OH NO! ANOTHER CHRISTMAS SERMON!

OH NO! ANOTHER CHRISTMAS SERMON!
It is the fattest folder in my file cabinet. A pastor once jokingly told me that he knew it was time to retire after 30 years in his church because he couldn’t come up with another Christmas sermon. I have been preaching in the same church for 27 years. My “Christmas Messages” file is full while my brain seems empty. I have preached 40 Christmas sermons not counting Christmas Eve and Christmas program homilies. I have preached 6 sermons from the Old Testament, 27 from the Gospels, 6 from the epistles and 2 from Revelation.
 
This week, I have to preach a Christmas sermon again. What will I talk about? How can I make the old themes come alive in new ways? 
 
Preaching is a form of remembering. We rehearse the familiar themes because people need reminders. Television re-runs can be popular, and we all watch our favorite Christmas movies over again. The power of the Christmas message is its familiarity for Christians, so I try not to forget the value of remembering as I preach. Christmas sermons herald the good news like the angels did long ago. We announce good news to all who will hear. We all need good news, and there is no better news than what Jesus did for us by coming into this world.
 
However, I still need to find fresh insights, learn things, see the story from a new angle if I am to preach with passion. If it is not fresh to me, it won’t be fresh to the listener. My challenge as a preacher is to bring a fresh perspective to an old story. How do I do that without manipulating either the text or the people in the service of novelty?

THE GREAT CHRIST COMET

I chose to read a new book by Colin Nicholl entitled The Great Christ Comet: Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem, published in 2015. I read the book skeptically. We have all endured the endless speculations about the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem, and I assumed that this book would be no different. I was wrong. Colin Nicholl has written a fascinating, if overpriced, book. He is a fine New Testament scholar whose exegesis is careful. He takes the biblical text very seriously but adds the scientific calculations of reputable astronomers from the Armagh Observatory to help him arrive at his conclusions. I found his arguments compelling from a biblical perspective even if I could not follow the extensive astronomical calculations. 
 
Nicholl’s thesis is that God used a comet appearing in the constellation Virgo to get the attention of the Magi from Babylon in 7/6 B.C. and draw them to Bethlehem to worship Christ. The Magi tell Herod that they “saw His star in the east” (Mt. 2:2). The Greek construction literally reads “at the rising.” Nicholl argues that this is not the daily rising of a star but a heliacal rising which is the predawn emergence of a comet over the eastern horizon. The Comet would continue to rise in the southeastern sky each evening, migrating across the sky over several hours to the southwestern horizon. They could follow this migration southwest on their journey from Babylon to Jerusalem.
 
The Magi leave Herod to go to Bethlehem in the story. The text says that the star “went before them until it stood over where the Child was” (Mt. 2:9).  Comets, unlike stars or planets, seem to change direction and even appearance. The comet would have moved from the southeast to the southwest that night, seemingly leading them to Bethlehem. The comet would then have dropped in altitude toward the horizon until it would look like it was “standing” over the house from their perspective. When a straight-tailed comet moves down near the horizon it can assume a vertical formation with the head down and the tail almost vertical in the sky very much like it was pointing to a specific location.

VIRGO AND HYDRA

One of the unique insights Nicholl brings to the story is his discussion of Revelation 12 from an astronomical perspective. He argues that John is describing the constellation Virgo combined with the constellation Hydra. Nicholl suggests that the comet appeared in the womb of the virgin (Virgo) and this startling astronomical sight caught the attention of the Magi in Babylon. The comet would have moved downward in the “womb” of Virgo until it seemed to be born of the virgin. The constellation Hydra would have moved in a way that appeared to be an attempt to devour the comet. They were watching a cosmic nativity play.
 
The Magi would have been very familiar with the zodiac so the nativity play would have caught their attention. However, they would have needed input from Jewish scholars living in Babylon to put this astrological phenomenon together with the prophecies of Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 7:14 and 9:2. Only then could they conclude that it was the sign of the Messiah.

I STILL NEED A SERMON!

Nicholl’s book is an interesting and well-written study that brings a fresh perspective to the Christmas story. However, I still need to preach a sermon. How does this help me? God used general revelation in a specific way that caught the attention of pagan astrologers in Babylon. As master of the cosmos, He used the very tools they would understand (the zodiac) to draw them to Christ. Here is my angle for the sermon, my rhetorical stance. God talks to us in our language at Christmas. How is God talking to you this Christmas? Are you listening? How will you respond?

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