Same Old, Same Old

This is the greatest challenge of preaching on the Christmas story for me; that familiarity breeds contempt. And the particular sort of familiarity people have (including me, by the way) with the Christmas story makes it difficult to break through with something new. I trust that God is always doing something new, even through my preaching, but when it comes to preaching on a story everybody knows, that's hard stuff. Last year, a former colleague told me my sermon "sounded too much like last year's." When I vented about that comment to another colleague, he replied, "hey - Jesus gets born every year. How new can you get?"

On my bookshelf, above my desk, is a list called Wisdom for Pastors, written by Krister Stendahl. One of the pieces advised is this: "you shall not think you already know the message; pray, ponder, be still, and listen." Here's the one right below that: "don't underestimate the power of the Word by not waiting for it to speak."

He is so right about that, and yet during a week when - in perfect irony - there seems to be no time to wait for anything, how is there time to wait for the Word to speak? What if the Word has nothing to say until Monday morning? Too late then.

Simply a bit of homiletical venting, I suppose. There will be something to say - that, God has promised. And I could certainly tune up my listening. Wouldn't that be a change?