The following excerpt comes from one of St. Augustine’s sermons (classified as 191.1). Modern Christians, in most cases, have never thought about, or been exposed to ancient sermons. Augustine was a particularly brilliant thinker and preacher, but his sermon here gives readers a flavor for what patristic (Church Father) sermons were like in the 400s A.D.  

In this sermon excerpt Augustine movingly gives us Christ through well-known images given in Scripture and to which we are all familiar. In doing so, he not only shows us the centrality of Christ for the Christian faith, but takes us on an emotional journey into the love of God through Christ’s birth (the Incarnation). Christ’s birth, he shows us, is entangled with human pride and sin, which is overcome by God’s love. Human rejection of God is tantamount to the greatest sin: blasphemy, but God endures human rebellion and violence, by shedding his rights and glory as he makes his way to the cross. Augustine’s words are haunting but beautiful, they are critical but not accusatory. They leave us with hope, joy, peace and trust in the Savior who on this day, came to earth, dwelt among us, and won salvation for those he loved. 

From all of us here at 1517, we wish you a very blessed and joyous merry Christmas secure in the Good News that Christ has died for your sins and is making all things new. 

Christ’s birth, he shows us, is entangled with human pride and sin, which is overcome by God’s love.

Augustine’s Sermon 191.1 

The Word of the Father, by Whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born in time for us.

He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one day set aside for His human birth.

In the bosom of His Father, He existed before all the cycles of ages; born of an earthly mother, He entered upon the course of the years on this day.

Man’s maker became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nurse at His mother’s breast;
that He, the Bread, might hunger;
the Fountain, might thirst;
 the Light, might sleep;
the Way, might be wearied by the journey;
the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses;
the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge;
that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust;
that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips;
that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross;
that Courage might be weakened;
that Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.

To endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent years.

He did this although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at His hands, had done nothing to merit these benefits.

Begotten by the Father, He was not made by the Father.
He was made Man in the mother whom He Himself had made, so that He might exist here for a while, sprung from her who could never and nowhere have existed except through His power.