The Grinch Is Dead Series

The ‘Grinch’ is Dead!

12/17/00

Video: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

I’ve got a confession to make this morning…

A fact, that up to this pt. only my wife knew about…

It’s not a part of my history that I am necc. proud of…but… it’s something I feel I need to make public at this time…

I…I… was a ”CHRISTMAS GRINCH!” (I’m sorry.)

I admit… I didn’t necc. like Christmas. Oh, there was nothing about it’s meaning that bothered me… ( I rejoiced in the fact that Christmas celebrated the birth of my Lord and Savior)…

But… it was all the paraphernalia that went along with it that I despised!

The commercialism… the Santa’s taking pict. with awe struck kids, dressed in fake beards, cheap crushed velvet suits & working in every mall. (you’d think kids would figure it out!)…

It was the onslaught of children’s specials… all the way from “Frosty the Snowman” (which made me nauseous) - to “Bart Simpsons Christmas Special” (a total mockery!)….

ALL of which totally and completely missed the real significance of Christmas. It bothered me!

It bugged me that stores skipped Thanksgiving in order to “cash in” on the early Christmas shoppers.

I had gotten to the point that even the familiar Christmas songs bored me. They had lost their meaning after years of repetition.

Again… I am ashamed, and embarrassed by my SOURPUSS Attitude! And I make no excuses for it… but to me Christmas had become more of a hindrance than a time of celebration. It rep. an added burden to my already busy schedule.

Looking back in retrospect, there were times when I actually began to get glimpses of my deplorable condition… of just how far I had strayed…

For instance, when I watched the Dr. Suess special, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”… I rooted for the Grinch! With each passing year, I began to more and more resemble his outlook.

Like that ‘grinch’, my heart began to shrink…

“The grinch hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season, and no one quite knew the reason,

It could be perhaps his shoes were too tight. It could be, his head wasn’t screwed on just right…

But I think the most likely reason of all, was that his heart was two sizes too small!”

Like the ‘grinch’, all the hoopla and noise surrounding the Christmas season, served to drown out the real meaning of the whole event.

“As they danced with their ging-tinglers tied to their heels, blowing their floo-floobaas and tar-tinklers, they slam their har-hoopers, they bang their gar-ginkers.

The ‘who’s’ young and old will come to a feast, they’ll feast and they’ll feast…

Feast on who-pudding and roast beast! Roast beast is a feast I can’t stand in the least!”

But what really shocked me into the realization of my true & awful condition was when my wife began singing… to ME!

You’re a mean one… Mr. Grinch! You really are a heel!

You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel. Mr. Grinch… you’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!

You’re a foul one… Mr. Grinch! You’re a nasty wasty skunk,You’re heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk… Mr. Grinch…the 3 words that best describe you are as follows…(and I quote)

STINK…. STANK…. STUNK!

Well, that’s enough to get anyone’s attention… and it got mine!

I had unconsciously allowed the world (and Satan) to rob me of any Christmas joy. I was so hung up on the worlds mis-representation of Christmas… that it had infected my own celebration of Christ’s birth.

Now as hard as it is to confess to you this morning my ‘grinchy, grouchy,” attitude… I do it because perhaps, (just maybe) there are some other “grinches” present in this congregation this morning.

And maybe God can use my testimony to help you too change your ways…

Let me give you some of the symptoms of this condition…

1. A generally critical and pessimistic spirit towards the whole holiday season, particularly aimed at commercialism.

2. A stingy, self directed attitude, that asks, “What has Christmas ever done for me?”

3. An overall grouchiness and crochyness… with a special distaste for trimming trees, hanging outdoor lights and attending Cantata’s.

4. A loss of the newness and excitement assoc. with Christ’s birth.

5. A heavy sigh when you think of the hectic sched. you have to endure…followed by a sigh of relief when it’s all over with!

Anybody here like that? Now, maybe you’re not humming the “Grinch Song”… but if you were to ask people around you, (your wife, husband, kids)… YOU’RE A GRINCH!

And not only are you miserable… but you are making Christmas miserable for anyone assoc. with you!

As I said at the beginning of today’s message, “ I WAS a Christmas Grinch…”