« Back to Issue 37

Joy to the World: Preaching the Christmas story

Author:	Paul Beasley-Murray
Published By:	Inter Varsity Press (Leicester)
Pages:	201
Price:	£9.95
ISBN:	1 84474 081 1

Reviewed by Julian Charley.

Christmas can be a very exhausting time for ministers, with a spate of services from the usual to Carol Services and even Nativity plays.  Preparation time is at a premium.  What can be said that will be fresh and stimulating for the regular church-goer?  Moreover one can expect attendance by many folk whose last appearance was a year ago.  So there is a great evangelistic opportunity.  What will be appropriate and relevant for them?  It is a challenge for the preacher, and it is precisely for such that this book is written. Here is a wealth of expository material for, as the author says, ‘The preacher who expounds his own limited stock of ideas becomes deadly wearisome at last.’

The first three chapters expound the Good News according to Matthew, Luke and John.  Two further chapters deal with the Good News anticipated in the Old Testament and the Good News reflected upon in the Epistles, this last chapter being selective from the wealth of material that bears upon the significance of the Incarnation.  There is certainly no limit to the resources here for the preacher.  So many themes appear.  This is not mere homiletic material, but based upon careful and scholarly exposition.  But the preacher is constantly in mind with specific, numbered points frequently being made.  Where the interpretation put upon the text is only possible yet probable, the author is honest enough to say so.  Occasional illustrations are used to help drive home a particular lesson.

Clearly a lot of study and thought lie behind the writing of this book.  Some of the material will not be appropriate to use in preaching but will be informative for the preacher.  For instance, Professor Sam Berry’s speculation on how there might occur a male birth after a virginal conception is intriguing and complex but irrelevant to the uniqueness of the conception of Jesus.  The difficulties over the dating of the registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria according to Luke are squarely faced with a somewhat open-ended conclusion.  Grappling with the difficulties encountered in the birth narratives is a necessary counter to the fairy-tale image so many hold.

The prophetic passages in the Old Testament are first examined in their original context which throws a lot of light on their later interpretation in the New Testament. Matthew’s use of these texts is puzzling to our mode of thinking, but the careful elucidation of their primary meaning assists our understanding of the gospel writers’ intention.  Such is the case with Isaiah 7:14, ‘a virgin shall conceive’.

There is much here to stimulate, encouragement to take a fresh look at the familiar. It cannot fail to help the preacher who is feeling that he has run out of fuel.