There was a little girl named Lucinda who couldn't wait for Christmas to come. She was so excited about Christmas that she was about to burst! Lucinda loved everything about Christmas. She loved singing Christmas carols, she loved decorating the tree and sending Christmas cards, she loved shopping and wrapping the presents. But, most of all, she loved unwrapping presents on Christmas morning. She couldn't wait to see what she was going to get.

And one year she didn't wait! She sneaked into the closet where her mom and dad had hidden her presents and she peeked. She unwrapped the presents just enough to see what she was going to get. At first she was very excited, because she liked the present…

Once, during the hours of a quiet, starlit night, above the hills of Bethlehem, from a strange voice there came an announcement this world will never forget. To a few shepherds then - and to all the world eventually - that voice said, "Behold! I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be to all people ..."

We cannot be sure what language that messenger spoke - perhaps Hebrew, maybe Aramaic, or possibly some language never named and…

Genesis 47:3 - "Pharaoh said to his brothers, ‘What is your occupation?’ And they said to Pharaoh, ‘Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.’ "

Luke 2:8 - "And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."

This is one of the oldest and most important occupations among the ancient Hebrews. There were two types of shepherds: nomads who followed their flocks from one grazing area to another, and those who lived in villages. The shepherd protected his flock from the cold, robbers, and predatory animals. His only weapons were the staff and sling, although, later dogs were also used.

The shepherd wore a whole animal skin with the wool retained. He may also have worn an undertunic o…

Henri Nouwen told the story of a student who, many years after graduation, returned to sit in his old professor's office where so many questions had been answered and so many problems had been solved. When the student entered he told his professor that he didn't need anything, he came just to visit, to be together. They sat for a while in silence and looked at each other. One broke the silence by telling the other how nice it was to see each other. The other agreed, and then t…

Here is a version of the 23rd Psalm that ought to be mandatory reading each day of Advent, and a unison reading each Advent Sunday.

The lord is my pace setter . . .I shall not rush
He makes me stop for quiet intervals
He provides me with images of stillness which restore m…

I don't know anyone who perceives and probes the world of children and garners from it such great truth and wisdom as Charles Schulz in his Peanut cartoons.  One year during the Christmas season, he put into drawing and dialogue one of those common exchanges between children that has deep and uncommon meaning.  Sally asked Charlie Brown, "Is it Christmas yet?"  "Four more days," responds Charlie Brown.  "How come it takes so long?" Sally wants to know.  Without even looking…

A mother took her three little daughters to a mall to do some Christmas shopping. While they were there the three little girls had an opportunity to sit in Santa Claus' lap and tell him their wishes for Christmas. When they had finished, Santa Claus asked them, "Will you do something for me on Christmas morning?" 

And they said, "Yes!"And Santa Claus said, "I want you to sing ‘Happy Birthday' on Christmas morning?" The little girls we…

Bret Harte, in his classic short story "The Luck of Roaring Camp," tells of the birth of a baby on the American frontier; a baby that made a radical change in a rough-and-tumble mining camp. The only woman in the camp, Cherokee Sal, a disreputable woman at best, died in childbirth, leaving a healthy young baby boy to be raised by the now all-male camp.

These rough, hard men made a decision that would reflect changes that would come later. They considered hiring a woman nurse to care for the baby but eventually decided not to. Their logic was this: a nice nu…

Recently, three men were nervously waiting in the Father's room at the Good Samaritan Hospital as their wives prepared to give births to their first children. The men were too scared to go in.

Soon the head nurse arrived with good news from the birthing rooms. She said to the first father-to-be, "Sir, you are a father of twins!"

"That's great," he said. "I'm a baseball player and I am going to sign…

It doesn't seem that long ago.  It is as clear as yesterday.  It was in the morning, 6:30, a Sunday morning, and I heard the patter of little feet.  And the patter of the feet came into the kitchen, and it was dark in our kitchen except for the light above the kitchen table.  I was putting the finishing touches on the Sunday sermon, and the little child came in half asleep, and he said to me, "Where's the scissors, Dad?"  I gave him the scissors and he went over…

Long ago a young man was starting out as a minister in London. He approached an aged pastor who had spent his lifetime preaching the Gospel.

"You have had a great deal of experience," he said to the old man. "You know how many things that I ought to learn. Can't you give me some advice to carry with me in my duties?" "Yes I can", was the answer. "I will give you a piece of advice. You k…

No one can fracture a Christmas carol better than a kid. Sing along with these new takes on old favorites:

Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly

We three kings of porridge and tar

On the first day of Christmas my tulip gave to me

Later on we'll perspire, as we dream by the fire.…

When people tell me that they are saved and question whether or not I am, I am tempted to say to them, "Well, I'm so happy for you. But no, I'm still a sinner. I'm still working on it. I'm still struggling day by day to be purified and sanctified in God's sight. But God is patient with me and allows me to come, just as I am, without one plea. As I look at myself in the light of God's glory, I know that I am…

A young girl ran away from home to get married.  Her father was angry and said he would never forgive her or ever want to see her again.  She was sorry and wrote long letters seeking forgiveness, but still the father remained unforgiving.  She eventually had a son. One day, when the boy was old enough to run and play, an idea came to her. Why not send her son to her father. …

The Army chaplain of the 106th Division was captured in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Along with many other Americans, he was herded on to a freight car and taken into the heart of Germany.

On the evening of December 23rd, the men were in the railroad yard of a German city, when a devastating attack was made by the British Royal Air Force. Many of the American prisoners were killed as well as many Germans. The next night, Christmas Eve, the air raid was repeated. When the planes began to …

Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier and a deeply committed Christian who lived in France in the fourth century. The story has it that early one winter morning he was met by a beggar who was shivering and blue from the cold. Without hesitation Martin took off his army cloak and wrapped it around the beggar's sho…

There's a great Christmas story about a young boy who was given a very important role in the church Christmas play. He was to be the angel and announce the birth of Jesus. For weeks he rehearsed the line that had been given to him, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy."

The grandparents got in on it and any time the family was together and the boy was there, they would dress him up in his costume and he would rehearse his part for them, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." They were certain that when he grew up, he would be anoth…

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 sugg…

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 clothed, 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 Christmastime, but also throughout the whole year.

This Christmas gospel, this original Christmas pageant, continues in the…

For years folks have complained about that "XMAS" abbreviation. They shout, "Keep Christ in Christmas," decrying the commercialization of the whole season as much as the use of "X." Half of the complaint is valid. No one would deny that the season has been taken over by the wizards of mass marketing in their quest to be the first-est with the most-est. Most of us remember the not too distant past when Christmas advertising began on the day after Thanksgiving. Now we get it in late September. I am told that buyers for the major re…

One of my all time favorite Christmas hymns is "O Little Town of Bethlehem." It has been around since 1868. It 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. It's a story where the divine and the human come together in an amazing but humble way. 

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 ha…

The father of four children told a wonderful story about a particular Christmas morning. They had a rule, like many families, that none of the children could go down to see the gifts until the rest of the family was awake and they could all go together.

The year David was seven, he came bounding into their bedroom at 4:30 a.m., his face glowing with excitement, his mouth running at about ninety miles an hour. "Daddy! Mother! Come quick! I saw it!"

As they w…

Pastor and author Bruce Larson makes the point that when it came to delivering the greatest message on earth, God chose amateurs and nobodies instead of professionals and VIPs. The priests and religious classes were not the first to learn about the Messiah's birth. One would think that they would be the ones with all the appropriate knowledge and social …

In a Christmas sermon on the Incarnation, Martin Luther said, "I would not have you contemplate the deity of Christ, the majesty of Ch…

Sigrid Undset, Norway's greatest writer, was a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and a convert to catholic Christianity. She wrote of the Christ child, "To people of good will, the Prince of Peace, has come as a new-born babe in a crib, and He has chosen to come to us so weak and naked in order that we may…

Take the year 1809. The international scene was tumultuous. All eyes in the world were fastened on Napoleon's violent campaign in Austria Blood was flowing freely. Nobody then cared about babies. But the world was overlooking some terribly significant births.

For example, William Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest statesman. That same year, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. The child …

A great way to end your sermon might be to read Dr. King's Last Christmas Letter. I have seldom seen it referenced, since King is most often cited for his "I Have a Dream" speech. But this Christmas Letter is also a dream speech. So here it is in its entirety.

Greetings of the Season:

When the horizons of man’s destiny loom ashen and somber; when the deafening report of weaponry stuns yearnings for peace; when people are alienated from the outside society, spiritually isolated, and weary of heart; when a child is hungry, a father desperate, and a mother fearful, the beseeching question arises, where can one turn?

This year that question is so relevant and contemporary, so deeply serious and urgent for all who will face it that all of us must search now for a reasoned yet comforting answ…

I love this story: A grade school class was putting on a Christmas play which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. In that class was one little boy who wanted very much to be Joseph. But when the parts were handed out, his biggest rival was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn keeper instead. He was really bitter about this.

So during all the rehearsals he kept plotting in his mind what he might do the night of performance to get even with his rival who was Joseph. Finally, the night of t…

One of my favorite Christmas stories is O'Henry's short story The Gift of The Magi. You are all familiar with it. It is a story about a desperately poor young couple living in New York around the turn of the century. Neither had money sufficient to buy a gift for the other so they each sec…

Oh, you say, had I been there at Bethlehem that night I would have seen. I would have understood. I would have known it was the Christ child. Would you? There is one way of knowing:

Ask yourself what you have seen and heard this Christmas Season.

• When you watched the 6:00 news did you see chaos and strife, or did you see sheep without a shepherd.
 
• When you went out to do your shopping did you see only hordes of people in the stores, or did you notice the worried expressions on some of their faces worried because they are facing this Christmas without employme…

On Christmas Day a small manger scene sat on a table just inside the doorway to a neatly kept home. People hurried past it all day, barely noticing the tiny figures gathered around the infant tucked into golden straw. In the morning children raced by it on their way to the Christmas tree. At noon, arriving guests pushed past it, one accidentally knocking over a shepherd as he took off his winter coat.

Later in the afternoon the well-fed assembly of adults and children moved somewhat slowly by the manger again as they drifted from the dining room back i…

In a story in The Christian Century years ago, Harriet Richie wrote told about an incident in her family's life that revealed to her the true nature of Christmas.

Following their church's late night Christmas Eve service, Harriet's family decided to stop somewhere for a late-night breakfast. The only place open that late on Christmas Eve was a truck stop at a nearby interstate junction.

A few big diesels rumbled outside. Inside a few truckers sat at the counter. A jukebox played a country song that went something like this: "When You Leave, Walk Out Backwards So I'll Think You're Coming In." On the front window were a few multicolored blinking lights. The place smelled like bacon grease and stale cigarette smoke. A one-armed man stood behind the counter. The family squeezed into a booth.…

Many of you are familiar with the 1957 motion picture The Bridge over the River Kwai starring Alec Guinness. It was selected as one of the 100 great films of the 20th century. It is the story of a group of British prisoners of war during World War II held by the Japanese in northern Burma in very difficult circumstances.

Ernest Gordon, at one time chaplain at Yale University, wrote a book called Through the River of the Kwai, which shared his experience as a prisoner in that camp. It is a story of utter degradation and desolation.

Gordon says that when the young soldiers in that camp realized that they were going to be there for a while, they began to have Bible studies and to pray diligently that they would …

Years ago, I was in a department store doing some Christmas shopping. Christmas music was playing and I was getting into the spirit of it all... when suddenly I realized that I was singing along with Natalie Cole. Natalie and I were singing her new Christmas song at the time. It was a big hit, called "My Grown-up Christmas List." Did you ever hear it? In the song, Natalie Cole reminisces about how when she was young, she sat on Santa's …

Author David Bruce, in his book Don't Fear the Reaper, tells a wonderful story about a crotchety old man with a less than positive attitude. One winter, some unknown person went to this elderly man’s house and cleared his driveway. Without saying anything about it and with no expectation of compensation, he cleared the driveway. As if that wasn’t enough, using the snow which he had scraped from the driveway, the anonymous do-gooder made a row of smiling, waving snowmen to line the driveway. Isn’t that beautiful? W…

Chelsey Harmon, of the Center for Excellence in Preaching, tells about an article that appeared in the Southwest Review magazine sometime back. The article was written by Roger Gilbert who reflected on being in a crowd one day with hundreds of other people watching a partial solar eclipse. He reveals that, at the moment the moon became “superimposed” on the sun, “the entire crowd spontaneously burst into applause.”  Then…

We so often hear the expression "the voice of an angel" that it makes us wonder what an angel would sound like. Pastor James S. Hewett did some research and discovered that an angel's voice sounds remarkably like a person saying, "Hurry up!"

Prior to his research, he thought that the voice of an angel would be beautiful. But the words "Get up and hurry!" are rarely beautiful, especially at seven i…

We too often forget about poor Joseph. Every year, we tend to focus on the story of Mary. But this year, it's Joseph.

Now, if the angel can appear to Mary, and then also appear to Joseph, there's a lesson in that. That means that the angel can appear to you and me, too. In the Bible, the annunciation does not occur only once, but twice-not just to a woman, but also to a man.

The Bible, then, carries…

Each year, during the season of Advent, the church sets off on a journey. We begin to prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming of the Christ-child, so that this time he will have a proper place to be born.

And we think we know the way to Bethlehem. We can find it on the map. It's not that far from Jerusalem, by today's standards; shouldn't be a problem.

But the problem is that so much has changed since our last visit. A whole year has passed, a year that brought many changes in our lives, s…

If you ask a travel agent how to get to Bethlehem you'll be booked on an El Al airlines flight to Tel Aviv, ride on an air conditioned coach up through the hills, probably pass through Jerusalem, and then into the tourist trap called Bethlehem. 

Ask anyone in the New Te…

Pastor Earl Palmer of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley tells about Rembrandt’s painting called The Adoration of the Shepherds:

“This is Rembrandt’s interpretation of the visit of the shepherds to the babe in Bethlehem. It is a simple scene in a stable. In the foreground are the mother and child, with Joseph in the shadows in the background. Peering into the manger where the babe is lying are the shepherds, with their sheep scattered around them. They could not leave the sheep in the field, they had to bring them along. Arching ab…

The Rev. John G. Paton, a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands, told a story involving the protective care of angels. Hostile natives surrounded his mission headquarters one night, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. John Paton and his wife prayed all during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came th…

Six Soviet cosmonauts said they witnessed the most awe-inspiring spectacle ever encountered in space—a band of glowing angels with wings as big as jumbo jets. Cosmonauts Vladimir Solovev, Oleg Ackov, and Leonid Kizim said they first saw the ce…

Have you ever seen an angel? Dr. S. W. Mitchell thought he had. Dr. Mitchell was a well-known neurologist in Philadelphia. After one very tiring day he retired early, but he was awakened by a persistent knocking at the door. It was a little girl, poorly dressed and deeply upset. She told him that her mother was very sick and needed his help. Even though it was a bitterly told, snowy night and he was bone tired, Mitchell dressed and followed the girl. He found the mother desperately ill with pneumonia. After treating her, Dr. Mitchell complimented the sick woman on her daugh…

I was a shepherd on that star-filled night
In Bethlehem. I thought of long ago ...
I thought of brave Naomi taking flight
From Moab's land, of Ruth who chose to know

A stranger's lot—a royal daughter, she.
"Entreat me not to leave thee," she had said,
"Thy people shall be mine—so let it be."
Humbly she gleaned the fields, and there she wed

Boaz, and there she bore him a son.
And from this line came David. In these hills
He roamed an…

The following story appeared in the newsletter Our America:

Dodie Gadient, a schoolteacher for thirteen years, decided to travel across America and see the sights she had taught about. Traveling alone in a truck with camper in tow, she launched out. One afternoon rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in rush-hour traffic, a water pump blew on her truck. She was tired, exasperated, scared, and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one seemed interested in helping.

Leaning up against the trailer, she prayed, 'Please God, send me an ange…

The Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament reminds us of that incident, and counsels Christians to make hospitality a Christian virtue. "For you may be entertaining angels unaware." But more than that, you may be doing it to Christ, who said, "If you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me."

Tom Long teaches at the seminary at Princeton. But for a while he lived in Atlanta, and attended a Presbyterian Church in downtown Atlanta. Like most downtown churches, it has to cope with the problem of the homeless. So they opened up their gymnasium in the winter as a shelter. It was the practice of that church, as it is in this church when we …

One summer a farmer named Worthy Taylor hired a young man by the name of Jim to work the farm. Jim had many chores to perform each day. He had to milk the cows and chop the wood. Even though he ate with the family in the farmhouse he slept in the hayloft of the barn. During that summer he got to know and fell in love with the farmer's daughter. He eventually worked up enough courage to ask Farmer Taylor if he…