December 13, 2026 · Third Sunday of Advent · No sign-in needed
December 13 Sunday Sermon Passages — Third Sunday of Advent: four ways to preach joy and waiting
Every reading this Sunday points past the person speaking, toward someone or something else. But they pull in different directions — a denial, a sending, a song of reversal, a string of commands for a tired church. Compare the four below, then read only the one you choose for Sunday.
Which passage will you preach this Sunday?
These are passages a sermon can take on this Sunday. The order is not a ranking — read the introductions, then tap the one that draws you and it opens below.
Passages follow the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL); “Occasion” passages are options we add for the season. If your church follows its own calendar or preaches through a book, carry on as you were.
Gospel
John 1:6-8,19-28 A Witness Who Says No
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about knowing exactly who you are not, so people can see who you are pointing to.
The passage at a glance
- John is sent to testify to the light, though he himself is not the light.
- Priests and Levites interrogate him, and three times he says no — not the Christ, not Elijah, not the prophet.
- Pressed for an answer, he calls himself only a voice, and names one already standing among them whom they do not recognize.
Ways the sermon can go
Identity by negation
Preach John's three denials as a model of ministry that knows its limits; the cost is that a congregation used to confident leaders may find 'I am not' an odd thing to celebrate.
The one you do not know
Preach on verses 26 and 27, on Christ already present and unrecognized; the cost is that this moves quickly into Christology and away from Advent waiting as such.
Interrogation from the religious establishment
Preach on the delegation sent from Jerusalem and what official religion wants to know versus what it misses; the cost is that it can tip into criticizing institutions rather than self-examination.
Where sermons commonly slip
Turning John into a hero of humility
The sermon praises John's humility as a virtue to imitate, without asking what in the preacher's own ministry still needs that same denial.
Skipping past the examination
The sermon races ahead to the next day's events, missing that this passage stops with a question still hanging in the air.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon name any of John's three denials (Christ, Elijah, the prophet) specifically, or only refer to them as a group?
- How many times did the sermon use the word 'witness' or 'testify' when applying the text to the congregation?
- Did the sermon ever turn the question back on the preacher or the listener ('who do you say you are not'), and if so, where did that happen?
One application for this week
Before next Sunday, call or text one person you've been meaning to tell about something good God has done, and let that be the whole message — no advice attached.
Epistle
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Commands Too Short to Hide Behind
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about a handful of plain commands a congregation can actually be checked against.
The passage at a glance
- Paul strings together short commands: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything.
- He adds warnings about the Spirit — don't quench it, don't despise prophecy, but test everything and hold to what is good.
- He closes by asking God to sanctify the whole congregation and reminds them that the one who calls them is faithful to finish it.
Ways the sermon can go
Joy as command, not mood
Preach on 'rejoice always' as something distinct from feeling cheerful; the cost is you have to say clearly what rejoicing without denying grief actually looks like.
Testing everything
Preach on verse 21 and how a congregation discerns true from false among claims about the Spirit; the cost is it can turn abstract fast without local examples.
The faithfulness of the one who calls
Preach on verse 24 as the ground under every command before it; the cost is it can become a lecture on sanctification rather than a sermon on verses 16 to 22.
Where sermons commonly slip
Preaching the list as separate mini-sermons
Seven commands in nine verses invite seven three-minute points strung together with no single throughline.
Making 'rejoice always' sound like denial
Without naming real grief, the command can land as a demand to perform happiness rather than a command rooted in verse 24's promise.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon address all seven commands in verses 16-22, or focus on just one or two — and which ones?
- How many times did the sermon use the word 'always' when explaining verse 16, and did it define what 'always' does and doesn't mean?
- Did the sermon connect the commands back to verse 24's promise of faithfulness, and if so, at what point in the sermon?
One application for this week
Before next Sunday, write down one thing from this week you can thank God for out loud at the dinner table or in a text to a friend, even if the week was hard.
Old Testament
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Anointed to Announce, Not to Perform
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about what good news actually does for people who have nothing — not a sermon about personal calling alone.
The passage at a glance
- The speaker is anointed and sent to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim release to captives and prisoners.
- The same speaker promises rebuilt ruins and a reversal where mourning becomes gladness and ashes become a crown.
- The passage ends with God promising a lasting covenant and a harvest of righteousness visible to the nations.
Ways the sermon can go
Good news to the poor, named specifically
Preach on verses 1-3 and ask who in your town is actually poor, captive, or brokenhearted this Advent; the cost is it requires naming real people and systems, not generic compassion.
Ruins rebuilt
Preach on verse 4 as a word to a congregation or town in visible decline; the cost is it doesn't land well if your congregation isn't actually experiencing decline.
Whose anointing is this
Preach on how this text later gets read as pointing to Jesus, and what it means for a congregation to share that same sending; the cost is this opens a christological question some traditions would rather leave open.
Where sermons commonly slip
Collapsing the whole passage into one verse
Verse 1 gets preached alone as a personal calling verse, and the specific people it names — poor, brokenhearted, captive — never show up in the sermon.
Skipping the 'day of vengeance' half-line
Verse 2 names both favor and vengeance; preaching only the favor half avoids a real tension in the text instead of naming it.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon name any of the specific groups in verses 1-3 (poor, brokenhearted, captives) as people in the congregation's own town, or only as a general category?
- How many times did the sermon use the word 'anoint' or 'anointed,' and did it explain what that word meant in Isaiah's own setting?
- Did the sermon mention verse 2's 'day of vengeance,' and if so, how did it handle that phrase alongside 'favor'?
One application for this week
Before next Sunday, find out the name of one person in financial debt or housing trouble near you — a neighbor, a church member — and ask what help would actually mean this month.
Occasion · the canticle the RCL allows in place of this Sunday’s psalm
Luke 1:47-55 A Song About Someone Else's Greatness
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about a world turned upside down — proud scattered, hungry fed, rich sent away — sung by someone with no power of her own.
The passage at a glance
- Mary declares that her soul magnifies the Lord because God has looked on her humble state.
- She praises God's mercy across generations and God's strength shown against the proud.
- She names the reversal directly: rulers brought down, the lowly lifted, the hungry filled, the rich sent away empty.
Ways the sermon can go
The reversal taken literally
Preach verses 52-53 as describing an actual, social and economic reversal, not only a spiritual metaphor; the cost is it can sound political to a congregation unused to hearing it that way.
Mary's own lowliness
Preach on verse 48 and what it meant for an unmarried, poor young woman to be the one singing this; the cost is it can become a sermon about Mary alone and never reach the listener.
A song sung before anything visible changed
Preach on the fact that Mary sings this before Jesus is born, while nothing yet looks reversed; the cost is it requires sitting with unresolved waiting rather than resolving it by sermon's end.
Where sermons commonly slip
Softening the reversal into general gratitude
Verses 52-53 name rulers and rich people specifically; smoothing that into 'God blesses the humble' in general loses what the text actually says.
Treating Mary only as a model of meekness
The sermon praises Mary's quiet acceptance and misses that she is singing about God overturning power, not accepting her lot quietly.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon name the specific reversals in verses 52-53 (rulers brought down, hungry filled, rich sent empty), or summarize them as one general idea?
- How many times did the sermon use the word 'mercy,' and did it connect that word to verse 50's 'generation to generation'?
- Did the sermon address that Mary sings this before any of it is visibly true, and if so, where in the sermon?
One application for this week
Before next Sunday, give away one concrete thing — a meal, a bag of groceries, an hour of help — to someone who has less than you this week, and notice how it feels to be the one sent away with less.
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