Title: Good News About a Glorious Gift
Author: Donald Cantrell
Text: Luke 2:8-20
Christmas Eve Sermon
I - The Abiding Men (8)
II - The Angelic Messenger (9)
III - The Awesome Message (10 - 12)
IV - The Amazing Multitude (13 - 14)
V - The Adamant Mission (15 - 20)
The Most Famous Christmas Sermon Ever
Linus Introduced A Generation to the Savior
A couple of nights ago, PBS showed the classic Christmas special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I cried. Because I always do. Every year since 1965. I wanted to share this small vignette from Freeing Jesus, my next book with you. It recalls the first time I saw the cartoon, and how it opened my six-year-old theological imagination.
I've always wondered how many people first heard the Christmas story this way. And I'm willing to bet that Linus's homily might well be the most famous Christmas sermon ever.
A neon sign hung outside a storefront church at the edge of our neighborhood. Two words formed a glowing red cross: JESUS SAVES. "Savior" may well be the most ubiquitous term that Christians use to describe Jesus. This is especially true in Western Christianity, and Protestant churches in particular, where the emphasis on Jesus as the One who saves us from sin and death is a primary focus of both preaching and piety.
Whether one prays before a crucifix, recites vows of baptism and Confirmation, goes forward for an altar call, or falls to the floor with ecstatic utterance, "Jesus saves" is understood as the central and continued meaning of his work for both individual Christians and the life of the world.
Yet, oddly enough, "Savior" appears only twice in the gospels to describe Jesus. One is at the beginning of the gospel of Luke, and the other is in John 4:42, where neighbors of a Samaritan woman proclaim, "Indeed, this is the Savior of the world." Other titles, like "teacher" and "rabbi," appear far more frequently. Additional theological titles, like "Christ" ("anointed o ...
Author: Donald Cantrell
Text: Luke 2:8-20
Christmas Eve Sermon
I - The Abiding Men (8)
II - The Angelic Messenger (9)
III - The Awesome Message (10 - 12)
IV - The Amazing Multitude (13 - 14)
V - The Adamant Mission (15 - 20)
The Most Famous Christmas Sermon Ever
Linus Introduced A Generation to the Savior
A couple of nights ago, PBS showed the classic Christmas special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I cried. Because I always do. Every year since 1965. I wanted to share this small vignette from Freeing Jesus, my next book with you. It recalls the first time I saw the cartoon, and how it opened my six-year-old theological imagination.
I've always wondered how many people first heard the Christmas story this way. And I'm willing to bet that Linus's homily might well be the most famous Christmas sermon ever.
A neon sign hung outside a storefront church at the edge of our neighborhood. Two words formed a glowing red cross: JESUS SAVES. "Savior" may well be the most ubiquitous term that Christians use to describe Jesus. This is especially true in Western Christianity, and Protestant churches in particular, where the emphasis on Jesus as the One who saves us from sin and death is a primary focus of both preaching and piety.
Whether one prays before a crucifix, recites vows of baptism and Confirmation, goes forward for an altar call, or falls to the floor with ecstatic utterance, "Jesus saves" is understood as the central and continued meaning of his work for both individual Christians and the life of the world.
Yet, oddly enough, "Savior" appears only twice in the gospels to describe Jesus. One is at the beginning of the gospel of Luke, and the other is in John 4:42, where neighbors of a Samaritan woman proclaim, "Indeed, this is the Savior of the world." Other titles, like "teacher" and "rabbi," appear far more frequently. Additional theological titles, like "Christ" ("anointed o ...
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