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.
