Pause at the manger.

First Sunday in Advent--Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Series A

If I am not preaching somewhere Christmas Eve, I will be tempted to stay home. Yes, I will miss the carols and the candlelight, and receiving Christ incarnate in the Sacrament. But, after visiting Lutheran congregations the last few Christmases, I am weary of sermons that are more about the shepherds than about the Christ. Preachers seem to latch on to the fact that the shepherds "made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed" (Luke 2:17-18). Hurrying past the manger as they hurry through the story, they arrive at the shepherds and exhort the congregation to do the same.

So if the congregation plays the shepherds in this Christmas pageant, the preacher must have typecasted him- or herself in the role of head angel. Let's review the script. Nowhere does the angel tell the shepherds to do anything! "Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: You will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger'" (Luke 2:9-12).

No exhortation to do anything. Just the good news. Joy L. McDonald Coltvet, author of these reflections, asks, "Who's coming to worship tonight?" Joy remembers the stranger, the one for whom family is a burden, the one coming alone during this season when family is so emphasized, coming alone for the first time since a loved one died this year. She reminds us that, at some level, all who come ask "Will God come and save us from our materialism? from my grief? from our brokenness? from my loneliness? from our stress? from my addiction? from our burdens? Will God be present tonight?" That's the question I bring to worship on Christmas Eve--Will God come and save us? Will God be present tonight? If you, preacher, answer that question in such a way that your hearers pause at the manger long enough to do what the shepherds did on their own without being told (dare to believe, want to look more closely, be so amazed that the words just flow out of their mouths), your sermon will be a gift to all who gather.

Joy currently serves LSTC as Director of Vocation and Recruitment and Co-Director of the Office of Vocation, Admissions and Financial Aid. She graduated from Luther College and is an alumna of LSTC. During seminary, she trained at Bethany, an African American Lutheran congregation on Chicago's south side. She interned at rural St. John's in Pearl City and St. Paul's in Kent, Illinois. She volunteered at Holden Village. Ordained in 2001, she served as associate pastor at Galilee Lutheran in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and as campus pastor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During five years in Wisconsin, she planned and led worship for synod assemblies and leadership events and was the local worship coordinator for the ELCA's Global Mission Event in Milwaukee. She has written for The Word in Season, Sundays and Seasons 2007, and the Women of the ELCA online magazine, Cafe: Stirring the Spirit Within. She is married to Ben and they live in Chicago.

During the time Joy wrote these reflections, she participated in two synod assemblies and talked with colleagues in both the Greater Milwaukee Synod and the Metro Chicago Synod about these seasons. She listened to Pastor Pat Keen, who serves in New Orleans, and heard about work there since the hurricanes of 2005. These past months, Joy has been reading books by Martha Beck, whose stories have been running through her head during this whole process. Joy was also part of an immersion trip to Mexico as part of LSTC's Youth in Mission program. The group visited the Lutheran Center in Mexico City and communities within and around Cuernavaca, and heard from people who struggle to make ends meet and who work for justice with marginalized people.

Joy describes this period of the church year as "a story-filled season." She writes that in these seasons, "each Gospel writer's voice pops in from time to time. Their stories are intermingled and combined. Their stories are pressed up against, flow from and change the meanings of texts in the Hebrew scriptures. Suddenly, according to Matthew, the awaited ruler, transformer, messiah Isaiah described is ... Jesus! And Matthew goes to great lengths to show us this truth.

"Then, there are the myriad ways that these holiday readings interplay with our life stories. They evoke the smells, sights, and sounds of childhood Christmas. They remind us of the year when a loved one died as we entered the new year. They bring to mind again the year that we watched a woman's belly grow and a new child emerge, timed perfectly with the season. They point us toward our own unfulfilled hopes and dreams of the ways God is coming into the world--Word made flesh. We wonder what sightings of Christ's presence we might see this year and if we will be able to say with Simeon at the end of our days, "I have seen God's coming, life is complete...."

It's less about telling people what to do and more about helping them to see, hear, touch, taste, and experience Jesus. Blessed Christmas preaching!

Craig A. Satterlee, Editor of Preaching Helps