Christmas 1 sermons
What Happens After the Miracle?, Christmas 1 – December 28, 2025
[RCL] Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147; Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7; John 1:1-18 Let’s start with the obvious: for many people, it’s not really clear why we’re here in church today. We’ve just come off a great festival of Christmas services, with music and candles and all the spectacle you could ever want. So we have to ask the…
In the Beginning…, Christmas 1 – 2024
[RCL] Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18 The first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John are certainly well-known—“In the beginning was the Word.” But this passage can seem too floaty, too esoteric, too obscure, abstract, and idealized. It’s poetry, yes, but it’s not particularly helpful poetry, and when we…
Back in the Box, Christmas 1 – 2023
[RCL] Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 147 or 147:13-21, Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7, John 1:1-18 The poet W.H. Auden captured the after-Christmas feeling very well. Toward the close of his long poem, “For the Time Being,” he wrote: “Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –Some have…
The Season, Christmas 1 – 2021
[RCL] Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18 “’Tis the season to be jolly!” we sing at parties and at church events. Then, on Christmas, we read: “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness,…
Right Relationship, Christmas 1 – 2020
[RCL] Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18 Merry Christmas! Today is the first Sunday of Christmas, and we have all woken up this morning with nothing on our minds but celebrating the coming of Christ incarnate, thanking God for becoming human and living alongside us, and celebrating the incarnation of…
The Same Story, Christmas 1 – 2019
[RCL]: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18 Have you ever noticed that when you get together with your family and start telling stories about when you were growing up, or what happened years ago, the same events sound very different as different people tell the story? Depending on who’s describing…
A Tent Among Us, Christmas 1 – 2018
In today’s Gospel, St. John uses a fascinating image that most of our Bible translations miss. Some of us are accustomed to hearing this majestic and abstract prologue to John’s mystical-leaning Gospel: “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” But we aren’t so used to hearing this: “Jesus became flesh and pitched a tent…
In the Beginning…, Christmas 1 – 2017
The first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John are certainly well-known—“In the beginning was the Word.” But this passage can seem too floaty, too esoteric, too obscure, abstract, and idealized. It’s poetry, yes, but it’s not particularly helpful poetry, and when we read the Bible, most of us like to gather some sort of…
Confusing the Sacred and the Profane, Christmas 1 – 2015
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14 When much of the world might think of this time as a great chance to get sales and deals or to catch up on sleep…
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Kristen LeMay
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