The Commons

Two Christmas Eve Benedictions:   1) I love roads. Something about horizons and unknowns, boundaries and possibilities. But the best road ever made was the road to Bethlehem.   2) On this night, O Holy Night, “I kiss my hand to the stars” (poet Gerard Manley Hopkins). Let us all…

From the Jewish Communication Network, here are the Top 10 Reasons why Hanukkah is better than Christmas:   10) No roof damage from reindeer 9) Never a silent night when you’re with your Jewish loved ones. 8) If you give a bad gift, you have seven more days to get…

Here is Christmas from the vantage point of English domestic farm life in the 16th century. It is called “Description of the Feast of the Birth of Christ, commonly called Christmas:” Of Christ commeth Christmas, the name with the feast,                 a time full of joie to the greatest and…

“Eugene Petersen has a poem in which he calls this leap in the womb a dance to ‘worldbeat of the womb’s music.’ . . . Beat in our heart and soul and womb, O God. Beat out the rhythm of calm and safety and salvation. Let us all hear the…

Christmas Eve Litany Scripture: Luke 2:1-20 One:      Tonight we tell a story Many:   The story of how God came to be with us. One:      To a virgin and her betrothed Many:   On a cold night, in a town crowded beyond belief One:      With the two of them huddled in a…

THE SIMPLICITY OF GOD Luke 2:1-7 It’s a complicated ordeal, this business of celebrating Christmas. We do make it complicated, don’t we? Tom Tewell, pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan tells the story of a little girl who was carried away with the excitement of Christmas and was…

Dale Bruner, in his New Testament commentary on Matthew:                 Jesus is to be that rare person whose name means exactly what it says. “God-Saves” is not only Jesus’ name, it is his perfect definition; if both words–God, saves–are taken with full seriousness, Jesus is known with full responsibility. If…

One of my favorite stories that I have used at Christmas is simply called “THE TABLECLOTH.” It’s short enough  to read and no one lose interest. Here is it in full: “THE TABLECLOTH” The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first  ministry, to reopen a church…

Here is a great Christmas Eve sermon idea (or any time idea): hand out everyone a candy cane. Then build the sermon around the image of the “cane” as a shepherd’s staff: “thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23). There is a big difference between a shepherd’s…

“And now God says to us what God has already said to the earth as a whole through his grace-filled birth: ‘I am there. I am with you. I am your life. I am your time. I am the gloom of your daily routine—-I am your joy. Do not be…