Sermon - "The Grinch Was Right!!"

Originally preached at Northminster Presbyterian Church - Roswell, GA, on December 24, 2002.

It was the Christmas Eve 11:30pm Candlelight Service, and we timed the service so that the sermon would end on Christmas Day - which it did, at almost exactly midnight.

Six hours later I was getting on a plane to Los Angeles, to enjoy the scene I describe at the beginning.

*****

Luke 2:8-14

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’




Christmas – at my aunt and uncle’s house in Laguna Beach, California – looks like blue skies, white clouds, and an ocean view… it smells like a pine tree in the corner, my grandfather’s cologne, and a mix of scents from my aunt’s kitchen… it tastes like a honey-baked ham, my mom’s spinach dip, and a glass of wine… it feels like crisp napkins, tight ribbons, comfortable chairs – and it sounds like Bing Crosby singing, voices laughing, children playing, and people cheering for the football blaring on the television screen… Just thinking about my family’s Christmas makes me smile – and you can probably relate, with stories of your own.

If ever there was an appropriate use for the term, “Festive,” surely our Christmas celebrations have it: festivity, festivals, and feasts…

But I wonder just how festive it may have seemed during that very first Christmas, on that first Noel, in that Bleak mid-winter… picking up the story from verse 8, we read that

In that region – there were… a lot of people. We know that there were hundreds – if not thousands of people in the region to be registered. Because this was a family-based activity, everyone was returning home, like a giant reunion – seeing people they might not have seen for some time. Friends, relatives, young and old were descending upon Bethlehem to do their family thing: big meals were being cooked, large gatherings were being planned, long conversations were going on into the night, It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. But Luke doesn’t tell us about the festivity of Bethlehem, instead he looks outside the city – to tell us that

there were shepherds – Shepherds have a good reputation in our tradition. You and I have both seen the pictures of Jesus holding a lamb, cradling it as carefully as he would a child. King David was renown for being a shepherd early in life – a traditional figure of simplicity, of perfect humility – the graceful pastoral image of a person caring for the animals.
We’ve treated shepherds well in our history, except that by all accounts, when Jesus said he was the “Good” shepherd – we should have paid attention, because in ancient reality, shepherds were a brutish, uncivilized crew. Usually made up of nomadic types, without families or connections to broader society, they were unjust businessmen, and essentially the contemporary equivalent of a drug dealer.

The Jewish law forbade Jews from doing business with shepherds, since they were known to be unscrupulous. By Roman law, they were not allowed to testify in legal proceedings – it was generally assumed they were liars. These men are living in the fields, not with their families. While everyone else is being registered they are in the hill country with the sheep. And, they aren’t just keeping watch – they’re living there. This is their home, there with the sheep – and they have probably forged their own community separate from the city. They are quite literally outsiders. Physically, legally, outside the civilized world.

It’s nighttime – they’re surrounded by utter darkness… watching – and listening – it’s dark, it’s quiet, except for the distant sounds of a busy Bethlehem rising over the hills.

And I want to know what they’re thinking.

Do they wish for a family in Bethlehem? A warm place to sleep? Are they jealous of the Bethlehemites, do they wish them harm, what do they think of all the commotion down the hill?

I wonder about all that when I watch the Dr. Suess classic “The Grinch who Stole Christmas” – the story of a miserable, bitter, creature, isolated from civilization, alone except for the animal he took care of… another outsider, on another hill, on a completely different Christmas, especially when I hear that

The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But it’s thought that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, Whatever the reason, His heart or his shoes,
He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating the Whos,
Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown
At the warm lighted windows below in their town.
For he knew every Who down in Who-ville beneath
Was busy now, hanging a mistletoe wreath.

"And they're hanging their stockings!" he snarled with a sneer,
"Tomorrow is Christmas! It's practically here!"
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find some way to stop Christmas from coming!"

and so he does – steals their ribbons, steals their tags,
steals their packages, boxes, and bags…
their Pop guns! And bicycles! Roller skates! Drums!
Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums!,
he slunk to the icebox and stole the Who’s feast,
stole their who pudding, and the rare Who-roast beast…
and yet, Christmas came – somehow or other, it came, all the same…

Whatever the Grinch was thinking, he was wrong about Christmas – assuming, as he did, that it was a material object capable of being stolen… but he was right to be skeptical of whys and ways the Who’s went about their yuletide glee – he was looking for integrity, and it wasn’t until the Who’s were robbed of their trinkets and toys that he found the Christmas he was looking for.

And this is why I wonder what the shepherds were thinking about all the buzz in and around Bethlehem – and what were they thinking about before the angels dropped in on them – literally – to completely change the world as they knew it.

For this set of outsiders, Christmas started by sitting quietly in the darkness, on a hill on the outskirts of Bethlehem herds… and all was well, when suddenly the night comes alive with the glory of the Lord, and an angel stands before them to announce good news to all people – that Today is the new beginning.

The angel is saying to the shepherds, to the outsider, today your Savior is born – who is Christ the Lord; and the angel is then joined by a legion of angels, singing about two things – Glory to God, and peace on earth.

Glory to God because the Messiah – the one come to restore us to God is lying in a manger! Emmanuel, God-with-us, in a manger in that town right over there. And peace on earth, real, lasting peace in Christ – so that even as we are restored to God, we are also restored to one another.

This all happens TONIGHT.
TONIGHT the angels are singing the first gospel-tune.
TONIGHT the song is about reconciliation: between God and humans – and among humanity itself.
TONIGHT everything changes, and the outsiders aren’t outside anymore.

And this is the gospel message that God proclaims to us every day, and not just on Christmas. That EVERYDAY, God comes to the outsider and brings them in.
That EVERYDAY we are called out of our comfortable worlds, and to a manger where our Savior lies.
That EVERYDAY we come back to God, so we can reach out to each other.

It is the call of Christmas to be as shepherds - after seeing the baby in the manger, to make Him known to all we see,

And it is the call of Christmas to be as the Who’s – after losing their commercial Christmas, to still gather as one people, hold hands with our neighbor, and sing to the rooftops…

This is our call this Christmas morning, and every morning. As we celebrate our communion with God, and each other, to see beyond the tinseled festivity to the baby in the hay.

Friends, KNOW in Christ the priceless gift that God gave us two thousand years ago.
And BE in Christ that joyful family God created for us so long ago.

Extolling each of you to a truly wonderful Christmas Day – one worth singing about.

May God bless you this morning, and Merry Christmas!