“Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot.” You could finish it from there, I suspect. “But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not.” It’s a Christmas classic. Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The definitive version, for us late baby boomers, was narrated by Boris Karloff and the song sung by Thurl Ravenscroft. What a great name, Thurl Ravenscroft. “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”
As Christmas story villains go, the Grinch is a pretty good one. Like old Ebenezer Scrooge and his three night visitors, the Grinch starts out bad (you have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile), or worse than bad (You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch, with a nauseous super “naus”!), but in the end he turns out good. “Well ... in Whoville they say, that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight, He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light, And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast! And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the roast beast!”
Now, that’s how a Christmas story is supposed to go. Bad guys turn good and we all breathe a sigh of relief. We love our happy endings. We love everything tied up with a ribbon. Our television crime dramas have to be solved in an hour - minus commercial time. Our family comedies end up resolved in thirty minutes. Our fairy tales end with happily ever after. That’s just how it is supposed to be. Isn’t it?
Of course, we’re the people of happy endings. That is one way we define ourselves. Easter people! I’ve been asked a few times over the years why we need to have Good Friday services and pretend to be sad when we all know how it ends up. It’s hard to argue with that point of view. We know and are glad we know. There is a happy ending. Yet, you can’t read through the book of Revelation and simply celebrate the happy ending. Can you? There are endings and there are endings. Sometimes our sad endings get in the way and keep us from living for the happy endings.
Matthew 2:1-18 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. 13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18 "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."
I went too long, that’s what you’re thinking. Or stopped too soon. We usually read until the wise men head home by another road. That’s the end of the Christmas story, we believe. But if we want to keep reading, then go on, to where they come back, the tyrant is dead and they can return and live happily ever after. That’s the story we want to hear. That’s the team we signed up for, the one that wins, every time. A dynasty, victorious, conquers sin, conquers death, offers us life, eternal life. Happily ever after.
Happily? We forget that in order to conquer death he has to die. Yes, we take an eternal view. Yes, we look beyond the momentary pain to the everlasting glory. Yes. But. Herod wins in the short term. We have to tell the story we’re given. There were unnamed and unnumbered families who marked that glorious season with inconsolable grief. How many children died that day so a puppet king could retain his tenuous grip on power for a little bit longer? Herod wins in the short term. Fear takes control of our hearts in the short term. Tyranny defines our existence in the short term. Disease reshaped our lives in the short term. Prejudice, hatred, oppression becomes the whole world in the short term. Herod wins. And cuddly as a cactus means we cannot get comfortable with him, even in the short term. Which is why the short term becomes the definition of life as we know it, and keeping our eyes on a far horizon is so hard.
Which is exactly why Advent comes around year after year. Because Herod wins in the short term. And if we weren’t reminded on a regular basis that there is more to the story we might succumb to the thought that this is the way it is supposed to be, this is the way it will always be. The Whos gathered that Christmas morning with nothing. Christmas had been stolen, they are bereft and empty of the joy and wonder of the season represented by the tinsel and the gift wrap, the food and fire in the hearth. The Grinch won in the short term. Yet they gathered anyway, they sang anyway. They smiled anyway. “How could it be so? It came with out ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
Is it a denial of the reality of the short term? It is a head in the sand, wearing rose colored glasses, refusing to face reality, to sing when the decorations are gone and the presents purloined? Is it a pie in the sky kind of living to believe in happy endings even when our lives are anything but happy? To sing of wearing shoes in heaven when our feet are split and bleeding from the relentless back-breaking labor forced upon us by a latter day Herod? To sing songs of home even when in a foreign land against our will? To believe in Presence on the threshold of the fiery furnace?
Well, maybe. Sorry, not what you were expecting, I know. But it might be a denial if we use those songs and those thoughts to hide our eyes from the fact that Herod wins in the short term. To be complacent about injustice, about hatred, about poverty. That’s just the way it is, get used to it. No. We can’t get used to it. We can’t cuddle with a cactus. We just can’t. We long for something better by working to be better. We long for home, by making others welcome. We long for unity, for peace, we long for a living faith, for worship that lives and not just endures, by entering into the spirit of unity, by doing the things that make for peace, by investing ourselves in worship right now. Even through our tears because Herod is winning in the short term. We worship with hope, even when we have to weep. Even when sometimes we have to run to Egypt. Because God wins in the long term.
Shalom,
Derek
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