Holiday dos and don'ts.

When you think about it, the church's "Holiday Dos and Don'ts" list is quite simple: "In Advent we prepare. At Christmas we celebrate. During Epiphany, we share the good news." Variations of this simple formula have served the church and its preaching well for centuries. They remind us of exactly what we are supposed to do. Following this formula inevitably leads to "Don't do this; do this" sorts of preaching and practice. Preachers and parishioners alike can recall sermons that drew a line in the snow separating the church's commemoration of Christ's incarnation and the secular celebration of the holiday season. Even when it's not so striking, that line is often there: Don't spend a fortune on gifts; do give to the poor. Don't be harried by holiday preparations; do be still and notice the Christ being bon in you. Don't settle for the glitz and glitter of the mall; do seek the simplicity of the manger. And, of course, the two that drove many of my parishioners crazy over the years: Do not sing Christmas carols during Advent; do wait to put up the tree in the sanctuary until December 24.

While all these holiday dos and don'ts are valuable and true, the church often comes across as giving the right answer to the masses who lack it. I have often wondered whether the only lasting effect of this approach to holiday preaching is that the parish perceives the preacher as Pastor Grinch or Reverend Scrooge.

As Luke L. Bouman examines the appointed texts for the Christmas cycle in this set of Preaching Helps, he breaks with the formula of holiday dos and don'ts and asks my favorite homiletic question: "What is God doing?" Dr. Bouman's simple yet compelling answer is the good news that, against all logic, God is with us. He describes Advent as God's time of preparation, when God calls us to the wilderness, where God regathers and reshapes us for nothing less than God dwelling among us. God prepares us for Christ's incarnation, the people of God for ministry, and the cosmos for rebirth. Rather than flipping the social system of top and bottom, God restores the cosmos to the harmony of creation. At Christmas, God is the One who comes to us in surprising ways. In his reflections for Christmas, Luke Bouman wonderfully lifts some of those surprises out of Luke's familiar story of Jesus' birth. On Epiphany and the Sundays that follow, Christ, the Light for all the nations, returns to the people Israel and serves as the beacon around which all the peoples of earth will gather.

Our role in all of this, as in all of God's doings, is to have faith. Quoting his father, Walter Bouman, Luke defines faith as "the act of trusting God's way of being in the world as our way of being in the world." Preaching that inspires this kind of faith will be less about what we ought and ought not do with our holiday season and more about what God in Christ has done, is doing, and will do. Pastor Bouman encourages preachers to use the same imagination and creativity in preaching on the texts for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany that have long inspired musicians, artists, and writers in their proclamations of these seasons. Rather than drawing a line in the snow, Pastor Bouman invites us to recognize that our culture's interpretation of these texts is as overpowering as it is naive, shallow, or in many cases misleading. It takes special skill to get the word heard when alternatives are proclaimed so loudly. Bouman reflects that, thankfully, these texts help us out by offering good news in clarity and simplicity. These texts have inspired in countless generations of preachers stories that we can mine from our tradition. More important, these texts can still inspire us when we don't approach them as familiar and when we do allow them to surprise and delight us.

Luke Bouman is the pastor of Tree of Life Lutheran Church in Conroe, Texas. He holds a B.A. in History (with a minor in Ancient Greek) from Valparaiso University, where he was a member of Eta Sigma Phi Classics Honorary Society. He graduated from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and was ordained in 1987. He served parishes in Hondo and Austin (both in Texas) prior to coming to Conroe. In 2001 he earned a D.Min from LSTC through the ACTS Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program. Since 2003 he has been one of six regular English-language contributors to the University of Goettingen's online preaching journal "Goettinger Predigten Online." In addition to ordained ministry, he fulfills his baptismal vocation as husband to Kathy, father to Nathan, and "alpha dog" to Merlin, the miniature schnauzer of the house. In his spare time Luke enjoys playing piano, golfing, reading, and writing.

Writing during the hottest week in July, I am mindful of how ready I am for Christmas. The near record temperatures leave me mindful of global warming. Rockets and rhetoric ratchet the situation in the Middle East closer to all-out war. Spending the summer in the parish reminds me anew of the realities and regrets of many of our people's lives. When I say I am ready for Christmas, I do not mean that I am ready to go downtown and escape to the Magnificent Mile. I am ready for God to do something. These texts and seasons proclaim that God is. Do preach all that God is doing. Don't let the holidays get in your way.

Craig A. Satterlee, Editor of Preaching Helps

First Sunday in Advent--Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Series C.