OPEN: (I sat on a stool on stage, reading the following from “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” I taped my sermon into the pages of the book and used the book as both prop and way to hide my sermon notes).
Every Who down in Who-ville liked a Christmas a lot…
But the Grinch, who lived just north of Who-ville did NOT!
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 tight.
But I think 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 coming!”
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Hmmm… it seems like a Christmas has always had that kind of effect on some people. In our present age, Christmas is so disliked by some people that groups like the ACLU have threatened people with lawsuits if there’s even a mention of Christ in the season of Christmas.
ILLUS Not so long ago, Broward County (Florida) told the Calvary Chapel there that they could not include the words: “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” in their Christmas display. So the church filed a suit in the U.S. District Court claiming they had the right to display the words.
Judge William Zloch agreed with their “free speech” argument and allowed them to keep the words in their display as long as they included the words,
“Calvary Chapel says,” before the words “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” (report from Yahoo.com 11/ 21/ 03)
Even though 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, and even though Christianity is the largest religious group in the nation, “Jesus” has been repeatedly forced into the closet during this season. So much so that the very word “Christmas” has been removed from the season and replaced by the term “Happy Holidays”
ILLUS: California recently made the news on this issue. Years ago they had changed the name of their Christmas tree to the “Holiday Tree”… until Governor Schwarzenegger declared that he thought that was unnecessary … and promptly renamed it a “Christmas Tree” much to the chagrin of the politically correct crowd.
ILLUS: Just recently I read about a school in Chicago – which recently staged their holiday program celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa… but excluded any reference to Christ and the Christmas story.
ILLUS: Back in 1991, humorist Dave Barry poked fun at all of this when he wrote:
To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the weather. At my son’s school, they now hold the winter program in February and sing increasingly non memorable songs such as “Winter Wonderland,” “Frosty the Snowman” and--this is a real song--”Suzy Snowflake,” all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of Meteorology.
I. There’s something about the story of the birth of Christ that creates animosity
But what?
ILLUS: James Martin The Upper Room
On a trip to the Holy Land, I bought a nativity set for my Sunday School. Carved out of olive wood in Bethlehem itself, the crèche had all the traditional figures – sheep and oxen, wise men and shepherds. Mary and Joseph and, of course, the baby Jesus.
For the return trip, security at Tel Aviv airport was very strict. I remember thinking they would not trouble to examine my nativity set; it was obviously innocent. But they did. Each figure was carefully scrutinized and even taken away for x-ray examination.
“You see,” said the security officer, “we must make sure there is nothing explosive in them.”
There is something EXPLOSIVE in the story of Jesus. And nowhere is that explosiveness more obvious than in the story of Herod.
King Herod was King of the land of Israel in the day when Jesus was born. But he wasn’t King by right of birth, for he wasn’t an Israelite, he was an Edomite. He was ruler of the land only because Rome had given him that throne.
He called himself “the Great” and in some ways he was a “great king.”
o He had doubled the size of the Temple
o Built numerous palaces and fortifications
o Kept the area of Palestine at a relative peace with its neighbors
o And – when a famine had devastated Israel – he purchased food for his starving people with money from his own treasury.
So why would a successful, wealthy, compassionate king be so upset with a baby born in Bethlehem? So upset that he was willing to massacre every child in this village to make sure he had destroyed that one single helpless child?
Actually, Scripture doesn’t tell us why, but history gives us a pretty good picture of this wicked King’s motivation. You see, Herod had a reputation for jealously protecting his power and position.
• When his 16 year old bro-in-law tried to make a name for himself Herod playfully held the boy’s head under water until he died.
• Years later, one of his many his wives, Mariamne, became involved in a plot to have her family rise to power… even though he loved her deeply, he had her executed.
• And, a couple of years before his death, he heard rumors that two of his sons, Aristobulus and Antipater, were engaged in a plot to kill him – he had them executed as well.
After hearing of this last incident, Caesar Augustus commented: “It is safer to be Herod’s pig than to be Herod’s son.”
Herod’s main motivation in life was to “stay in control” of his life. Anything or anyone that threatened this authority faced his wrath. He would do anything in his power to destroy whatever endangered his ability to stay in control of his life.
II. Herod’s motivation goes to the heart of why so many others oppose Christmas.
People embrace Kwanzaa which is a celebration created by and for the black community today.
They’ll embrace Hanukkah… a religious holiday celebrated by the Jewish community.
But let someone bring up the story of Jesus - and watch the fireworks begin
Why? Because people who have a problem with the baby Jesus. They have a heart problem.
You remember the words in the story of the Grinch? His heart was 2 sizes too small.
Herod’s heart was too small for anyone other than himself to rule in his life. There was no room.
And that’s why so many others reject the Christ child. To acknowledge Him to be what the Christmas story says He is would be to acknowledge that Jesus had a right to their hearts and minds. But there’s no room in their hearts for that message. There’s no room in their hearts for God to reign.
That’s why many of the Christmas carols we sing so often are so offensive to non-Christians. We don’t often give much thought to those words because we’ve sung them so often… but I want you to give serious thought to the meaning of the following carols as we sing them together: (sang Acappella all in the same key)
What Child is this, who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste, haste to bring Him laud, the Babe the Son of Mary.
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him born the King of angels.
O come let us adore Him, o come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem."
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."
Did you catch the message in these songs?
“Christ the King”
“King of Angels”
“God and sinners reconciled”
This Jesus receiving the praise of both men and angels.
Christmas Carols declare the divinity of Christ. They literally shout out that Jesus is the Son of God born to be King of our lives… and the KING of the lives of others as well.
III. So then, how do we change hearts of those who don’t want Jesus/ King in their lives?
How do we change the size of their hearts?
(CLIP FROM MOVIE from the top of Mt. Crumpit to the end which reads as follows):
Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpit,
He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it!
“Pooh-Pooh to the Whos!” he was ginch-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!
“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch, “That I simply MUST hear!”
So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It stared in low. Then it started to grow…
But the sound wasn’t sad~ Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Who-ville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?
“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled 3 hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “Doesn’t come from a store.
“Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more!”
And what happened then…?
Well… in Who-ville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew 3 sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he… HE HIMSELF…!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!
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Did you realize what a beautifully theological story this is?
What changed the heart of the Grinch?
It wasn’t the ribbons, it wasn’t the tags
It wasn’t the packages, boxes or bags
It was the witness of the people down in Who-ville…the witness of people that the Grinch had always hated because of the Christmas they celebrated.
It was their singing and their joy that changed the Grinch
ILLUS: A lady who served on many civic committees, asked to select carols suitable for a community Christmas-tree lighting, sought the help of her preacher. But, when she scanned the list he had selected, she was dismayed. In frustration she cried: But they’re all so theological."
Yeah, they are, aren’t they?
But this woman had missed the point of those songs.
Christmas for her wasn’t about Jesus.
Her kind of Christmas would never change the heart of a Grinch.
Her kind of Christmas would never change the world because her kind of Christmas would never challenge people to change the size of their hearts.
CLOSE: It’s only the story of a changed heart that makes any difference in this world.
Eight years ago, a man I had been witnessing to for several years was arrested and put in prison. What he had done was so shocking that he’ll never get out of prison during his life time. But once he had been arrested, he couldn’t get away. I visited him several times teaching him about Jesus and in due course we baptized him into Christ.
Once he was taken to prison he involved himself with the prison chaplain and dedicated himself to walking closer to Jesus.
Last spring, however, Gary had a stroke and lost about 90 lbs. He walks with a limp and requires a cane to get around. He recently sent me a Christmas card where he spoke of another inmate by the name of Abel who had taken Gary under his wing. “He has taken me under his wing to me get around, pick up my commissary, get me things, carry my tray at chow. I said he took me under his wing, I believe he is an angel from God and I am so blessed.
I owe this young man so much and have no way to repay him. He is not from Indiana and his family doesn’t write him or care for him. So my only wish for Christmas is for him to receive mail and Christmas cards from people who do care. This would mean so much to have Christmas card sent from you and your family. It would bless me if I could get everyone I know to flood him with Holiday mail.
(I then included the other man’s name and address in our bulletin… if you would like to write him as well, e-mail me and I would be glad to pass that information along).
Gary had been a man whose heart was too small. God had no control of his life. But the Jesus who was born so long ago in Bethlehem made such a difference in his life that now he is thinking of others and their needs as well.
Sermons in this series: Christmas At The Movies
* Miracle on 42nd Street - Matthew 1:1-17
* How The Grinch Stole Christmas - Matthew 2:1-20
* The Santa Clause - Ephesians 4:17-5:2
* It’s A Wonderful Life - Ephesians 2:1-20
