to treat them, not as tourists but as family. Not as outsiders but as insiders who have not yet discovered the favor available to them as children of God. Peace on earth…goodwill to men is a good motto and a better mission. 

Conclusion

    The truths we discuss during the Christmas season are strangely familiar to our flailing culture amid a fallen world. Once upon a time they were well-understood. They were often rejected or romanticized by those who had decided that they had culturally outgrown all but the social dimensions of Christmas—but even the most ardent Scrooge’s knew what it was they were humbugging. Things have somewhat changed. 

    We can no longer assume that people who make their way to the Church house during Christmas season have any pre-understanding about what the Gospel nativity stories mean when they describe annunciation, incarnation, or angelic celebration. In a sense the preacher in 2025 has a blank canvass upon which to paint a picture of Christmas that provides space and time for the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of both believers and unbelievers to either deepen or provoke faith. 

    What a joyful task given us during this significant season! The task itself is no different, but the context—how it has changed. And the time is short. It is an abbreviated season of opportunity that we must seize before it passes and is merged into the typical, mundane concerns of a new year. 

    Preaching the obvious gives each of us the opportunity to explore again some of the founding ideas of the Christian faith. The incarnation. The love of God. The realization of God’s plan of redemption throughout the Old Testament as it finally comes to fruition in Jesus. It is only obvious because we know the end of the story. You will have people come to hear you preach who are wholly unfamiliar with the story, or who are confused about the story, or who only have heard hints about the story. Creatively and courageously preaching the obvious is gives us the chance to let God do something extraordinary with the ordinary.