{"id":23525,"date":"2025-12-12T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/?p=23525"},"modified":"2025-12-16T09:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:19:30","slug":"possibilities-for-christmas-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/possibilities-for-christmas-preaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Possibilities for Christmas Preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><em>&#8220;In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God&#8221;<\/em><\/h1>\n<p><b>By Ann Garrido, D.Min\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every year, the lectionary offers us such a vast array of readings to ponder in preparation for preaching Christmas.\u00a0 There are a different set of readings for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Vigil Mass<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mass during the Night<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mass at Dawn<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mass during the Day<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Often the preaching for Christmas draws on one of the stories associated with Jesus\u2019 birth from Matthew or Luke \u2014 the only two Gospels to include infancy narratives. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Considering all that the year 2025 has brought forward for us, however, I am feeling drawn this Christmas to give extra focus to the opening verses of the Gospel of John (the Gospel reading for Christmas Mass during the Day): \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have experienced a year in which words in the U.S. have been gravely abused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have seen top leaders in both the executive and legislative branches of our government regularly lie under the seeming assumption that truth is something determined by the possession of power rather than reality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have regularly seen scientific expertise dismissed in favor of conspiracy theories. Medical care and research have been impacted across the nation, including within the CDC and FDA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ill-formed judgments about immigrants grounded in inaccurate data has led to the arrest and deportation of many, to such a degree that even the U.S. bishops offered an official statement in November.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extensive research on climate change has been dismissed rather than valued in important government work.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teachers are regularly asked to pass on to the next generation information that they know to be inaccurate and incomplete.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The abuse of words is often perceived as merely a political conundrum, but as Christians, we need to lift up that the abuse of language is moral in nature. It violates what John has proclaimed. Our God has chosen to come among us as \u201cWord.\u201d The feast of Christmas invites us to recommit ourselves to the care of words in our time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are so many ways that we could address this issue from the pulpit during the season and I am trusting that yours will be better than mine! But to get the ideas flowing, I\u2019ve included my sample preaching for Christmas Day below. It assumes a slightly more adult audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JESUS, THE WORD OF GOD<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is a word? All of us have a jumble of thoughts and feelings and who knows what else swirling inside of us, but no one else has access to this internal life unless in some way we express it. Words open the door to what lies inside another, and without words our efforts to understand the other are often stymied. What parent has not held their crying infant in the night and moaned, \u201cI just wish you could talk and tell me what is wrong!\u201d Words create bridges to places otherwise unreachable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not always, of course. In our immediate moment in history, it is clearer than ever that words can be utterly disconnected from reality. We can use words to distract from what is real. We can use them <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">siempre<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to reveal our inner selves but to hide those selves. But when this happens, we must name it for what it is \u2014 an abuse of the very reason for which words exist \u2014 which is to communicate. Listen closely to the root word there: to commune with each other, to make communion possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the weeks leading up to this Christmas feast, I\u2019ve found myself spending more time with scripture than I often do. Maybe you have, too. And I wonder what it is that has drawn me back into the Bible right now. I suspect, in part, it is because the texts of the Advent season are filled with images of hope. They are filled with God\u2019s dreams; visions of what God has planned for us \u2013 where wolves lay down with lambs, and every tear is wiped away, and thousands are fed at mountaintop banquets. And I have needed that hope right now in my life. But, beyond the content of the message alone, I think it is also because I experience God\u2019s words having a power unlike the words I am hearing in the wider world right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What makes them different? Well, God\u2019s word is true. What I mean by that is that all the way throughout scripture there is a total harmony between what God says and what God does. Think of the story of creation in Genesis: God speaks \u201clight\u201d and there <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">est\u00e1<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> light. God speaks the separation of water and earth, and there is separation. There is no distance between God\u2019s speech and God\u2019s will, no gap between God\u2019s Word and God\u2019s heart. Like the centurion who we heard from the first Monday of this Advent season, I can trust that God\u2019s word equals God\u2019s action. No need to travel to my house and meet my ailing friend. If the divine word is given, it is good enough for me. This world where the blind see and the lame walk, it is not a campaign promise. If God has spoken it, God will be true to God\u2019s Word.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lyrical text from John pushes our understanding of the Word of God even further.\u00a0 John asks: What if, God being God, all the words in the world were not enough? What if God wanted to convey all that God dreams \/ all that God wills \/ all that God <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">est\u00e1<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a single word? What if this word could so perfectly express God\u2019s love that no other words need be spoken? God being God, God did do that, and that word \u2014 The Word \u2014 Is Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo one has ever <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seen<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> God,\u201d John reminds us, yet through Jesus, we have come to know this God\u2019s inmost being. What the prophets had described, in Jesus we saw lived.\u00a0 He tore the veil obscuring God\u2019s dwelling. He bridged what otherwise would have been unreachable. And he is true. In him, there is nothing false, nothing hidden. There are no lies, nothing being covered up. He truly communicates God\u2019s very heart, faithfully, authentically. And in return, God was true to him. When \u201cthe world did not know him\u201d\u2026. when \u201chis own people did not accept him\u201d\u2026. when \u201cdarkness\u201d tried to \u201covercome him\u201d\u2026. God was true to God\u2019s Word and raised <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">esto<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Word from the dead.\u00a0 This Word has a power of which our culture at present moment does not know.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> know it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And how, in the spirit of John the Evangelist, do we best honor the Word this Christmas day? Perhaps by recommitting ourselves to practices that honor the sanctity of words.\u00a0 By using words only to reveal ourselves, never hide ourselves. By using words only in service of communication, communing, communion \u2013 not division. By only saying things that are true. And by being true to the words we have spoken. A world that does not honor words, cannot honor Jesus. But when we use words the way God uses words \u2014 with integrity \u2014 they take on power. Indeed, the impossible becomes possible. Wolves lay down with lambs. Tears are wiped away. Multitudes are fed. A Kingdom is born. This Christmas feast, may we recommit to words that create bridges to places otherwise unreachable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Ann Garrido is Associate Professor of Homiletics at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO, where she has been on the faculty since 2000. She is the designer of the Fundamentals of Preaching course for <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/proclaiming.org\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PROCLAIM<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i>You can read more about her work and ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anngarrido.com\/\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God&#8221; By Ann Garrido, D.Min\u00a0 Every year, the lectionary offers us such a vast array of readings to ponder in preparation for preaching Christmas.\u00a0 There are a different set of readings for: The Vigil Mass Mass during the Night [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":23527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"witness-tag":[],"class_list":["post-23525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23525"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23534,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23525\/revisions\/23534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23525"},{"taxonomy":"witness-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/witness-tag?post=23525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}