In my experience, preaching for the high feasts (Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter) are the most difficult. There is always that pull to bring out the best, to preach so that people will come back the next Sunday, to wow the crowd with your deep theological insights, high-sounding poetic words and rhetorical flourishes. In short, there's a pull to be cute and edgy. But when you read our forefathers' sermons for these days, they don't fall into this pit. They take seemingly simple biblical truths and open them up for the hearer to bask in their simple but profound glory. Dave Petersen (pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: the Journal of Lutheran Liturgy with his column "Commentary on the War") shows us how C.F.W. Walther preached one Christmas day. We look at this sermon (Become a Patron!

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