As a preacher, I’m always trying to subvert expectations. I hate the kind of familiarity that might breed contempt or, worse, boredom! To a speaker, boredom is kryptonite. So I’ll often try to defamiliarise people with topics they think they understand. I find myself using the word ‘actually’ a lot.
But there’s a problem with this (actually)! Sometimes, in trying to offer fresh insights, we end up over-complicating or even undermining truths that are already profound. We subvert, but we subvert the wrong thing, or in the wrong way. This happens a lot at Christmas. We’ll consider four examples. First, the ‘Debunking The Nativity’ sermon.
Debunking traditional Christmas
You know how it goes: ‘Everything You Think You Know About The Nativity Is A Lie. The shepherds never met the three kings, and there weren’t three of them and they weren’t kings. It wasn’t a stable and don’t get me started on the donkey!’ This kind of relentless demythologisation might initially engage the sceptical, but it can deconstruct more than it builds.
The dangers of over or underdosing the gospel
In 2023, my sister was diagnosed with Stage 1B breast cancer. She immediately underwent four months of initial chemotherapy followed …