"it Wasn't A Very Hallmarkish Christmas"

Title: It Wasn’t A Very Hallmark Christmas” Scripture: Mt. 1/Lk2

Type: Christmas Eve Message Where: GNBC Christmas Eve 2022

Intro: Tonight, I want to take us back in time to that 1st Christmas Eve. I want to compare and contrast the events, mindset, and mentality of the nativity of Christ to what we commonly consider as essential to our modern-day entertainment adaptations for holiday entertainment. We need look no further than to the flagship of all seasonal movie makers: Hallmark! Don’t get me wrong, I actually like a lot of Hallmark movies. They are usually moral movies without profanity, violence and inuendo. They are refreshing in our profane, over sexed and overly violent society. However, they usually are NOT good representations of what the true meaning of Christmas is or is about. The original Christmas had precious little to do with the usual format found in a Hallmark holiday movie.

Prop: “This evening I want to demonstrate 5 Ways in which the original Nativity was not a Very Hallmark Christmas.”

I. A Hallmark Christmas Would Have a Frustrated, Professional, Career Obsessed Woman as the Protagonist.

A. Because so many Hallmark movies feature someone from the big city coming to a small town (another popular trope), or someone returning home for the first time in years (another trope!), there are a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies that also feature a big change in the end, not just a romantic happy ending. That often involves one of the main characters making a big career change, like taking over the family business they had initially abandoned, or finding that their passion lies somewhere completely unexpected. The Christmas Bow, for example, sees a formerly passionate violinist rekindle her love for music. Heart of the Holidays features a woman leaving her big city job by the end of the movie for life in her small hometown.

B. The Original Christmas Presented a Significantly Different Protagonist.

1. Rather than being a dominant, career driven, frustrated 30-something professional, Mary was a poor, scared, chaste, humble, teenaged girl. Women in that day and age had few, if any rights, and even fewer career options. There were few professions in which a woman could try her wings. Marriage was the source of survival, protection, and meaning in life for a young woman of her standing. The world was a very harsh and cruel place, a young woman needed and wanted a man’s protection, not independence.

2. In the Biblical Account, this godly, humble girl is offered the most important position any woman has ever held in all of history!

a. In the typical Hallmark cinematic account the protagonist is usually an author, an event planner, a doctor, an ad executive with an amazing CV/Resume. Read Lk. 1:31-33. Top that on your resume! “Mother of God”!

b. The beauty of Mary is her godly response to this monumental task: Read Lk. 1:46-47. Although she wonders at how this can be (She is still a virgin Lk. 1:34), she responds to the task in total obedience and faith that to this day makes her the most beautiful and beloved woman in history.

C. Applic: Mary, the protagonist in the original nativity, is not a career obsessed and completely stressed 30-something year old attempting to find meaning and purpose in life. Rather, she is a very humble, poor, teenage maiden who finds meaning in life in being used by God for His purposes.

II. A Hallmark Christmas Would Have a Single Father to Whom the Protagonist is Magnetically Attracted.

A. In the 2016 Hallmark classic, “A Christmas in Homestead”, A famous movie star travels to a small town, Homestead, Iowa, which is obsessed with Christmas, and falls in love with a single dad. Will the budding romance work out or will their different backgrounds get in the way? In “Christmas in Homestead”, the incredibly beautiful Taylor Cole and the handsome and sensitive Michael Rady are paired up together. They have great chemistry together, and from their first scenes together, it's easy to root for them.

B. The Original Christmas Presents a Significantly Different Father Figure.

1.Joseph, the Biblical “father figure”

a. Most of the Hallmark love interest single fathers are handsome hunks who are emotionally scarred or misunderstood. However, the beautiful protagonist eventually pulls them out of their reclusive shell.

b. In an attempt to prop up an unbiblical doctrine about Mary, one section of the church created an entire narrative about Joseph’s earlier life. They attempt to say that Joseph was older, widowed, and had multiple children, when married the much younger Mary, whom he kept a virgin the rest of her life. Although fanciful, this theory is not very factual. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible to support this theory. Rather, Joseph was probably 18-22 yrs of age, had completed his apprenticeship as a carpenter, had built his home, and was pledged to take as his wife the young woman he had probably known his entire life.