Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Back in October of 1948, a young pastor and his wife took on the challenge of repairing and restoring an old church.

Their goal was to have it done by Christmas Eve.

But just two days before Christmas a storm dumped over an inch of rain, and the roof leaked, and right in front of the church the plaster got soaked and crumbled leaving a gaping hole in the wall.

The pastor and his wife were discouraged, and all their efforts seemed to be in vain.

They were really down as they went to a benefit auction for the youth that afternoon.

One of the items put up for bid was an old ivory and gold colored tablecloth.

It was nearly 15 feet long.

The pastor got an idea and he bid until he got it.

He took it to the church where he used it to cover the wall where the hole was.

The day before Christmas he noticed a woman standing at the bus stop by the church.

He knew the bus would not be coming for at least a half an hour and it was cold.

So he invited her to come into the church to keep warm.

He learned she was not from that neighborhood, but was in the area to interview for a job as a governess, but she had not gotten it.

When she saw the cloth on the front of the church she rushed up to it and said, "this is my banquet cloth."

She told the shocked pastor its history and even showed him her initials she had embroidered in one corner.

She and her husband had lived in Vienna, Austria.

They had to flee from the Nazis before World War II.

They went separately so as not to be conspicuous, for they were opposed to Hitler.

They never found each other again, and she heard that he had died in a concentration camp.

The pastor was touched and he offered her the cloth.

But she had no need for it now, and liked the fact that it was doing some good right where it was.

She left the church and her cloth, and the pastor thought he would never see her again.

In the candlelight of the Christmas Eve service, the tablecloth looked even more magnificent.

The lovely lace was so pretty in the flickering light of the candles as the golden thread woven through it stood out.

As the people left the church they commented on the attractiveness of the church.

One older gentleman lingered and admired the tablecloth.

He said to pastor as he was about to leave, " It's strange-many years ago my wife and I owned such a tablecloth.

She used it on special occasions when we lived in Vienna."

Goosebumps raised rapidly on the pastor's skin, as he told him about his experience with a woman in the church that very afternoon.

The old man began to cry.

"Can it be that she is alive?

How can I find her?"

The pastor remembered the name of the family she had visited to get a job.

He called there and got her address.

Together they went to the home and he witnessed a reunion like he had never seen in his life.

They had been separated for over a decade, each thinking the other was dead.

Now because of a common possession, they were reunited, and able to celebrate Christmas with great joy.

History is filled with stories like this where mere commonplace things play a major role.

The experience of one pastor is repeated, I am sure, by millions every year.

Coming into church one Christmas morning, he asked a little boy what he got for Christmas.

His face lit up as he replied, "I got a whole lot of stuff."

Stuff is a rather vague term.

The dictionary says it means any kind of matter whether solid, liquid, or gas.

It covers the entire universe of material things, and believe it or not, it is a Biblical word.

In the King James Version it is used 13 times in the Old Testament, and once in the New Testament.

It is used to refer to all of one's household possessions.

It is used to refer to all the equipment, weapons, and baggage of an army.

Stuff covers all kinds of stuff.

Anything that is not in the animal kingdom is included in the term stuff.

Shakespeare who wrote at the same time that the King James Version was translated used the word stuff more than all other authors in history.

One of his most famous lines is, "We are such stuff as dreams are made of."

Benjamin Franklin is famous for his line, "Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of."

When we come to the Biblical account of the birth of Jesus we discover that by becoming a man he entered into a relationship with the world of stuff.

There is not a lot of the mineral kingdom referred to in the Christmas story, but the few there are, are major items.

The star above and the gold below that the wise men brought are of the mineral kingdom.

One example each of heavenly and earthly stuff.

Jesus identified with these things by taking on such names as, The Bright And Morning Star, and The Star of Jacob.

And for valuable earthly matter he is called The Pearl Of Great Price.

Other mineral names of Jesus are Rock Of Ages and Stone of Stumbling.

The vegetable kingdom is referred to more often.

In our text, here in Luke 2, the manger is mentioned three times.

Then there is the frankincense and myrrh the wise men brought, and the house the holy family lived in when they came.

Wood stands out as the dominant stuff in the Christmas story.

Even the decree of Caesar was likely made from the plant kingdom.

The only other thing connected with our Lord's birth was the cloth He was wrapped in, and that could have been from either the plant or animal kingdom.

The point of all this is that Jesus came into a world of stuff.

Jesus acknowledged the value of all this stuff by taking on Himself names relating to the vegetable kingdom.

Root of Jesse

Root out of Dry Ground

The First Fruit

Rose of Sharon

Lily of the Valley

The Plant of Renown

The Apple Tree

The Vine

The Bread of Life

The Tree of Life

Jesus created all of the stuff of this material universe, and in His Incarnation He became personally involved with the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdom.

His goal is to redeem all of His creation from the effects of the fall, so that even stuff is a part of the plan of salvation.

Stuff is sort of a crude word, but then, so is the Christmas setting.

The stable was not the equivalent of a modern delivery room.

The stable had stuff that was not all pleasant, and could have made Mary and Joseph wish they had some frankincense perfume at that time, and not later when the wise men came.

The stuff that stands out most is wood.

The manger is mentioned three times.

In His birth, this future carpenter was surrounded by wood put together by another carpenter, and selected by His supposed father, Joseph, as being the safest place available.

This infant carpenter came into the world laid on wood, and went out of the world the same way, as they laid Him on the wood of the cross.

He was born with wood, lived and worked with wood, and died with wood.

Wooden stuff played a major role in the life of Jesus.

Christmas and the tree is still a central part of our Christmas.

Many times Christians are led to believe that the Christmas tree has a pagan origin.

So they refuse to have a tree, or put branches of holly in their homes and churches.

If they would read what the Bible says about the Messiah and His relationship to the tree, they would not be duped by such nonsense.

Jesus made the tree, and it is Him that we are to praise for all of it's values and uses.

Do not let anybody tell you that what Jesus has made is not appropriate to glorify Him.

Pagans have always used grape juice and bread also-are we to cease obedience to Christ and give up these elements as means of remembering Him?

Of course not, and so also with the Christmas tree.

If the old pagans worshiped the evergreen, their folly does not become my guide.

I go by the Word of God which links the Messiah and the tree, often.

Listen to some of the prophesies that concern the branch- "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch; for behold I will bring forth my servant the Branch; at that time I will cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David; there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots, which shall stand for an ensign of the people."