Preaching on Christmas Eve is difficult. For me, it’s the most difficult occasion I preach all year. The reason is that I feel as if I’ve already said everything interesting about the Incarnation and used every good illustration and analogy I can come up with in prior years. I’ve honestly been worried about this year’s Christmas sermon for months. (I really liked my Christmas Eve sermon from last year and I knew I couldn’t top it this year.)

At Munger we put on a Christmas Travelers Service the week before Christmas for folks who can’t be at our church on Christmas Eve, and I preach my Christmas sermon at that service as a kind of dress rehearsal. This year’s Travelers service was on Thursday, 12/19; I ended up being disappointed with my sermon, so I threw the whole thing out and started over!

My new Christmas sermon never came together the way I wanted it and I changed it a lot over the course of the day, from service to service, but I can honestly say it wasn’t like any Christmas sermon I’ve ever heard or anything I’d preached before, so that’s something.

Merry Christmas to you all. Love and courage in 2020.

[My Christmas Eve 2019 sermon is called “Christmas War,” and I’ve included the video below, recorded at 7 PM on 12/24/19.]

Christmas War

Christmas means war. Brothers and sisters, here’s how to fight.

Sermon Links

Scripture: Luke 2:13

References:

• Painting: Washington Crossing the Delaware

• Poem: New Heaven, New War, by Robert Southwell

• Watch: Linus and his blanket [it happens at 1:01]

• Churchill and FDR, Christmas Eve 1941