During the dark days of World War 2, the BBC asked writer Dorothy Sayers to write a series of radio plays on the life of Christ.  This spawned a series of feisty letters back and forth between the writer and the corporation, with members of parliament trying to intervene and protestant pressure groups adding their voice.

The series of 12 plays was writted by Sayers and produced by Val Gielgud, entitled, “The Man Born to be King.” In December 1941 the plays began airing (one every fourth week) on BBC Home Service.  The story remained in its ancient setting, but characters spoke in contemporary English rather than the conventional King James.

Many were shocked by the story, but Sayers affirmed that they should be shocked. She felt that the inherent drama of the Gospel had become muffled by familiarity and by the failure to think of its characters as real people with human emotions and motivations.  The Christian faith is the “most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man.”  Sayer’s famous quote that Christ was no “household pet for pale pale curates and pious old ladies, but God made flesh, a shattering personality, a dangerous firebrand, hero and victim, finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger.”

While I don’t agree that Christ was a victim in every sense of the term, I do appreciate the desire to bring back the shock of the Maker of all in a manger, the Maker killed by those He made, and the glorious wonder of the empty tomb.

As we come to “Christmas service Sunday,” let’s be sure not to present this episode in the most exciting drama with muffled familiarity or two-dimensional characters.  In fact, every week, let’s preach so that we never bore our listeners with the shocking truth of the Gospel!