These illustrations cover Luke 1:39-56
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Blessed Among Women – Luke 1:39-56

The Gospel of Luke, above all books of the New Testament, is about women. It reads as if a woman might have written it. It contains intimate details which hardly would have occurred to a man. It begins with the birth of John the Baptist, focusing on Elizabeth, his mother. The next major section is Mary's story. To her we will shortly return. There follows the prophecy of an old woman named Anna. When the boy Jesus went to the temple to debate the learned doctors, the only person Luke quotes is his mother.

Many of Luke's stories from Jesus' ministry are about women: the woman who was a sinner, the woman who wouldn't give up, the widow of Nain, the bent over woman, the widow who gave her mighty mites. At the resurrection it was only women who had the faith to go to the garden of graves. The text lists Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of Jesus, and other women. Luke reports that when they told the disciples about the empty tomb these men assumed it was an idle tale and did not believe them. And mind you, all of this from a culture in which women didn't count.

The central character in the birth narrative, a story only told by Luke, is the person closest to the event, Mary. There are two ways over the years I have imagined this virgin queen. I have seen her as a frightened little girl, overwhelmed by events far beyond her control -- just a simple, rural, unlettered child God had chosen to be the vessel of grace. One year, I referred to her as a teenager from Amazonia -- a town much like Nazareth in terms of its place in the world of the powerful.

But there is another way to view Mary, a way more faithful to Luke's text. Here we find a determined, strong, assertive woman; a model for all women -- a woman of power and influence: educated, sharp, committed. It is the resourceful, competent, clear woman from whom Jesus learned much of what he knew about God's will for him and for his world. It is a woman blessed...

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O Little Town of Bethlehem: A Story of Faith

One of my all-time favorite Christmas hymns is "O Little Town of Bethlehem." It has been around since 1868 although it wasn’t formally used in churches until 1892. It is a hymn which is packed with emotion, a song about the Christ Child, born to Mary, a song filled with the creative power of God intervening in history with the gift of a savior.

For me "O Little Town of Bethlehem," depicts the Christmas story as a story of hope, a story where the divine and the human come together in an amazing but humble way. It is also an invitation for both the non-believer and the believer. For the non-believer it is an announcement of what God has done and for the believer it is a challenge to increase one’s faith.

What might surprise you is how this great hymn came to be. It was written by Phillips Brooks, Episcopal priest. Brooks was serving the Holy Trinity Church in the City of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia, PA). He had just returned from a trip to The Holy Land which inspired him to write the words. "When he returned to America he still had Palestine singing in his soul." (from Stories of Christmas Carols by Ernest K. Emurian, Baker Book House Co., page 97)

Brooks was a bachelor. His church organist and Sunday School superintendent, Lewis Redner was also a bachelor and Brooks gave the words to him and asked him to create a tune for the upcoming Christmas celebration. Redner procrastinated and struggled with the creation of a tune to go with the 5 stanzas that Brooks had written. It wasn’t until the night before the celebration that Redner got inspired in the middle of the night and created the song as we know it. The following day a group of 36 children and 6 Sunday school teachers introduced the song created by the 2 bachelors. That was on December 27th, 1968. It wasn’t published as an official hymn of the Episcopal Church until 1892. The following January, Phillips Brooks died, never knowing the magnitude of the hymn that he created.

For some reason the 4th stanza has been dropped from the original score. "Where children pure and happy Pray to the blessed Child, Where misery cries out to thee, Son of the mother mild; Where charity stands watching And faith holds wide the door, The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, And Christmas comes once more." The stanza includes the line, "And faith holds wide the door."

This hymn, like the story of the annunciation of Mary in the gospel of Luke, is a story about faith.

Keith Wagner, Real Hope

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There Had to Be a Father

Pastor William Carter said that on his Christmas vacation on his first year in college, he had become an expert on the birds and the bees. Biology was his major, and after a semester in the freshman class, he was certain that he knew more biology than most adults did in his hometown ... including his minister. A few days before Christmas, he stopped in to see him. He received him warmly and asked how he had fared in his first semester. “Okay,” he replied, avoiding the subject of his mediocre grades. But then he told his pastor, "I’ve come home with some questions.”

“Really?” the pastor replied. “Like what?”

“Like the virgin birth. I’ve taken a lot of biology, as you know,” which meant one semester in which he received a B-, “and I think this whole business of a virgin birth doesn’t make much sense to me. It doesn’t fit with what I have learned in biology class.”

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“There had to be a father,” he announced. “Either it was Joseph or somebody else.”

His pastor looked at him with a coy smile and said, “How can you be so sure?”

“Oh, come on,” he said. “That’s not the way it works. There had to be a father.”

His pastor didn’t back down. Instead he said something that Carter said he’ll never forget: “So — why not God?”

Why not, indeed? The more we learn, the harder it is to swallow a lot of things that once seemed so palatable. Advent is a season of wonder and mystery. We tell our children stories at this time of year that we would never dare tell when it is warmer and there is more sunlight. The really wise child is the kid who knows how to shut his mouth even when he has a few doubts. But sometimes it is hard to do, especially when you have a whole four months of college behind you.

William G. Carter, Praying for a Whole New World, CSS Publishing Company.

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Joy to the World

Consider the story of one young man. Sick and puny as a baby, he remained frail and delicate all his days. Later, as a pastor, his maladies were so severe that he could not serve his growing congregation. Instead he wrote them letters filled with hope and good cheer. Even though his body was frail his spirit soared. He complained once about the harsh and uncouth hymn texts of his day. Someone challenged him to write a better one. He did. He wrote over 600 hymns, mostly hymns of praise. When his health finally broke in 1748 he left one of the most remarkable collections of hymns that the world has ever known. His name? Isaac Watts. His contribution to the Christmas season? Probably the most sung of all the Christmas hymns, "Joy to the World; the Lord is come."

Could Isaac Watts have written so, if his life had been easy? I don't know. It is amazing, though, how often persons who have everything are spiritual zeroes, whereas those who struggle through life have souls with both depth and height.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Walk or Fly

A little girl, dressed as an angel, in a Christmas pageant was told to come down the center aisle. The child asked, “Do you want me to walk or fly?” You feel as though she almost could have flown. Don’t ever lose the wonder and mystery of Christmas.

Every year I’m reminded of those words of the late Peter Marshall: “When Christmas doesn’t make your heart swell up until it nearly bursts and fill your eyes with tears and make you all soft and warm inside then you will know that something inside of you is dead.”

James T. Garrett, God's Gift, CSS Publishing Company.

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God Is the Happiest Being in the Universe

Perhaps we need Santa at Christmas to help us be merry and joyous because we have a flawed understanding of Jesus. From today's gospel text we learn that the first reaction to Jesus' presence on earth, of God-in-our-midst, was joy. Joy so tremendous, joy so utterly overwhelming that it must somehow escape the bounds of earth itself and jump towards the heavens.

In John Ortberg's wonderful book The Life You've Always Wanted (Zondervan, 2002), he writes:

We will not understand God until we understand this about him: "God is the happiest being in the universe" (G. K. Chesterton). God knows sorrow. Jesus is remembered, among other things, as a 'man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.' But the sorrow of God, like the anger of God, is his temporary response to a fallen world. That sorrow will be banished forever from his heart on the day the world is set right. Joy is God's basic character. God is the happiest being in the universe.

Joy is what makes Christmas. Each of us may look to some annual family tradition to trigger that joy. But the trees, the carols, the cookies, the presents, the parties, are only various expressions of a single experience of the spirit JOY born again into our souls.

Leonard Sweet, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Happy Families

Elizabeth and Mary both were selected to give birth to these very special babies because of their faith in God. They did not have affluent homes or great educational advantages. All they had was simple faith. And that's important. Happy families don't just happen. They are part of a package.

Some of you young people may complain that your parents expect too much from you. They have too many rules and regulations. Maybe your parents are a little old fashioned, a little behind the times. Let me clue you in: it is these same characteristics that make you so fortunate. If they were any other way, they wouldn't put your happiness before their own, they wouldn't make sacrifices in your behalf, they wouldn't have surrounded you with love ever since you first came into the world. Because they are people of strong values, you can rest assured that they will always be there for you regardless of what may come. It's all part of a package. It has to do with a commitment that they have made - to God, to one another, and to you. The family that prays together generally does stay together, as trite as that may sound. Faith was important to Elizabeth and Mary. They trusted God.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Slow Down and Welcome Christmas

"The Christmas spirit comes on me more slowly than it used to," writes Joan Mills, a mother of three children, in her book Christmas Coming. "But it comes, it comes. Middle-aged (most of the time) and jaded (some of the time), I complain of plastic sentiment, days too brief, bones too weary. Scrooge stands at my elbow muttering, "Bah!" and "Humbug!" as I total the bills. But when I acknowledge the child I once was (and still am, somewhere within), the spirit of Christmas irresistibly descends."

"For Christmas is truly for children those we have, and those we have been ourselves. It is the keeping-place for memories of our age in lovely ritual and simplicities.

"I'm tired," I say fretfully. "There's just too much to do! Must we make so much of Christmas?" "Yes!" they say flatly.

"But bayberry, pine and cinnamon scent the shadowed room. Snow lies in quiet beauty outside. I hear someone downstairs turning on the tree lights while another admires. I lie very still in the dark. From the church in the village on the far side of the woods, carillon notes fall faint and sweet on winter clear air.

"Silent night," my heart repeats softly. Holy night. All is calm All is bright.

"As I take the stairs lightly going down, no bones weary now, my whole self is thankful; once again, I am flooded with the certainty (call it faith) that there's goodness in the world, and love endures."

Leonard Sweet, adapting Joan Mills, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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God’s Great Grace to Each of Us

A man in the hospital is being treated for cancer. He is estranged from the Church. He has this long list of things he can name for you in his indictment. He doesn't like the Church in its present institutional form. But he is in the hospital. One day a priest walks into his room. He didn't invite him in, he just walked in. The priest asked him, "Do you want to be anointed?" That is the Catholic rite for the sick. The man said, "Yes." Then he wrote this. "Lying on my narrow, hospital bed, feeling the oil of gladness and healing, I knew I had little time. More importantly though, I felt by a wondrous grace that this was the first time in my memory that the Church was paying attention to me, individually, by name, naming me, praying for me to deal with my painful circumstances and my suffering, the suffering that is uniquely mine. All of a sudden I realized, I matter, I really matter. I still can't get over the power of this feeling of mattering, of being an irreplaceable individual."

When the angel came to Mary, Mary must have said, "I matter, I really matter. I know now that I am an irreplaceable individual."

Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Pick Up the Baby

Sam Levenson tells a wonderful story about the birth of his first child. The first night home the baby would not stop crying. His wife frantically flipped through the pages of Dr. Spock to find out why babies cry and what to do about it. Since Spock's book is rather long, the baby cried a long time. Grandma was in the house, but since she had not read the books on childrearing, she was not consulted. The baby continued to cry. Finally, Grandma could be silent no longer. "Put down the book," she told her children, "and pick up the baby."

Good advice. Put down the book and pick up the baby. Spend time with your children. Particularly at Christmastime. We have the mistaken notion that good parents give their children lots of things. Wrong.

In a survey done of fifteen thousand schoolchildren the question was asked, "What do you think makes a happy family?" When the kids answered, they didn't list a big house, fancy cars, or new video games as the source of happiness. The most frequently given answer was "doing things together." Notice the joy with which Mary and Elizabeth greeted the news of their pregnancy.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL

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Live the Lullaby - Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) by Leonard Sweet

Every baby will keep every parent up all night, at least once. It’s a rule. Whether because they are teething or colicky, anxious or tummy-troubled, or just plain fussy, it’s part of a baby’s mission in life to keep its parents awake weeping and wailing.

We parents are “hard-wired” to respond to an infant’s cries. What has kept us grieving all week, a grief that can’t be spoken? What has kept our hearts hurting all week, a pain that won’t go away? When an infant or child is in trouble, or hurt, or killed, both our right and left brains insist we must do something to “fix” the situation. If our hearts melt at the mere sound of a distressed infant, how much more do our hearts overflow in anguish at the sight of children being harmed or in harm’s way – even if our own nerve endings are jangling and cross-firing.

Before there were “white noise” recordings, washing machines, or long car rides to soothe the plaintive cries of a child, parents in every culture on the planet came up with the same plan to quiet a crying child — lullabies. Sweet melodies, slowly cadenced, softly sung, lullabies “lull” little ones into a dreamy place. They also have almost lulled me to my doom. One of my favorite CDs is Tom Wasinger’s “The World Sings Goodnight,” which I have downloaded into the playlist of my truck. These 33 lullabies are from all over the world - Bolivia, Indonesia, Poland, Russia, Ethiopia, Japan, Egypt, India, Algeria, Iran, to name a few other than the more obvious ones from the US and Canada. My problem is that as I’m barreling down the highway listening to these lullabies, I’m also being lulled to sleep...

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Sermon Opener - Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen!

I am holding in my hands a copy of one of the world’s most revolutionary documents. In it are found these immortal words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. . .” Of course, that document, the Declaration of Independence, is the charter of the American Revolution. Though we have not yet lived up to it, it has been the vision that inspires us. The only document I know that is more revolutionary is in our Bible. It is called the Magnificat and is found in Luke, chapter 1, verses 39 through 56.

Back before India won its independence, it was under British rule. Bishop William Temple of the Anglican Church warned his missionaries to India not to read the Magnificat in public. He feared that it would be so inflammatory that it might start a revolution!

The document is all the more remarkable when one remembers that it came from the lips of a simple, teenage girl named Mary. She grew up in the obscure village of Nazareth in what is now northern Israel. The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she had been chosen to be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah. Gabriel told Mary that her aunt Elizabeth, well past the child-bearing age, had become pregnant. Immediately Mary went to visit Elizabeth. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, both women sensed that God has chosen them for special tasks and would do great things through their children.

Mary was then given by the Holy Spirit insights far too profound for a simple teenager to originate. She declared the impact that her son would have upon the world. She announced three distinct revolutions, which Jesus would instigate and activate. She spoke of these revolutions in the past tense, as if they had already happened. The world has been reeling ever since under the influence of our revolutionary Lord.

A world shaping revolution is in place. With these events in view let us turn not to the UN, not to any world leader, but to a young peasant girl named Mary, for it is HER words that are illustrated by these world events. Let’s consider that it was SHE that gave birth to the Revolution that is the pattern for all others.

1. The first nature of the revolution is spiritual.

2. The second nature of the revolution is social.

3. The third nature of the revolution is economic.

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Sermon Opener – Beware of Cute by Leonard Sweet - Luke 1:39-56

Beware of Cute.

This is the time of year when we need to be on high alert for cute.

We love cuteness. This is a cute-driven culture. And this season of year turns everything it touches into glitz and cuteness.

But the story of Jesus’ birth wasn’t cute.

The Annunciation wasn’t cute.

The virgin birth wasn’t cute.

The Magnificat wasn’t cute.

The little town of Bethlehem wasn’t cute.

The killing of the innocents wasn’t cute.

The nativity genealogy puts Mary in the lineage of Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheeba, and Ruth (yes, the one who snuck in to the rich Boaz’s tent at night while he was sleeping to seduce him). Jesus’ genealogy is not cute.

Golgatha wasn’t cute.

“Crux” in Latin means cross. The crux of Christianity is the cross. And the cross isn’t cute.

The old Christian calendar had ways of resisting this cultural drift into cuteness.

On 26 December, the church celebrated the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. On 28 December the death of the infants whom Herod killed was remembered. In other words, the Christmas story was part of a larger story that dealt with injustice, suffering and even death. The joy of Christmas wasn’t a cute joy, but a joy that overcame obstacles and negatives…

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Prepare Yourself to Rejoice

I heard about a couple of women who noticed a nativity scene in the window of a department store. One of them turned to the other and said: "Would you look at that. I can't believe it. The Church is trying to horn in on Christmas, too."

The point is, unless we're careful, unless we prepare, Christmas and the Good News it brings are easy to miss in the midst of all the festivities and parties and celebrations. We have to be careful and prepare ourselves and our families to rejoice in "God our Savior."

Billy D. Strayhorn, Invited to Rejoice

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Humility and Emmanuel (God with Us)

Humble people are those who feel unworthy of any blessing or honor bestowed upon them. The shepherds would never have considered themselves worthy of hearing the good news from the angel and the choir of angels nor of seeing the Christ Child. In 1979 a Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa, was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Most of her adult life was spent ministering to the poor and diseased in Calcutta, India. She accepted the prize with the comment, "I am unworthy." The humble person receives at Christmas the greatest prize of Christ and responds likewise, "I am unworthy."

Our humble God comes to humble people like the shepherds who know they are outcasts because of their sins. It is a paradox that the best people consider themselves the worst sinners. The greatest leader of Israel, Moses, was told by God at the burning bush to remove his sandals for he was on holy ground. His sandals represented his sinfulness. The great prophet, Isaiah, confessed, "I am a man of unclean lips." The great Christian, Paul, confessed that he was "chief of sinners."

When the funeral cortege of Charlemagne came to the cathedral, they were shocked to find the gate barred by the bishop. "Who comes?" shouted the bishop. The heralds answered, "Charlemagne, Lord and King of the Holy Roman Empire!" Answering for God, the bishop replied, "Him I know not! Who comes?" The heralds, a bit shaken, answered, "Charles the Great, a good and honest man of the earth!" Again the bishop answered, "Him I know not. Who comes?" Now completely crushed, the heralds say, "Charles, a lowly sinner, who begs the gift of Christ." "Him I know," the bishop replied. "Enter!

Receive Christ’s gift of life!" It is only when in humility we see ourselves as nothing that God can create something out of nothing. When we stop and think that God in Christ loves us by coming to earth to make us good, we are overwhelmed with gratitude.

John and Barbara Brokhoff, (In the Chapter: Born to Make us Good), There's Always Hope, CSS Publishing Company, pp. 38-39.

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Competitiveness and Women

In the musical, My Fair Lady, the leading male character asks, "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" I'm not certain the world now needs a new crop of competitive, masculine women. The world has enough of competition, jousting for honored places, dog eat dog, crawl, scratch and kick your way to the top of the pile. That lifestyle is what causes wars and always has. Perhaps the question for our day is, "Why can't a man be more like a woman," more cooperative than competitive, more intimate than public, more accepting of others than needing to parade the colors, wave the sword, and perpetually seek to prove who's number one?

In short, why can't a man be more like Mary.

Charles H. Bayer, When It Is Dark Enough, CSS Publishing.

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Hopelessness

The message of Christmas is that God intrudes upon the weak and the vulnerable, and this is precisely the message that we so often miss. God does not come to that part of us that swaggers through life, confident in our self-sufficiency. God leaves his treasure in the broken fragmented places of our life. God comes to us in those rare moments when we are able to transcend our own selfishness long enough to really care about another human being.

On the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over the child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

God hears those prayers and it is in just such situations of hopelessness and helplessness that his almighty power is born. It is there that God leaves his treasure. In Mary and in all of us, as Christ is born anew within.

Staff, www.SermonIllustrations.com

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Divinity Clothed with Dust

It is said that Henry David Thoreau once spent a whole day in Walden Pond up to his neck in the water. His idea was to see and experience the world as a frog sees it. But Thoreau did not become a frog!

"Sesame Street" is closer to the Christmas story. They had a skit one time of the old fairy tale where the beautiful princess kisses an ugly frog and the frog becomes a handsome prince. In the Sesame Street telling, however, the princess kissed the frog, whereupon she turned into a frog herself. That is closer to what we celebrate at Christmas. God did not swoop down and survey the human situation from a safe distance. God emptied himself. He lay aside his celestial robes to don the simple raiment of a man. Divinity clothed itself with dust.

King Duncan, www.Sermons.com, Collected Sermons

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Virgin Birth

We call it the virgin birth, and it is one of the most incredible ideas that was ever introduced to the world. Many of us may accept the virgin birth of Jesus on the basis of biblical authority, but we do not understand it. I have a beautiful little friend in the seventh grade whose name is Kristin. She is a very bright and sensitive girl, but she does not understand everything she hears in church. (I am sure that many of us can identify with that!) One day when Kristin was in the cafeteria at school, one of her curious friends asked her, "Are you a virgin?" Well, Kristin was really on the spot because she did not know what a virgin was. But she did some quick thinking that went like this: The only virgin she had heard of was Mary, and everyone knows that Mary had a baby. Therefore, a virgin must be a woman who has had a baby.

Thus armed with that conclusion, Kristin announced loudly to her friend in the cafeteria, "No! I am not a virgin!" As several people nearby registered their shock, one little boy leaned over and whispered in her ear: "Kristin, I don’t think you know what you are talking about!"

Many of us, adults included, do not know what we are talking about when we are talking about the virgin birth, but as I understand it, the virgin birth means that Jesus came from God. He is God’s Son. The emphasis is not primarily on Mary, but on the creative life-giving power of Almighty God. As Reginald H. Fuller, the theologian, expresses it, Jesus is not the product of human evolution, the highest achievement of the human race, but he is the product of the intervention of a transcendent God into human history.

John Thomas Randolph, The Best Gift, CSS, 1983, pp. 24-25

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Believing Important Messages (v. 45)

On January 23, 1909, a small invention played a crucial role in the lives of 1500 people. The New York-bound ocean liner the "Florida" rammed into the "Republic." Jack Binns, the Republic's new wireless radio man, reassembled his contraption which had been destroyed in the collision. He sent out distress calls for the next 12 hours until the crew and passengers were rescued in the dawn light of Sunday morning. Only a few died.

Jack Binns became a national hero. He was given a ticker tape parade. Songs were written about him. He even testified before congress on the importance of regulating wireless technology on all ships. Congress listened politely but ignored his message. Binn gave up his quest, accepted no profit from his celebrity, and went back home to England to await reassignment. Three years later he received an assignment aboard a ship that he turned down. He had fallen in love and was soon to marry. The turned down assignment? The Titanic.

It is now felt that Binn's message was ignored because so few lives were lost on the Republic. It took tragedy on the scale of the Titanic for the importance of wireless to be understood.

Why are we like this? We ignore wisdom to our own peril. I wonder what would have happened to Mary had she ignored the message told her. We shall never know. We learn in our lesson that she did not turn a deaf ear. She believed what she had been told and as a result she is called blessed.

Extra note to the above illustration: You might want to compare the excerpt from the song Jack Binns (1909) to the song of Mary. This illustration was drawn form a documentary about wireless technology aired on PBS. Here is the opening of that song:

There's a hole in the side of the ship "Jack Binns,"

The Captain above him cried;

Give a message at once to the wandering winds,

"Aye, aye, sir, Jack Binns replied.

The Captain was brave, but braver was he

Who sat in his room with his hand on the key

And steadily sounded his CQD

To people somwhere outside.

The nations are coming, to help us distressed,

They've answered my call from the east and the west,

And cutter and liner are doing their best

The couriers of death to outride.

Jack Binns, Jack Binns, Bravest of all the crew;

Jack Binns, Jack Binns, the world loves and honors you.

Composed by Mrs. W. B. Bull, Published by A.W. Perry & Sons' Music Company.

The entire song can be viewed here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rescue/sfeature/song_text.html

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com

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You Might Let God Out

There's wonderful story about a six-year-old girl who got a brand new Bible at Sunday school. She proudly walked into the Worship service with the Bible tucked under her arm. She sat down with her family and put the Bible between her and an elderly man sitting in the same pew. The man picked up the Bible and asked the little girl if he could look at it. "You can look at it, but don't open it," warned the child. "You might let God out!"

We would all be better off, the world would be a better place, if like Mary, we let God out and into our hearts and lives so that the promises of God could live on.

Billy D. Strayhorn, Mary’s Song

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As A Little Child

William Willimon, dean of the chapel at Duke University, questions: Don’t you find it interesting that when the great Lord, the Creator of the universe, the One who hung the stars in the heavens and set the planets spinning in their courses, when this great God chose to come among us he chose to come to us as a baby? And when that baby grew up, he told those who would be his disciples, “You cannot enter my kingdom unless you turn and become as a little child.”

Joel D. Kline, A Complete Turnaround

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“Yes” to Faith

Jane Adams was only seven years old when she visited a shabby street in a nearby town, and seeing ragged children there, announced that she wanted to build a big house so poor children would have a place to play. As a young adult, Jane and a friend visited Toynbee Hall in London, where they saw educated people helping the poor by living among them. She and her friend returned to Chicago, restored an old mansion, and moved in. There they cared for children of working mothers and held sewing and cooking classes. Older boys and girls had clubs at the mansion. An art gallery and public music, reading, and craft rooms were created in the mansion.

Jane didn’t stop there. She spoke up for people who couldn’t speak for themselves. She was eventually awarded an honorary degree from Yale. President Theodore Roosevelt dubbed her "American’s most useful citizen," and she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. No matter how famous she became, Jane Adams remained a resident of Hull House, where she eventually died. (from God’s Lessons of Life for Mom, Honor Books)

As long as there are ordinary people, like Jane Adams, who are willing to give love to the ills of society there will always be hope. Jane Adams said "Yes" to faith and trusted in God to be with her. Mary and Elizabeth said "Yes" to faith and brought forth a savior. My we all say "Yes" to faith and allow God to make us instruments of hope and love.

Keith Wagner, Real Hope

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Humor: The Real Reindeer

Interesting item in the paper the other day. "According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year...Male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer, however, retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen...had to be a female." The comment was included, "We should've known this when they were able to find their way."

That has nothing to do with the sermon other than serve to introduce us to our lesson from the Gospel of Luke which, above all the books in the New Testament, highlights women.

David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons

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I Believe in Christmas

I believe that God's good news sweeps away all of the world's bad news like a broom sweeps away dust.

I believe God brings hope in the midst of despair and healing in the midst of hurt.

I believe God brings peace in the midst of strife and comfort in the midst of grief.

I believe God brings companionship to the lonely and family to the forgotten.

I believe God brings power to the weak and justice for the oppressed.

Most of all, I believe God brings new life in the midst of death.

Do you believe?

David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Joy Rooted in Obedience

Hannah Whitall Smith's classic, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, contains a line that goes to the heart of the issue of joy in the life of faith. "Perfect obedience would result in perfect happiness if only we had perfect confidence in the power we were obeying." The joy of our celebration is rooted in the obedience of Mary and Joseph and then of Jesus whose heart's desire was to honor God and obediently carry out the work God gave him to do on our behalf.

John P. Jewell, Lectionary Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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The Poverty in the Christmas Story

The gospel story for today could be entitled, “The Original Christmas Pageant.” In both the first two chapters of Luke and in the rest of the gospel, we hear of God’s special concern for the poor. Both in the whole gospel of Luke and in the first two chapters of prelude, there is a preoccupation with those who live in poverty. I would like to suggest to you that the forgotten element of Luke’s original Christmas pageant is the theme of poverty and poor people themselves. The poverty of the Christmas story is often the forgotten element.

Dr. Walter Pilgrim’s book about the gospel of Luke is entitled, GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. This professor, who is from Pacific Lutheran University and often teaches at our congregation, reminds us that ALL of the characters from Luke’s original Christmas pageant were poor people. ALL of them! The story about the three wise men with their gold, frankincense and myrrh is not a story from the gospel of Luke but from the book of Matthew. For Luke, ALL the characters in his Christmas play are poor people.

Edward F. Markquart, Luke's Original Christmas Pageant

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Saint Nicholas

Christmas was and is the feast for the poor. Christmas is a festival for the poor, a banquet for the poor. We are reminded that at Christmas time (and all times), the poor are to be exalted, the hungry are to be filled, the handicapped and blind are to be nourished. These values are at the heart of the original Christmas pageant in the gospel of Luke, and these same values are found then in the rest of Luke’s gospel as well. The poor are to be exalted, not only at Christmas time, but also throughout the whole year.

This Christmas gospel, this original Christmas pageant, continues in the story about St. Nicholas. You have learned before, in other sermons and classes, that St. Nicholas was a figure from history and was a bishop of Smyrna in Turkey in the year 350 A.D. St. Nicholas, as you recall, was not some fat bellied, red suited, white bearded old man. St. Nicholas did not have eight rein deer, one with a red nose. St. Nicolas did not have a toy factory located near the North Pole and subsidized by Toys R Us. Nor did St. Nicholas sing his favorite song, “I know when you’ve been sleeping; I know when you’re awake; I know when you’ve bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. O, you better watch out…” St. Nicolas’s vision was not to terrorize all the children into being good children and then if they were good, to give them a present. Not at all. St. Nicholas was a historical figure, the kindly bishop of Smyrna, who went around giving presents to poor children. Not to children who had sent letters to the North Pole. Not to those who were good. Not to children who were rich. No. St. Nicholas himself was a poor person and he gave presents to poor children. St. Nicholas understood that in the original Christmas pageant. The original Christmas pageant was a pageant for the poor.

Edward F. Markquart, Luke's Original Christmas Pageant

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Jumping for Joy

For our eight year old decorating the tree is the highlight of her holiday. This year as each old, beloved ornament was re-discovered, she crooned over it, declaring each in turn to be her favorite, and recalling the family history of each beautiful or bedraggled piece. As usual there were a few casualties a beak broken off a bird ornament, a tear starting to develop along one handmade snowflake, the hook missing from a decorated seashell. But tape and glue was quickly dispatched. No manner of chips, crunches, or cracks could squelch her joy.

After everything had finally been carefully placed on the tree, our daughter began jumping on the couch in flagrant disregard of the standard house rule: no jumping. At the peak of each jump, with her eight-year-old height no longer a limitation, our daughter could see the ornaments hanging at the very top of the tree, and then enjoy the expanding width and number of decorations as her bounce took her back down to the couch cushion. With every bounce up and bounce down, she reveled in the full glory of the brightly lit, weighted down tree. Squeals, oohs, and aahhs accompanied each jubilant bounce.

I had seen the Bible first-hand: She was literally jumping for joy.

Leonard Sweet, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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You Can’t Stop God

In a book titled Whispering the Lyrics, Dr. Tom Long takes us back to an ugly time in our own history:

"During the prime days of the struggle for racial integration in the South, black civil rights workers--'freedom riders' they were called--would travel on buses from city to city, challenging segregationist laws. Sometimes they were greeted with violence; often they were arrested. In one town, a bus was halted by the police and the passengers booked and jailed. While they were there, the jailers did everything possible to make them miserable and to break their spirits. They tried to deprive them of sleep with noise and light during the nights. They intentionally over salted their food to make it distasteful. They gradually took away their mattresses, one by one, hoping to create conflict over the remaining ones.

"Eventually the strategies seemed to be taking hold. Morale in the jail cells was beginning to sag. One of the jailed leaders, looking around one day at his dispirited fellow prisoners, began softly to sing a spiritual. Slowly, others joined in until the whole group was singing at the top of their voices and the puzzled jailers felt the entire cellblock vibrating with the sounds of a joyful gospel song. When they went to see what was happening, the prisoners triumphantly pushed the remaining mattresses through the cell bars, saying, 'You can take our mattresses, but you can't take our souls.'"

Tom Long says, "It was the hymn singers who were in jail, but it was the jailers who were guilty. It was the prisoners who were suffering, but the jailers who were defeated. It was the prisoners who were in a position of weakness, but it was the broken and bigoted world of the jailers . . . that was perishing."

Friends, you can't stop God. Once God begins moving, the best you can do is get out of the way. God was at work at the manger of Bethlehem. God was at work redeeming the world to Himself. No wonder the baby leaped. Christmas is an exciting time. God has come into the world. God's plan for the world is being fulfilled. It is a time for leaping for joy.

Thomas Long, Whispering the Lyrics, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Jesus Is with Us Forever

In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They related the following story in their own words:

It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. (No colored paper was available in the city.)

Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby's blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States. The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help.

All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat -- he looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy's manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously.

For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?" And Jesus told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him---for always."

As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him -- FOR ALWAYS.

David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Finding Salvation

The good news of the Magnificat is that it is not too late to find the salvation of which Mary spoke. A relationship that comes not with an overpowering force, but a relationship that comes with a change of heart, a change that leads us to spiritual awakening. It was one of those moments that changed the life of Augustine. He was struggling with his own soul, searching for something more in life and how the whole thing could have meaning. He was reading his Bible one day, when a strong breeze suddenly opened it to Romans 8. He began to read the very thing of which Mary sang. Down through the ages, those who would become influential servants of God have told their stories over and over again. I recall the story of the Baptist preacher, D. L. Moody. He said: "I heard an evangelist one night: This century has yet to see what God could do with one person wholly committed to his will." Moody said in his heart of hearts, "By the grace of God, I'll be that person." He emerged from the obscurity of selling shoes into an influence that effected a great portion of a nation. It is obvious from Mary's song that we can participate in the miracle of his kingdom coming and his will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Gary L. Carver and Tom M. Garrison, Sermons for Sundays in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany: Building a Victorious Life, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Christmas in the Midst of Songs

No season of the year sings as well as Christmas. This seems to be true whether one is a saint or a sinner. The world about us has occasional songfests for patriotic days or school homecoming celebrations, but those songs are sung by selected groups in isolated places. Only at the Christmas season does the majority of the population choose to sing or to listen to the singing of others. Some of the songs which now mark the Christmas and Advent season are poor secularizations of the original Christmas theme. But even as derivations and deviations from the true theme, they carry some measure of the joy of the season.

This isn't surprising because Christmas was born in the midst of songs. The Gospel of Luke says it most specifically, but many of us feel it instinctively. It seems inevitable that the words spoken by Gabriel to Mary, by Mary and by Zechariah in their occasions of rejoicing, by the angels to the shepherds, and by Simeon in the temple were sung. They are too exultant to be spoken without benefit of tune and rhythm.

J. Ellsworth Kalas, Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Cycle C, CSS Publishing Company

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A Lifelong Bond

Scientists tell us that there is a most amazing, and thus-far inexplicable, phenomenon called “quantum entanglement.” If two particles of energy are kept in close proximity to each other for a long time, they form a relationship, a kind of bond, that defies the imagination. The connection between these two particles is so strong that if you take one particle to a laboratory in Los Angeles and remove the other one to a lab in New York City, whatever you do to the particle in L.A. will instantly happen to the one in New York, too. Einstein called it “spooky.” It also defied his theory that nothing can travel faster than light. Somehow, however, once particles form this kind of bond, it cannot be severed no matter how great the distance between the two becomes.

A similar but opposite thing happened between Mary and Elizabeth. In this case, two separate people formed a relationship across a great distance, a relationship that finally drew them together. Yes, they were cousins to begin with, but you get the feeling that the difference in their ages meant they had never been all that close. You know how it goes at family get-togethers: the cousins already in college hang out together while the younger elementary school-age kids do the same and the two groups don’t mix and mingle much. Mary and Elizabeth also did not live terribly close by each other. But something remarkable, something filled with holy mystery, happened to both of these women and so despite their geographic and chronological distance from each other, these two formed a bond across that distance—a bond that would last the rest of their lives.

Scott Hoezee, comments and observations on Luke 1:39-55.

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Dedicated to God

In his book, Reaching for the Invisible God, Philip Yancey tells about a surgeon friend of his who performs delicate surgery to rebuild the human hand after a severe injury. Whenever he gets a call that there has been an accident, the doctor knows that he will be staring into a microscope and doing delicate surgery for six hours. And this can happen at all hours of the day or night.

On one occasion, he was called at 3 o'clock in the morning. He was worried about being able to concentrate enough during the surgery so he hit upon a novel approach that helped him. He called his father even though he was waking him up at 3 a.m., and told his dad that he was going to dedicate this surgery to him.

Then during the six hours of surgery, he imagined that his dad was there with him encouraging him and even putting his hand on the doctor's shoulder during the surgery. The doctor reported that this technique was so successful that he decided to dedicate all his surgeries to someone. So he would call a friend or a relative and tell them that he was about to enter surgery and that this coming surgery was dedicated to them.

But finally, he hit upon the idea of dedicating the surgery to God. And he reported that it was amazing the power of such dedication. He could sense that God was with him. For this doctor, it was a specific way of living for God.

We should do the same thing. We should live our lives with the sense that we are dedicating every moment to God. Then we should sense God's presence with us and even God's hand on our shoulder.

So Mary and Elizabeth give us two techniques for making the mess magnificent. First, ask "What is God saying to me in this mess?" Second, dedicate ourselves to God.

Mickey Anders, This Magnificent Mess

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Encouragement from a Friend

Theodor was an artist of sorts. He drew cartoons for a living but he wasn’t getting anywhere. So, he decided to try his hand at writing and illustrating children’s books. After twenty-seven rejections of his book, “A Story No One Can Beat,” he was ready to give up. On his way home to burn his manuscript, Theodor ran into an old schoolmate who had just been hired as a children’s book editor at Vanguard Press. He suggested that Theodor change his title. The name of his book was, “To think it Began on Mulberry Street.” Fortunately it finally made it to press.

Thus began the career of the best-selling children’s author of all time, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1984, he was also awarded eight honorary degrees. When Dr. Seuss died at the age of 87, his books had sold more than 200 million copies. What made the difference was a kind suggestion and little encouragement from an old friend.

Keith Wagner, The Magnificence of God