The Gospel of Xmas 2 - The Grinch
Back when television was CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS—there was no cable, no VCRs, no DVDs, no Netflix or YouTube—we watched whatever our 500 lb 20 inch TVs could pick up with their rabbit ear antennas. We all watched the same shows. At Christmas this meant Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and The Grinch.
The Grinch has always fascinated me because it’s whimsical and colorful and playful, but it’s also a bit of a horror story about a monster who tries to steal everyone’s joy and happiness. It was even voiced by one of the most famous horror movie actors of the time, Borris Karloff—who played Frankenstein, the Mummy, and various vampires and monsters. The Grinch was a monster.
But was he always a monster? Did he used to be one of the Whos? The Dr Seuss book doesn’t really tell us. It just says he lived 10,000 feet above Whoville on cold Mount Crumpet with his dog Max, and that he hated the Whos. The Jim Carrey movie and the new CGI with Benedict Cumberbatch create backstories where the Grinch used to be a Who but was hurt or bullied or rejected by them so he isolated himself and became bitter. Kind of like how in the Lord of the Rings, Smeagle slowly turned from a Hobbit into Gollum by doing terrible things and sinning and being alone.
So in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, there are the happy, noisey Whos in Whoville getting ready to celebrate Christmas—and the grumpy green curmudgeon who looks down on them and dreads the whole thing. He’s obsessed with finding a way to stop it from happening and ruin it for everyone. He’s a lot like Scrooge. Both of their names sound like exactly what they are. Grinch. Scrooge. They’re grumpy killjoys, they’re miserable and they want you to be miserable, too.
When we’re grumpy or sad, there’s not a more annoying sound than laughter coming from another table. Laughter is only enjoyable if we’re willing to join in. And it’s really weird to watch people eat if you’re not eating. On Christmas morning, have you ever noticed that the only person the noise-making toy isn’t driving crazy is the person pushing the buttons? Everyone thinks they’re SO FUNNY then they’re the one doing it. Until I grab it out of their hands and throw the batteries in the front yard. I might be a little Grinchy sometimes.
So you probably know the basic story. The Grinch thinks of a way to ruin Christmas—he’s gonna dress up like Santa and steal all their stuff. All the toys, all the decorations, even all the food. I think it’s interesting that he takes the symbol of Christmas consumerism and materialism—The guy in the red suit who fans the flames of greed in the hearts of children—and uses that as a disguise to steal all the Christmas things. So he takes everything and goes back to his lonely mountain—he can’t wait for them to all wake up and freak out that everything’s gone. He’s so looking forward to hearing them wail and cry. Misery loves company, you know.
But it doesn’t happen. They wake up and gather in a circle, heart to heart and hand in hand—and they start singing. He wasn’t able to stop Christmas from coming after all.
In the beginning of the story, we’re told that no one was sure how the Grinch got to be such a Grinch. Maybe because his shoes were too tight or the fact that his head wasn’t screwed on just right—but the most likely reason was because his heart was two sizes too small.
It’s pretty obvious that the story is supposed to have a deeper meaning but it’s not so obvious what the meaning actually is. Some people think it’s about how consumerism has ruined Christmas and we don’t need all the stuff to celebrate and have joy—which is true but I don’t think that’s the main point. The Whos enjoyed their toys and decorations but they were also fine without them, and when the Grinch brought all the stuff back, they weren’t even mad at him for it, they shared it all with him and even made him the guest of honor—let him carve the roast beast.
Some people think the deeper meaning is that happiness comes from within—find your inner joy and no one can steal it from you. I think that’s nonsense. The whole point of Christmas is that God sent His Son into the world because we all have something missing inside that only He is going to be able to fill.
Other people think the meaning is just, “Don’t be a Grinch,” but if your heart is two sizes too small, you’re not gonna be able to fix yourself.
Christmas is about new life coming into the world and changing us from the outside in. We need to stop and gather heart to heart and hand in hand to celebrate what God has done for us in Christmas. In Christ.
Think about how the Grinch got better. He was listening for the Whos to start crying, he was so looking forward to it, but instead they started singing.
Dahoo Dores
Welcome Christmas Come this way
It didn’t come from within him, the song came from a bunch of people gathered to sing about Christmas.
Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores
Welcome Christmas, Christmas day
Some of what they sang sounded like nonsense.
Welcome, welcome fahoo ramus
Welcome, welcome dahoo damus
But there’s one word that rings loud and clear in the heart of the Grinch: Christ. Welcome Christmas bring your light. That’s how faith happens. St Paul says it like this in Romans 10:17
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
You can’t say “Christmas” without “Christ,” I don’t care who you are.
Welcome Christmas while we stand,
Heart to Heart and Hand in Hand
Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores
Welcome Christmas,
Christmas Day!
I don’t know why people don’t see this, the power of the message of The Grinch is that He couldn’t save himself. He was blind to joy. He was deaf to the beauty of music. And the thing that changed him was hearing the people of God, gathered to worship and sing heart to heart and hand in hand about Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. That’s the meaning of the Grinch and that’s the meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is about new life coming into the world and changing us from the outside in. We remember the Bethlehem story, the Angels, the Shepherds, the gift that God gave the world because He loved us so much. That’s why we need to stop and celebrate what God has done for us in Christmas every year. And what He’s done for us in Christ every week.
I think everyone’s heart starts off in this world being one size too small. Ephesians 2:1 says we were all born dead in our sins. Jeremiah 17:9-10 says the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Ezekiel 36:26 talks about people having hearts of stone and when the Savior comes He’ll put a new spirit in them and give them a heart of flesh. You were born with a heart that was at least one size too small and you can’t fix it by trying to not be a Grinch or looking inside yourself for inner joy and happiness. You look inside yourself and you’re just gonna find an empty grave where your true life ought to be.
But you’re not without hope. That’s the whole point. God wants to save you and make you completely alive—God wants to ungrinch you—give you peace and light and something to really celebrate and sing about.
Colossians 2:13 says, yes you used to be dead but God has made you alive together with Him and forgiven all your sins. Even if you try to steal everyone’s joy by ruining Christmas—He still welcomes you with open arms and gives you a place of honor.
John 1:12-13 says he actually accepts you into His family,
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Not only welcomed to the party, as a guest, but adopted as one of His own. You can stay.
And not only adopted, God takes it further, In God’s great mercy, He has mysteriously
“caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3.
You’re not just a legal child of God, you were born again as a true and living child of God. Jesus the baby grew into Jesus the man, who died for you and came back from the dead for you—if you hear the song, the word of Christ, the message of the Gospel, and believe, then your heart will also grow and you will be made into a new person.
The Grinch is the story of salvation. Of regeneration. Of being born again by the power of the word of Christ—the true message of Christmas, the Gospel.
Christmas is about new life coming into the world and changing us from the outside in. Making us brand new. About what happens when we get together with other people and celebrate the light and wonder of what God has done for us by sending His Son to become one of us. We celebrate Christmas together. We find joy together. We hear the message of Christ together. We cannot do it alone, in isolation. That only leads to our heart shrinking smaller and smaller, and to us getting annoyed by all the laughter at other tables—becoming lonely Grinches.
So I was thinking about all this when I wrote the NewChurch newsletter this last week. The newsletter is emailed to everyone on our mailing list each Wednesday at about 4PM. If you’re not getting it, make sure we have your current email and make sure it’s not going into your spam folder. If you don’t open it, your computer will probably start putting it in the junk file.
Anyway, I was thinking about how important it is for us to gather together as the church, the body of Christ each week on Sunday morning to worship, hear God’s Word, sing together, pray together and be reminded of who we are in Christ. How it’s good for building our faith, keeping us unified, encouraged—it’s really God’s kindness that He gives us so much when we gather here to worship Him. It’s not really for Him, it’s for us. But at the same time, He did command that we do it. It’s not optional.
Hebrews 10:24 says we’re supposed to stir each other up to love each other and do good in the world “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” We’re not to “forsake the gathering of the saints,” gathering of the saints is what we’re doing this morning.
In the newsletter I said something that bothered some people. I said, “The next time your alarm goes off on Sunday morning and you decide to sleep in, say this out loud, "I'm not going to church because I don't believe in all that Jesus stuff anymore." At least you'll start your day with honesty.
Or, when you go to bed (late) on Saturday night and don't set your alarm thinking, "If I wake up, then I'll go to church, if not then I won’t." Same thing—make this your night time prayer: "Lord, thanks but no thanks. I don't really believe in You anymore."
Some people thought that sounded too harsh. Maybe it is. But isn’t it idolatry to put anything in a place of higher priority than Jesus? When we make sleep, watching football, obligations at work or anything else more important than doing what Jesus told us to do we’re acting like functional unbelievers.
But I also think when we “forsake the gathering of the saints”—when we skip church—we’re taking the first steps up cold Mount Crumpet, we’re risking causing our hearts to shrink again, we’re Grinching ourselves.
But people will object. People will try to justify not going to church:
“I feel closer to God in nature than I do at church.” Yes, the Grinch on beautiful Mount Crumpet looking down on all those stupid Whos, thinking he knew what was good for him.
“Churches are full of bored people who say one thing and do another.” Unlike the Grinch, who was perfectly and consistently selfish and evil because he didn’t fight against his Grinchiness.
“I would go to church if there was more in it for me.” Spoken like a true selfish Grinch.
“I don’t need other Christians. Me and Jesus are fine.” The Grinch became the sour green monster that he is by thinking he was better off alone.
“I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” That’s the most poisonous idea the Grinches of this world ever came up with—that they can follow Jesus without doing what He says. Whether it’s actually said out loud or just implied by not showing up, this is what poisons the Whos and turns them into Grinches by encouraging them to be alone and grow cold and bitter.
God wants to ungrinch you and He also wants to ungrinch people through you—though us.
There are Grinches out there who need to hear us singing, they need to feel welcome to join us, that they don’t have to be alone. They may have been hurt or bullied or rejected by other churches, we don’t want that to happen here. When we get together here on Sunday morning to sing about Christ, please make sure you’re here to make the song as strong as we can sing it. Make sure you’re here so that everyone you know feels free to join us, so they’ll be enough people here that they don’t feel like they showed up on the wrong day. We want them to feel like they’ve been given a place of honor—that they’re welcome to come with all their Grinchiness, that God loves them as they are but His love will change them, they won’t stay as they are, He loves them too much to let that happen. But it’s not just for them, it’s also for you. Did somebody try to steal your Christmas joy? Well come back here on Sunday to get it back. Is your faith a little shaky? Show up Sunday morning to hear the word of Christ—that’s where faith comes from. The world can be a cold place. There are Grinches everywhere trying to ruin everything. But you have been given a new life, you have been born of God, and [1 John 5:4]
“whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith”
in Jesus. May you join your hearts and your hands together in celebrating and singing about the new life that God has given us all in Christ this Christmas season. This is how God ungrinches the world. AMEN