How The Grinches Steal Christmas

How the Grinches stole Christmas

Read from the Grinch who stole Christmas up to the Page “Then he got an idea! An Awful Idea! The Grinch got a wonderful awful idea!

And you all know what the idea was right? I mean everyone of us here without exception has seen, read or heard “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Most of us could sing at least a part of “You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch”. We know the story: How the Grinch got dressed up as Santa Claus, how he dressed his dog Max up as a reindeer and how he went to Whoville and stole Christmas. How he climbed up on the roofs of the Whos, slid down the chimney and stole their stockings, and everything that was under their trees, stole all their Christmas treats and all of their who feasts. Why he even stole their last can of who hash. And then he stole their tree. It was when he was stuffing the tree up the chimney that he was interrupted by . . . you guessed it Little Cindy-Lou Who, who was not more then two. And she asked a relatively simple question “Santy Claus, why, Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?” And the Grinch did what any good Grinch would do at that point, he lied. “Why, my sweet little tot,” the fake Santy Claus lied, “There’s a light on this tree that won’t light on one side. So I’m taking it home to my workshop, my dear. I’ll fix it up there. Then I’ll bring it back here.” He lied to a little kid.

And when he was done he went to all the other Who houses stealing everything leaving crumbs much too small for all the Who’s mouses.

And when he had loaded up everything into his sleigh, he had Max pull it to the top of Mt. Crumpit to dump it. And man he was on the top of the world, you gotta love it when a plan comes together. And as he stood savouring the moment he said “Pooh-Pooh to the whos! He was Grinch-ish-ly humming. “They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming! They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do! Their mouths will hang open a minute or two then the whos down in Who-ville will all cry Boo-Hoo.”

Man You gotta hate the Grinch, he stole Christmas. And so because we’ve read the book seen the tv special, watched the movie and can sing the song we all know that someone who doesn’t like Christmas is a Grinch. And nobody wants to be a Grinch, do they? I’m sure that you know the history of the Grinch. The book was first written by Dr. Seuss in 1957 and one source wrote “To Dr. Seuss, he wasn’t a villain -- just a guy whose heart, "two sizes too small," needed a dose of the true spirit of the holiday. In fact, Seuss himself said that he identified with the fuzzy anti-hero.” Nine years later in 1966 the cartoon was released with Chuck Jones, an old friend of Seuss’s doing the animation. Boris Karloff narrated the story and Thurl Ravenscroft who provided Tony the Tiger’s voice in Frosted Flake commercials sang “You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch” CBS ran the cartoon every year for 22 years.

Of course in 2000 a live action version of the classic was released with Jim Carrey in the title role and you either loved it or hated it.

A couple of weeks ago we went to see A Berry Merry Christmas, in which our very own Jennifer Millington was performing and as a part of the production they presented the Grinch. And it got me thinking about Grinches. And I decided that you didn’t have to look like this to be a Grinch, (Grinch from Book) or like this (Grinch from TV) or even like this (Grinch from movie). And the more I thought about it the more I realized that there are all kinds of Ginches out there. Grinches who don’t even know they are Grinches. As a matter of fact if you told them they were a Grinch they would probably be personally offended. So as I begin this message today may I categorically state that I’m not preaching to anyone here specifically, that the Grinches I’m talking about are represented in society as a whole and in previous churches I have pastored but by no stretch of the imagination should they be seen as representative of anyone presently attending BCC. So if you feel like perhaps, by some stretch of the imagination that I’m referring to you this morning, I’m not. You just a little bit sensitive, which of course is a nicer word then paranoid.

There was a time that if you were a person who didn’t truly get into the Christmas spirit you were called an Old Scrooge, from Dickens Christmas Carol, today you are just as likely to be called a Grinch. So who are some of the Grinches who steal Christmas?