Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church

Christmas Morning Service – 12/25/00

by Gregory S. Kaurin

Associate Pastor for Spiritual Care and Development

 

Texts: Isaiah 52:7-10, Hebrews 1:1-4 & John 1:1-14

 

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Before singing “The Little Drummer Boy” I want to tell you a story that makes this carol more meaningful to me this year.

A couple weeks ago, the pastors of our area gathered here for a visit from Bishop Wold, the Bishop of Southwestern Washington.  We had a short worship service together.  In his message Bishop Wold told of missionaries who were visiting children in Russia.  They were giving them Bibles.  Through a translator, they told the children about the Christmas story.  All the children listened intently. 

Then, the children were given some paper, scissors, sticks, glue and tape and were asked to create something from the story they had just heard.  They set to work.  Afterwards, the missionaries were looking at the results. 

One boy had made a little manger, but they noticed that in it, made out of paper, there were two little babies.  Perhaps something was missed in translation, so they asked the little boy to talk about the story he had heard.  Almost perfectly, through the interpreter, the little boy retold the Christmas story.

“That’s wonderful!”  They said, “But we see that you have two babies in the manger instead of just one little baby Jesus.  Why is that?”

“Well,” the little boy answered, “Unlike all the others who visited the baby, I really don’t have a nice gift to give him.  So I thought I’d get in the manger with him to help keep him warm.”

Now… let’s sing “The Little Drummer Boy.”

 

The Sermon:

The Grinch’s* New Lesson

 

Well, it happened!  Christmas came this morning.  No Grinches* from Dr. Seuss stole it.  No arctic storms prevented it.  No demythologizing secular authority debunked it.  Christmas came—whether or not everything was wrapped, trimmed and in its proper place—well in time, or just in time.  Christmas came.  The Child arrived.  Jesus is here!  Were you prepared?

 

When I was in college, each year the semesters wound up with tests and deadlines.  It was then that one of our chaplains, Pastor Carl Lee, would tell a story at our evening chapel services.  Sometimes it was new, but many times it would be an old favorite.

We always looked forward to that service and telling.  In his soft, soothing voice, he gave us permission to relax, “Sit back; close your eyes.  You can even fall asleep—if the Spirit decides that is what you need most.”  And there, in the midst of some of the most busy, stressful times in my life—I discovered peace.  That is what I want for you this morning: peace.  Peace is here: he came incarnate some 2000 years ago as the Christ Child.

 

The story I’m telling was written by one of my colleagues who is a United Church of Christ pastor in Maine.  He based it on Dr. Seuss’ story of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.*  In that story, the Grinch—perhaps out of a jealous loneliness—tried to stop Christmas down in Whoville by stealing all the gifts, instruments, decorations and food.  However, Christmas morning after he’d taken everything up onto his high mountain, still the Christmas songs drifted up from the valley.  The Grinch discovered that Christmas didn’t come with packages and decorations and feasts.

They say he learned his lesson, and that his heart grew three sizes.  He raced back down into Whoville with the gifts and instruments and decorations and food, and joined their celebration.  Why, the Grinch, he himself carved the roast beast!  And like Ebenezer Scrooge, no one from that day onward could out-Christmas the Grinch.

But it’s time for the Grinch’s new lesson—time to learn something he forgot in the years that followed—the lesson we all need.  So sit back, relax, and close your eyes if you want.  You can even fall asleep if the Spirit decides that is what you need.  Hear this story.

 

untitled*

 

All the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot.

But the Grinch, who lived just North of Whoville, did not.

At least not until that one year when finally he saw

that Christmas could be the best day of them all.

 

The Grinch was transformed as the story is told

in a movie that's new and a book that is old.

The Grinch now looks forward, this time of the year

to those magical days when Christmas draws near.

 

He knows that it's something quite special indeed

as he sets out to gather the things that he'll need

to celebrate Christmas the way that he should

and to share in joy of the thing understood.

 

The Grinch gathers presents for friends that are dear.

He writes Christmas letters and sends Christmas cheer.

The tree is prepared.  The lights are all strung.

The presents are wrapped and the carols are sung.

 

There's tinsel and stockings and candles aglow

and cookies and candy; and of course mistletoe.

The crèche and the cards and the holly and lace

are promptly prepared and all put into place.

 

And because Christmas dinner is always a treat

he simply must have his friends over to eat.

So he plans out a menu; prepares a Grinch feast.

He sets the Grinch table.  He roasts the roast beast.

 

He wonders each year how to get it all done.

He's always behind and feels under the gun.

But he's learned from the past and from what he has seen.

So now he begins just before Halloween.

 

He plans out his plan from the first of November

to arrange for this day near the end of December.

He envisions a day that's like no other day

and does all he can do to make it that way.

 

And the Grinch is religious; so on Christmas each year

he goes Christmas Eve to a church that is near

to sing Christmas songs and to hear Christmas stories

of Christmases past in their Christmassy glories!

 

By the time he gets into the church on that night

he's done all he can to make Christmas just right.

But it's never just right.  It seems something is lacking.

His eyelids are heavy.  He's bloated from snacking.

 

He wonders if all of his efforts are wasted

as he sits there and thinks of the turkey he's basted.

But he then hears a story that's often retold

of a young women traveling while bearing a load.

 

He hears about Mary and Joseph and how

they had to move into the home of a cow.

Now cows with new roommates are not always kind

but this was the only place Joseph could find.

 

And that stable must have been cold, thinks the Grinch.

The hay was quite dirty.  The air had a stench!

Poor Mary must be at the end of her rope!

Yet the story is told as a story of hope.

 

For they say that the child who was born in that place

is a gift that God gives to the whole human race.

For we all find ourselves in cold, smelly stables,

but God meets us there and reverses the tables.

 

God becomes known to us right where we hurt

with the cows and the hay and the smell and the dirt.

God loves us enough to take on our sad plight

and redeem us and lead us back into the light.

 

The Grinch thought of his cave way up there on the hill:

his own desperate stable he tries so hard to fill

with Christmas trees, tinsel, and stockings, and bows,

and presents, and candy and new Christmas clothes.

 

The Grinch took a deep breath and he offered a prayer

as he realized that Christmas was already there

before all his efforts to make it just right

had left him exhausted and cranky that night.

 

Now this Grinch prayer was simple and straight from the heart

he said, "God, work within me and make me a part

of all you envision and all that you give

to all of your children where ever they live."

 

 

Let us all re-learn!  Christmas can be overdone and stressful.  Too often we point outward to the world as the cause.  But no, really it is we, you and I, reacting and imagining that we must join the race and clutter our hearts with stress and over-done busy-ness.

Christmas is important.  But it is so much simpler than all that.  It is the Christ Child—God’s presence—born anew each year on earth and in our hearts.

 

May that peace that passes understanding (and doesn’t need to be understood, only accepted) may that peace fill your hearts and bind you to Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

[A quick note about our next carol: I was visiting one of our shut-in members.  When she heard we were going to be singing it, she said we should pay special attention to the comma in the title.  Most of us assume it is “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,” but it is “God Rest Ye Merry, …Gentlemen!”  The carol asks us to imagine that we are those “gentle-men,” those shepherds on the hillside, listening to the angels who are telling us to rest joyfully with the news.  “God give you happy peace.   God rest you merrily, gentlemen.”]