December 1998 Issue

In a book of St. Bernard's sermons we find one titled, On the Words of the Prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz."¹ This text, Isaiah 7:11-16, was preached on the second Sunday of Advent, probably around the year 1140 C.E.. This sermon was an expository sermon which thoroughly explores the six verses chosen as the text.

After considerable exegesis, Bernard says, "According to this interpretation, Ahaz is bidden, either to tremble at the Majesty of Him who reigns on high, or else to respond to the charity of Him Who out of love descends into hell." Like most Christian preachers of his day, Bernard jumps to the messianic interpretations this text suggests. He spends much time on the phrase, "He shall eat butter and honey." This, Bernard uses to discuss choices made by this "Little One." He, of course, says the Little One made the admirable choice.

[The rest of the sermon revolves around human choice. Why would one read a sermon nearly 900 years old? Not only for the historical perspective on preaching this homily provides, but also, because Bernard uses several good illustrations from nature. Especially engaging is of the bi-polar nature of the bee: Sweetness in honey and bitter in sting.]

Another historic sermon is one preached in 1624 by John Donne.² This sermon was given at St. Paul's Cathedral on Christmas Day in the evening, on the text Isaiah 7:14. Ironically, Donne begins his sermon quoting St. Bernard's considerations upon three remarkable conjunctions. Then Donne adds his own, the joining in this text of God's anger to God's mercy in this child Immanuel. The first part of the sermon covers Donne's concept of the mercy of God. After using the text with all deliberate care, Donne says [as the sermon is printed], "If God did not seeke occasion to doe good to all, he would never have found occasion to doe good to King Ahaz."

Donne's second major section of this sermon consists of, as the preacher says, a Rule. This "rule" is that God proceeds forward in God's own ways as God has in the past: Always in mercy. Using the symbolism of a circle, Donne demonstrates the mercy of God in several striking metaphors. This section of the sermon well demonstrates Donne's creative ability to use distinctive imagery—no surprise to anyone familiar with his poetry.

The third section of this sermon speaks of the particularity of God's general mercy. Picking up on the phrase, "behold a Virgin shall conceive..." he mines it for all the messianic imagery he can muster. The "mother of God" image is used throughout, indeed, he concludes with these imaginative words: "God does not furnish a roome, and leave it darke; he sets up lights in it; his first care was, that his benefits should be seene; he made light first, and then creatures, to be seene by that light."

Not written in standard-modern English, this sermon is difficult to read in the extreme. If one is interested, however, in how poetic images can be used with great effect, it is worth the time and energy it takes to read. Donne is after all, one of the greatest poet-preachers in the history of Christ's church.

If Every Day Were Christmas, is a sermon in Doran's Ministers Manual.³ The introductory section states the title's obvious rhetorical question: "We regard Christmas so highly; let us inquire, What if every day were Christmas?" After dispensing with a laundry list of possible protests, the author says, "For despite all the excesses of the holiday season and the hardship it works on many, is there not a rainbow of glory over every Christmas celebration?"

In four successive paragraphs—each set off by its own Roman numeral—the preacher explores the five most laudatory aspects of Christmas. The particular Christmas issues raised are each respectably predictable: 1) a rebuke of selfish living, 2) Jesus is taken seriously, 3) centers on children, 4) glorifies family life.

The sermon's finale asks, "And why not this spirit every day?" Answering the question in the next breath: "Is it not because we have confined our Christianity to special days, and forgotten or ignored the high levels of spiritual living on other days?"

Though this sermon virtually ignores the stated scriptural text, Isaiah 7:14, it can generate some varied approaches to the meaning of Christmas. However helpful this may be, it is not a sermon preached within the context of the appropriate liturgical season—Advent.

In a section called Preaching From the Prophets, Donald Gowan uses as his text Isaiah 7:1-17, in the sermon: God is With Us."⁴ Prefacing the actual sermon is a two-and-a-half page exegetical study of the issues which concern verse 14. This is because he says this is the verse upon which his sermon is based.

The sermon begins with Gowan's first Christmas away from his family and friends. He calls it "the quietest Christmas I ever spent." At the conclusion of his story of that 1951 Christmas Day he says, "By evening I realized that I had gone through an entire Christmas Day without seeing one person I knew." To further introduce his sermon he adds, "I consider this sentence to be the Bible's best promise: God is with us."

Beginning with Moses, then going to Gideon, Jeremiah, and Isaiah in rapid succession, Gowan illustrates the biblical promise and theme of his homily: God is with us. He says, "God's promise is never exhausted. It comes true, and !-- Generation of PM publication page 6 --> yet still remains a new promise for the future." Gowan ties this idea Immanuel—God with us—to Jesus' promise to the disciples in Matthew's gospel, "I am with you always, to the end of the age." Gowan also uses the Revelation text, "and God himself will be with them," splendidly.

Coming full circle, Gowan splices his earlier Christmas day experience to his current experiences of feeling alone. He ends the sermon by quoting verse two of the eighteenth-century hymn How Firm a Foundation: "Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed."

David Neil Mosser

1. St. Bernard, St. Bernard's Sermons for the Seasons and Principal Festivals of the Year, Vol I (Westminister, Maryland: Carrol Press, 1921), pp. 15-21.

2. John Donne, The Sermons of John Donne (New York: Living Age Books, 1920), pp. 85-110.

3. Rev. G. B. F. Hallock, editor, Doran's Ministers Manual (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1938), pp. 470-473.

4. Donald E. Gowan, Reclaiming the Old Testament for the Christian Pulpit (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1973), pp. 138-144.