Lights of Celebration . . . and Words of Faith; Pastors Prepare the Hardest Sermon
By GUSTAV NIEBUHR
Published: December 24, 1997 in The New York Times

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On the night before Christmas, churches tend to be packed with people who can claim at least a passing familiarity with the story of Jesus' birth: the guiding star, the Wise Men, the baby in the manger.

So how does a pastor preach a sermon moving enough to make it seem fresh and immediate -- inspiring a sense of renewal and a feeling of connection to God -- especially when the listeners may be there mainly for the carols and the candlelight?

That can be a tall order, not least if some at the late services have already been out celebrating.

''I think it's the hardest sermon I have,'' said the Rev. James L. Kidd, pastor of Asylum Hill United Church of Christ in Hartford, a sanctuary where Mark Twain once worshiped.

Its three Christmas Eve services typically fill the church, but not everyone is seeking theological profundity -- a challenge, Mr. Kidd said, ''if you pride yourself on providing thoughtful messages.''

Mr. Kidd said he would most likely speak this Christmas Eve on how God has given talents to each person, ''and we have to embrace the gifts we've been given.''

Asked what he would advise others who will preach tonight, he replied that the sermon should be ''very simple,'' its point illustrated with a good example. ''And keep it brief,'' he added.

Given such limits, clerics strive to be resourceful.

At the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, the Rev. Robert F. Sims said he might weave a story into his sermon, perhaps about a child, ''to connect with people's emotions.''

In Christmas sermons past, Pastor Sims has told of a student who walked miles to offer a gift to a teacher, and of a boy who gave up his shoes to a poor woman who had none. ''I'm looking for just the right thought or story or inspiration that would let people get on board with it or embrace it,'' he said, ''just as they would embrace the Christ child.''

In trying to hit such a note, not every cleric hews to convention. ''I don't preach a sermon,'' said the Rev. Byron E. Shafer, pastor of Rutgers Presbyterian Church on West 73d Street in Manhattan. Instead, he reads aloud a short piece of fiction. ''I choose a story -- maybe a classic, or a not-well-known Christmas story -- that I think conveys the Gospel.''

Last year he read his congregants a ''fable'' by an Episcopal priest that not only dealt with Christmas but even anticipated Good Friday.

''People seemed to appreciate it,'' Mr. Shafer said. ''If a pastor has any acting talent at all, you can do a variety of voices. That always amazes the kids, and the adults too.''

Some clerics draw inspiration from the pews.

''I look at the children in the congregation and imagine it's my very first Christmas,'' said the Rev. Allen V. Harris, pastor of Park Avenue Christian Church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Vicariously experiencing their wonder, he said, ''helps me lose the huge weight of anxiety that pastors deal with.''

A year ago, in the earlier of his two Christmas Eve services, Mr. Harris, wearing a cloak and carrying a staff, played the part of a shepherd at the manger. The children, he said, responded with ''rapt attention,'' providing him an emotional lift that carried over to the later, more customary service.

Like Mr. Harris, the Rev. Bill Kelly, pastor of St. Mary of the Visitation Roman Catholic Church in Huntsville, Ala., has an early service that draws families with children. But his preaching in that Mass will be brief tonight.

''This year I have only a two-sentence homily for them,'' he said, explaining that parish volunteers would be presenting a puppet show about the Nativity. ''With children's liturgies,'' Father Kelly said, ''you have to be somewhat dynamic.''

The Rev. John P. Duffell, pastor of Ascension Roman Catholic Church on West 107th Street in Manhattan, said that to preach effectively, a cleric has to know the people in the pews, or have an idea of the questions they are asking. ''I see my homilies as a call to believe,'' Father Duffell said, ''to believe in God and to believe in yourself as someone loved by God. Every individual person has something to bring to make the world a better place.''

If attendance in previous years is a guide, the Very Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, may face 4,500 people at 10 o'clock tonight. The cathedral draws crowds of visitors, along with its regular flock, but Dean Baxter said, ''I like the challenge of bringing people together.''

His text will be Isaiah 9:6 -- ''For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.'' The message, he said, is that it is not only Jesus who ''was given unto all of us,'' but so too were all children everywhere. ''God calls us to a sensitivity for children,'' Dean Baxter said.

Some clerics say that good Christmas Eve preaching requires a prop, to draw attention to the sermon's point. And the Rev. Rachel L. Simeon, pastor of Chugiak United Methodist Church in Eagle River, Alaska, may have one of the best: a reviving sun.

Ms. Simeon's church sits in a valley that gets only an hour or so of direct sunlight in December, and so the gradual increase in daylight after the winter solstice on Dec. 21 is cause for joy in her congregation.

''Right after the last Sunday of Advent, we start getting incrementally more light,'' she said. ''It fits so nicely within the Christmas story and the coming of the light in a religious sense.''

Light also plays a big part at Old South Church, a 328-year-old sanctuary at Copley Square in Boston.

The Rev. James Crawford, the senior minister there, does not preach a Christmas Eve sermon, but instead distributes a carol he has written beforehand, which everyone sings. He also delivers what he calls a ''greeting,'' a brief theological reflection on Christ's birth.

But the climax comes near the service's end, after the lights have been dimmed. The ushers approach the ''Christ candle'' in the center of the Advent wreath, from which they light candles they are carrying.

They then walk down the aisles, pausing at each pew to light a candle held by a congregant. People then pass the flame across the pews by lighting one another's candles.

''The place goes from total darkness to a kind of crescendo of light as the candles are lighted in the balcony and all through the place,'' Mr. Crawford said. ''You see the rest of the service through the lens of the light.''