Saint Luke 2:1-20
There is a Dunkin Donuts in my neighbourhood that has decorated its windows for Christmas. They have the usual reindeer, and sleighs, and trees and that fake frost that people spray on their windows to simulate the real thing that some of us in old houses enjoy whether we want to or not.
On the frost they had written the words “Ho. Ho. Ho.” but it was intended for the customers on the inside. So, when I pulled into the lot and looked at it from the outside the words read “Oh Oh Oh.”
Christmas can bring about that reaction. “Oh. Oh. There is only four days left and I haven’t bought a gift for that crabby aunt of mine.” “Oh. Oh. This toy needs seven D Cell batteries. I hope Walgreens is open.”
“Oh Oh,” often said when assembling furniture from Ikea, “Where the heck is the hex wrench?”
In a classic skit on Nate Bargatze’s Nashville Christmas last year. Bargatze, dressed as an angel, appears and announces to the Holy Family and The Three Wise Men how Christmas will be celebrated. He announces that it will include “putting a big pine tree in your house.” The holy family and wise men are confused. And even more confused when the angel announces that the tree will be decorated with glittering glass ornaments and also garbage your kids have made at school.
Then the angel announces that people will sing many joyous songs. “Songs about Jesus,” Mary asks. “A few.” replies the angel. Then he proclaims, “There will be songs about you, Mary. And you three wise men as well.”
“And will there be songs about me?” Joseph asks only to be met with a silent stare.
The angel presses on, “There will be lots of songs. Most of them won’t be about what is happening here. They will be about snow and snow related activities.” There is another long pause before Mary says, “But there is no snow here. We’re in the desert.” I know, says the angel, “That is why the whole Yuletide season will have a Scandinavian vibe.”
Then he goes on to confuse the holy family and the wise men even further by telling them about Santa Clause. To which Mary asks, “How much of these celebrations are about Santa and how much are they about Jesus? To which the angel replies. “Ninety – ten Santa.”
That’s why I’m glad you’re here tonight. When I was young Santa was in the lead 90 - 10 too but as I’ve grown older I have discovered that I need this story. This wonderful story of the first Christmas to remind me of a few things, some very important things. And since this will be our last Christmas together I thought I would take the time to remind you of those very important things too. There are some “Oh Oh Oh’s” in this story that will far surpass the “Ho Ho Ho’s” of Christmas.
The first “Oh Oh” comes when the news comes that Joseph and his heavenly pregnant wife Mary are going to have to take a trip. This isn’t a pleasure trip but a trip caused by nothing less than government intrusion. “A decree goes out from the Emperor” who wants to know how many subjects he has. He wants them to knows whose boss and that on a whim that he can order the people who live under his rule that he can order them to “go here or go there” and give an accounting of themselves. Where are you living? How many people are in your families? Are you citizens? “Oh Oh” the emperor wants to know how many of you are really citizens, really from this country.
So Mary and Joseph behave like good citizens and go, they make their journey but without the benefit of hotel reservations leading to two “Oh Ohs” the first is their’s and the second is the innkeeper’s. “Oh Oh” there is no real room so provisions must be made. “Oh Oh” it’s out back! It’s a stable! This is not good.
It is at this point Saint Luke leaves out a lot of “Oh Oh’s.” In perhaps the flattest language in all of Scripture the birth event reads like a report from the City News Bureau. “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger...”1
I remember a Pastor friend I know being in the birthing room looking at the newborn and instead of being overjoyed he was overwhelmed and wanted to shout at the nurse, “A little help over here!” There was no “Oh Oh” the baby was fine. The baby’s father, not so much.
Saint Luke quickly turns our attention to the countryside. To shepherds, as The James Version describes it, “abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”2 I love that word “abiding.” It means “continuing without change; enduring; steadfast.”3
One word tells us that the shepherds had been out in the fields for a long time. They had been watching over flocks for a long time. They had been out in the field watching over their flocks for probably all of their lives in a job that might have been passed down from their fathers, and grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. They had spent a long time out there in the fields with each other and their sheep without much happening. But, “oh oh” something is happening now.
“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”4
“Oh oh” if an angel is appearing to us something must have happened. “We must have done something.” “Oh oh! What did we do?”
And the angels' message is that it is not about what they have done it is about what God is doing.
“Oh, really?” might have been their reply. But if it enough to have the night sky light up with angels all singing in chorus, we might as well go have a peek.”
And what they found was a baby, with his parents. Just that. Two people. One man. One woman. And one baby.
That’s the story. That’s it. It’s the story of a baby. A baby that had the power to change lives.
In a wonderful book written by Mary Ann Evans, who because of the time she lived had to write under the pen name of George Eliot, tells the story of Silas Marner, a weaver who because of false accusations against him has retreated into his craft of weaving and his love of making money. Sinking deeper and deeper into despair and in spite of the help of well-meaning neighbours coins and craft offer him his only solace.
Until one night he has his “Oh! Oh!” moment. He had been robbed and a pauper in the village had died leaving behind a child. Much to his surprise and even more so to that of the villagers Silace decides he will be the one who cares for the child.
{Remember this from High School English or College Literature 101?}
So the little one is brought to him and aided by a well-meaning, saintly, neighbor named Dolly, they begin to change the little persons clothes.
In the process Silas brings his eyes very close as if to inspect the baby as if she were a garment. Evans writes of that moment:
Whereupon {the Baby} seized his head with both her small arms and put her lips against his face with purring noises."“See there,” said Dolly, “she’s fondest o’ you. She wants to go o’ your lap. Go, then: take her, Master Marner...” Marner took her on his lap, trembling with an emotion mysterious to him, at something unknown dawning on his life.5
It is then that the “Ho! Ho! Hos!” of Santa will give way powerful “Oh! Oh!” experience of being captured by Christ’s love.
The last and best gift I can give to you as your preacher on our last Christmas Eve together, is this “Oh Oh”. It will be the gift of mysterious dawning upon your life.
“Oh! Oh!” It’s Jesus! He’s yours! Merry Christmas!
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1. St. Luke 2:6–7. (NRSV) [NRSVue=The Revised Standard Version Updated Edition]
2. St. Luke 2:8. (KJV) [KJV=The King James Version ]
3. “Abiding: Definition and Meaning,” Dictionary.com, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/abiding.
4. St. Luke 2:9. (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version ]
5. George Eliot, Silas Marner, ed. Mary Bousted (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
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