The First Sunday after Christmas - December 28, 2025 (Slides)
The M3 for The First Sunday after Christmas - December 28, 2025
Yesterday's sermon began with the opening footage from the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island. The theme of the sermon was "Dispatched and Rescued." The first image was the one above, a modest shelter of shade on a deserted island. I made the comment that all of us our on this island--the island of sin and death. This is the result of the curse of death. I then showed each character from the sitcome, as a way of diagnosing how we respond to being on our island: Gilligan, the Skipper, Mr. Howell III, Mrs. Howell III, Ginger, Professor, ย and Marianne. I noted that each character may be used as a lens/a way of looking at how we respond to the predicament of death. Gilligan: a happy, go-lucky guy who kind of bumbles through life, without seeing the significance in it; Skipper: a blowhard who has the title of skipper but only retains with shallow bravado; Mr. and Mrs. Howell: naively ignorant of their present and eternal predicaments, clinging to the wealthy lifestyle as best they can on the deserted isle; Ginger: oblivious to the situation, she just relies on her beauty; Professor: his intelligence has always been his strongest charactertistic and he seeks to use it in this case, too; and Marianne: a simple, nice, kind-hearted woman who fails to grasp the dire situation of being deserted. Which one are you?ย
The theme comes from the passage in Galatians 4:4-7: "4 When came the fullness of time, God dispatched his son, having been born of a woman, having been born under the law, 5 in order that those under the law would be redeemed/delivered, in order that we may receive adoption. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, โAbba, Father.โ 7 The result: you are no longer a slave but a son; if a son, also the heir because of God."
The idea is straightforward: Just as the crew of the S. S. Minnow from Giligan's Island was waiting to be rescued, so are we! Ours is certain, though: Jesus has been dispatched by God the Father to save us! His birth is more than a quaint remembrance but reminds us of the signifcance of God's plan from Genesis 3 forward. Jesus is the one dispatched to crush Satan's head (cf. Gen 3:15) for you! His is a rescue mission from God the Father for you! The result is that we understand God like a child understands the word "Daddy:" loving, available, listening, protective, giving, etc.