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One
of my favorite Christmas stories is Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I suspect there isn’t a one of us
here this evening who has not read or heard that story read at one time or
another in our lives. Maybe our parents read it to us or we read it to our
children or we simply acted the child and read it for ourselves. It’s a
delightful story, as are all of Dr. Seuss’s books. A couple of years ago they
even made a movie version of the story starring Jim Carey. Maybe you saw the
movie or know the story. Very
simply it is the story of the old Grinch who is ostracized by all the people in
Whoville because he is a grumpy old man who can’t stand it when other people
are having fun. So he lives alone with his dog on a hill high above the village.
As Christmas approaches, he becomes even grumpier because the people are having
a wonderful time. So the Grinch devises a plan to get even. He steals all their
Christmas presents. He feels sure that if all their presents are gone, they will
become as miserable and as unhappy as he is. So
he is shocked when the people not only are not all that upset that their
presents are gone, they proceed to put on a wonderful celebration of Christmas
in spite of it all. Their gleeful singing leads the Grinch to repent of his
selfishness and return all the presents. And even though he had committed such
larceny and theft, the people still invite the Grinch to join them in their
celebration of Christmas. By the end of the story the Grinch is no longer a
grinch but a changed person. When
we think about it, the title Dr. Suess gave to this story is really wrong, at
least in the way the story ends. It is not about the Grinch who stole Christmas
so much as it is about the Grinch who found Christmas, found the true meaning of
Christmas. It took the Grinch’s stealing all those gifts in order for him to
find what was missing in his life and to find the true meaning of Christmas. He
found it in the joy of the people and in their love and forgiveness of him. In
truth the Grinch found Christmas, the real meaning of Christmas. But the further
truth is that Christmas does not have to be found because Christmas is never
lost. What happened was that the Grinch lost sight of Christmas, lost sight of
what Christmas means and what Christmas is all about. That may be easier to do
than we think -- lose sight of the meaning of Christmas. In fact, I would hazard
a guess that we all, at times, lose sight of what Christmas is all about. We
lose sight because we allow ourselves to get all caught up in all the trappings
of Christmas rather than in Christmas itself. Those trappings are many: the
songs, the presents, the decorations, visits to family and friends, the parties,
even Christmas Eve celebrations at church. There is nothing wrong with any of
the trappings individually or all of them collectively. They are all good. And
they all help add meaning to what Christmas is all about. But none of them
individually nor all of them together make Christmas Christmas. One
of my favorite Christmas songs puts it all very clear and very succinct: the
real meaning of Christmas is the giving of love everyday. The love that is given
everyday is not our love one for another, although that is very important and
necessary. Nor is that love our love for God, although that love, too, is very,
very important and vital in our lives. Rather the real meaning of Christmas is
God’s total and unconditional love for us, every minute of every hour of every
day, no matter what. No matter what we say or what we do, we cannot lose God’s
love for us. As
the Gospel of John tells us, God loves us so much that God sent his only Son to
become one of us, to live and love and die for us. We remember and celebrate
that love on this day. And because of that love, we can love one another and
even love God. That may sound strange and it may even sound a bit heretical. But
I don’t think so. I think it is true to say that if God did not first love us,
we could not love God or one another. If God does not love us all the time,
unconditionally, we could not love God in return and would find it impossible to
love one another. You
see, because of God’s unconditional love for us, we can be like the Grinch.
No, we are like the Grinch. We are selfish. We do things we know we should not,
but God still loves us. We are impatient and unkind and jealous. But God keeps
loving us anyway. We are boastful and conceited and rude. But God still loves
us. We take offense and are resentful, but God goes on loving us and forgiving
us. We even take pleasure in the bad that happens to others, but God still
blesses us. To
be sure, we are more good than bad, more loving than unloving, more grateful
than grinchlike. Any and all of
those failings and shortcomings would be enough for God to have nothing to do
with us, and with us to have nothing to do with one another. If it were not for
God’s love for us first, we would not be able to love one another or anyone
else, including God, second. It would be a life without love and a world full of
Grinches. And that would be awful. Like
the Grinch in the story, we all, at times, lose sight of what Christmas is all
about. But we never lose Christmas. Christmas cannot be lost. Its meaning is
ever present. But we sometimes lose sight of what this day and this celebration
are all about because, like the Grinch, we often get caught up in something that
has little or nothing to do with Christmas. We get caught up in our own wants
and desires over against the wants and needs of our love for God and one
another. We lose sight of God’s unconditional love for us. That
is easier said than done, but we do it anyway, you and I. Again, all the
trappings of Christmas make it easy for us to lose sight of what this day and
this celebration are all about. Sometimes we almost have to fight our way
through all the distractions of this season to get to the core of the meaning of
all that we are doing. It’s almost like fighting our way through the crowds in
the department store. We have to stop and ask, “What am I doing here anyway?
Do I really need all this hassle?” If
the truth were told, the answer is “Yes.” We often do need the hassle. For
it is in moments like those, if we stop to think about it, that we come to
realize why we are there. Like the Grinch, it is in those moments we think we
detest that we often find the true meaning of life, a meaning we have lost sight
of for whatever reason. We do what we do at this time of the year – and all
the year through -- because of God’s love for us and because of our love for
God and our love for others. It is as simple as that. Sometimes
in the hassles and headaches of daily life we truly lose sight of that fact, it
is true. And it is easy to do. But it is only because God has first loved us,
became one of us, loved us so much that he died for us, it is because of all of
this which we celebrate this evening that we can love in return. So maybe, for a
few moments this evening, maybe all of us together and each of us in our own
hearts, can take a few moments and see once again what the real meaning of
Christmas truly is. If we have become like the Grinch and lost sight of
Christmas, lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas, may we find it here
tonight. And then may we never, ever again lose sight of what
this day is truly all about – God’s total and unconditional love for us and
our calling to return that same love to God and to one another today and every
day. Merry Christmas. |
