Places Of The Promise

The Advent/Christmas story is one that identifies specific places as the font of the rich interactions between God and humanity. The names of such locales are as familiar to us as our own homes.

Here are six sermons with accompanying children's sermons. The series covers Advent 1 through Christmas 1. Each sermon focuses on the particular sphere God used to prepare creation for the gift of Jesus.

The sermons offer:
• Texts from Lectionary Cycle B
• Other suggested texts
• Suggestions for congregational activities

The children's sermons follow an advent wreath-lighting series. Following Christmas, these sermons use the Christmas tree and the crechè scene as themes. Each children's sermon offers at least three objects to use as illustrations.

Susan Karen Hedahl is adjunct professor of Homiletics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. In 1988 she completed her doctorate in homiletics and rhetoric at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. She served as an education missionary with the Lutheran Church in Tanzania, East Africa. She has served several interim parishes in the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.