To Join the Wise Men

As a preacher, Martin Luther gave vigorous, arresting sermons, strong with earthy instances. On the theme of Christmas he sometimes preached for more than a month--from the beginning of Advent to Epiphany. In the recently published Martin Luther Christmas Book (Westminster Press, $2.50), Translator Roland H. Bainton has arranged samplings from these sermons on the Nativity. Excerpts:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

"That was a mean job, watching flocks by night. Common sense calls it low-down work and the men who do it are regarded as trash. But. . . an angel came and made them apostles, prophets and children of God . . .

"When the Wise Men received the divine revelation that the king of the Jews was born, they made straight for Jerusalem, for, of course, they expected to find him at the capital in a lordly castle and a golden chamber. Where else would common sense expect to find a king? . . .

''Now the Wise Men . . . were not offended when the king was not born in Jerusalem. They left the Temple and went to the cow stall.

"If we Christians would join the Wise Men we must close our eyes to all that glitters before the world and look rather on the despised and foolish things, help the poor, comfort the despised and aid the neighbor in his need. Do not boast that you have built churches and endowed masses. God will say: 'What to me are your churches and masses? . . . Who told you to build churches? I have set before you spiritual temples . . .'

"The Kingdom of Christ is to be found among the lowly and the despised in persecution, misery and the holy cross. Those who seek Christ anywhere else find Him not . . ."

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