You've heard the wisdom "When the student is ready, the teacher appears?"
When our hearts and minds are noticing, seeking, yearning, and paying attention, the Spirit sees all that openness and provides just what we need to know, see, or understand.
It's a moment that presents like serendipity, but there's too much grace behind it. I imagine it sets the Holy Spirit to chuckling to watch our delight!
Our preacher's version of that old saying might be, "When the preacher is ready, the Spirit delivers inspiration on a silver platter!"
The right word, insightful phrase, or vivid image leads to a face-palm moment of recognition: "There it is! That's the sermon!”
To that end, I’ve compiled for you a collection of quotes about Christmas in hopes that the teachings of others might spark an epiphany of your own.
Consider, for example, this reflection by poet and author Luci Shaw:
There is always a gap between present reality and future potential.
A gift unwrapped has never been truly received. An uncashed check cannot be spent. A bridge that spans a raging river is useless to us unless we begin to advance across it.
The divide between earth and heaven, between us and God, is one that only Jesus Christ could reconnect. He is our link to life and eternity— a bridge to be stepped onto so that it bears our whole weight as we cross the space from one side to the other.
-Winter Song: Christmas Readings, Madeleine L’Engle and Luci Shaw
What might a sermon be like that focuses on those wrapped gifts under the tree and their future potential? What might it mean this year when the supply chain might have made the usual torrent of gifts, a mere trickle? What is the potential of gifts unseen?
Or how about the wisdom from our teacher, Howard Thurman?
The symbol of Christmas — what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn baby when, forced from its mothers nest, it claims its right to live. It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked path straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hope stirred with the newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.
-The Inward Journey, 1961
We have many crooked paths that need straightening, and rough places that need smoothing.
On this, our second Christmas into the pandemic, our tired hearts need refreshing and our dead hopes need to be stirred with newness of life.
What Word of the Spirit might your congregation need to hear?
And what spark of imagination, courage, and hope do you need for yourself, beloved Preacher?
Here is the Holy Spirit revealing grace, wisdom, and love for you and your sermons through a compendium of teachers in this (free) collection of Christmas quotes.
I pray the Spirit offers you just the word you need for your Christmas sermons—and your spirit.