No Place for the Grinch - Pt 1

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:13b-22 ESV). T

he tale begins with a startling declaration: “You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch!” And, then Dr. Seuss's iconic tale of the green ogre who lives on a mountain, seething while the Whos in the village below celebrate Christmas starts to unfold. It seems as they get happier, he gets angrier, until finally he can't take it anymore and hatches a plan to crush their joy like a glass ornament. All of us have read this book at one time or another. It has a particular truth to convey for us as we begin the Christmas season. So, with today being “Black Friday” and all its commercial blitz upon us, we should be intentional in laying aside the grousing and see the grace. Let’s make a commitment to ban the Grinch from our holidays. Christmas should always be the most cheerful of seasons, drawing loved ones and strangers together around its warmth to share in the joyful wonder of the Incarnation. And please, let us lay aside fruitless and, frankly, irrelevant debates about pagan origins. After all, Jesus came into the world to redeem us pagans and turn us “from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:19). If ancient solstice celebrations now mark the moment when the Light of the world came to end our long, dark night, then I think it’s of God. It’s just like him to make Christmas itself a parable of redemption. If there was ever a reason to clothe our homes in light and feast and sing and give generous gifts of love to each other, and just overall make merry, it’s celebrating the birth of our Savior! Even as our culture slides more and more toward secularism, Christmas can remain the one annual moment so deeply entrenched in our traditions and economy that with joyful, inextricable stubbornness we can sing the gospel in the most God-forgetting places like shopping malls. The real conundrum is how we can accomplish that. I think we should take a cue from Christmas itself and think of ways we can make this season serve the cause of Christ and his kingdom! We’re going to look at several suggestions over the next few days. Today, concentrate your efforts in simply being at peace with one another. I wonder what a moratorium on political and social differences would really look like for the next thirty days! Maybe all our hearts would grown three sizes like the Grinch’s did!