The lectionary has done it again. We come to church in this Advent Season looking for some much-needed comfort and joy, and we are hit, instead, for the third week in row (but who’s counting?!) with a Scripture Reading that contains challenging metaphors and allusions to violence and judgment. It’s almost enough to make me choose other readings for this season--and one year I might. But not this year. Because, as much as I/we may resist reading them, there are things we can learn from these Advent Scriptures if we can set aside our understandable discomfort with them long enough to reflect on what they are trying to say.
And, interestingly enough, Dr. Seuss’ TV special from the 1960’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, when looked at along side today’s Scripture, can also help us learn something about how God calls us to behave in the world.
In fact, I couldn’t help smiling when I read this Scripture after seeing the Grinch special, which a dozen of us watched together in the sanctuary last night. The way John the Baptist doesn’t pull any punches when addressing the crowds reminds me a bit of the narrator’s description of the Grinch. “You brood of vipers!” John says, as he begins his speech warning them about the coming judgment. “Even now the ax lying at the root of the trees” ready to cut them down and throw them into the fire! His way of speaking is very similar to the tone the narrator takes in Suess’ story when the narrator sings the song, “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.” Have you listened closely to the words of that song? Let me share a verse:
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch. Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders. You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch! I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
Minus the rhyming, this speech is very similar to what John the Baptist is saying to the crowds--calling out their bad behavior and the consequences thereof in no uncertain terms.
I wonder what John the Baptist’s speech to the crowds would be like if Dr. Suess translated this Scripture? I took a stab at one possible verse. Picture John the Baptist singing:
You’re filled with poison, all of you! You’re a bunch of hissing snakes!
Your arrogance is astounding, your hypocrisy so great,
Change your behavior, or you will not escape!
Okay, I better stop there. I am no Dr. Suess. Or Thurl Ravenscroft, who did the vocals for the song. (Here’s a bit of trivia for you: Credit for singing the song, “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch, is often given to Boris Karloff, but, in fact, Mr. Karloff didn’t sing it. Mr. Karloff was the narrator and spoken voice of the Grinch, but Thurl Ravenscroft, who did the voice of Tony the Tiger, was the singer. The things you learn when you come to church, eh?)* But, I digress… I would like to make 3 points about the Grinch story that I believe our Scripture is also trying to teach us.
1. Self-reflection is important.
After the opening song, the Grinch story begins with these words,
…The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
“The Grinch hated Christmas! … No one quite knows the reason.” Hearing these words made me wonder what the Grinch would have been like if he had made it a practice to engage in self-reflection. What if the Grinch had engaged in daily prayer, confessing his sins to God, accepting God’s grace, trying to do better? What if the Grinch did journaling or therapy or simply sat with the discomfort of his own feelings and tried to accept and understand them? Maybe he would have behaved more kindly toward others and even himself. But he doesn’t do these things. At least not at the beginning of the story. Instead, he lashes out at the world and his poor little dog, Max.
Before this week, it had been years since I had seen this TV special, and, honestly, the first thing that struck me about it this time when I watched it was how horribly the Grinch treated his dog, who was, in fact, his only friend in the world. Now I know that the Grinch was just an animated cartoon character who debuted on the small screen in 1966, in an era where cartoon characters like Wiley Coyote routinely fell of cliffs, got into fights, and got boulders dropped on their heads. But I have to say that the Grinch’s violence against his dog--even in satirical, cartoon form-- was hard to watch. (Which reminds me how one of our deacons commented that the violence of the main character in the 1947 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” that we watched a couple of weeks ago was similarly hard to see.)
But back to self-reflection. If the Grinch had, himself, ever stopped to realize what the narrator knew--that his heart was 2 sizes too small, the Grinch might have spared Max, the Whos down in Whoville, and even himself a considerable amount of on-going pain. Because what does it mean to have a heart that is 2 sizes too small? Since it’s a rich metaphor, I don’t have the final answer on that, but one possibility is that if you have a heart that is 2 sizes too small, then you have a heart that has minimal capacity to feel your own pain--and the pain of others.
And that is a problem because it is only through feeling our own pain that we are able to hear and understand the pain of others and develop empathy for them. And the more we develop empathy, the more we increase our capacity to form relationships with others. But, conversely, the less we are in touch with our own pain, the less we allow ourselves to feel the pain of others. And the less we feel the pain of others, the less we are able to form relationships. And we become isolated. And, before we know it, we find ourselves living alone in a cave on top of a snowy mountain hating Christmas--or at least that’s what happened to the Grinch. So my point? Self-reflection is important because without it, we do not develop empathy and our relationships suffer.
Which brings me to my second point about the Grinch story that I believe our Scripture is also trying to teach us:
2. Isolating ourselves from our own pain-- and from other people’s joy and pain-- does not make us feel better. And neither does trying to make other people hurt like we are hurting.
The Grinch stood on top of his own isolated mountain and cursed the people down in Whoville who were gathered around the Christmas tree holding hands and singing because they had the nerve to enjoy themselves at Christmas. But rather than seeking an end to his own pain by joining them in community, he decides instead to complain about them, and then his complaints escalate to a plan: he decides to try to rob them of their joy in order to make himself feel better. But praise be to God, it doesn’t work.
I’m not saying that any of us consciously act like the Grinch in this regard. Of course, none of us would ever consciously try to isolate ourselves from our own pain--or from the pain and joy of others. None of us would ever consciously try to rob the joy of others. But unconsciously? That’s a different story.
Let me give you an example. Last week in church we prayed for my aunt who had fallen and was in rehab. It turns out her health had been failing since August, but her kids, my first cousins, hadn’t shared that with the rest of the extended family, partially because we are all spread out across the country and we have been more or less out of touch during the pandemic. But we managed to find out anyway, though rather belatedly. So another of my cousins, when she found out about our aunt’s failing health, called my aunt’s oldest son and said, gently, “Why didn’t you tell us about your mom?” His answer was understandable. In fact, it’s probably something any one of us could say or has said. He said something like, “Well, we know it’s been a tough year for everybody. We’ve all got a lot on our plates. We didn’t want to bother you with our stuff. We didn’t want to add to your pain.”
To her credit, my cousin who had initially asked the question responded with empathy and care, saying something like this: “I understand that. And I appreciate your not wanting to add to anyone else’s burden, but we are happy to help. We’re family. You know that old saying, ‘A burden shared is cut in half.’ That’s really true,” she said. “We’re here for you. Let us know how we can help.” And he thanked her and said it was good to hear that. Which underlines my second point: isolating ourselves from our own pain--and from the joy and pain of others--does not make us feel any better. Conversely, sharing our joy and pain in community does. And that brings me to my third point about the Grinch story that I believe our Scripture is also trying to teach us:
3. There is an antidote to having a small heart. In other words, there are things we can do to increase our own empathy and strengthen our relationships with one another. And these things are very concrete.
We can reach out in love and care toward others. There are several examples in our Scripture. When the crowds come out to John in the wilderness to be baptized, he tells them, in his own fiery, apocalyptic style, to “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” But the fruit metaphor isn’t clear enough for the crowd. They want specifics, concrete examples of what they can do to please God and be part of God’s Kingdom, and John is happy to comply. It occurred to me, reading through this text, that the examples John gives could be considered to address 3 different sectors of society.
His first example addresses people in the individual/family sector. It’s what anybody can do. If you’ve got 2 coats at home, if you’ve got food on your table, then share your coats and your food with people who don’t have any. It’s not rocket science; it’s the simple math of sharing. It’s what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s not just feeling warmly toward them, it’s doing something to help them keep warm. Literally.
John’s second example--when he addresses the tax collectors--could be interpreted, I think, as addressing the corporate or business sector. John says to them, “Collect no more than what is prescribed for you.” In other words, the family sector is not the only sector where we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our behavior needs to be consistent across all the sectors in which we operate, including the business sector, our work places. John is calling the tax collectors to act ethically in their jobs. His words imply that how we behave in business is important to God. We can’t just say, “There are different rules in business” or “Everybody cuts corners” or “I can’t change the system.” No. Being part of God’s Kingdom means we need to apply the same ethic of loving our neighbor at work as we do at home.
John’s third example--when he addresses the soldiers--could be seen to address the government, which is the sector that controls the military. John tells them not to use threats or false accusations to extort money. In other words, you could read this to mean that John is telling the government that it too falls under the sovereignty of God. It too needs to behave according to the ethics of God’s kingdom. John is, in effect, saying to the soldiers, to the military arm of the government, “Do not abuse your power. Don’t use threats of violence--or actual violence-- to get what you want, because tearing others down to build yourself up in any sector is not God’s way. Treat others the way you want to be treated.”
In a way, John’s message echoes the message of the Grinch story: there is an antidote to a small heart--it’s doing the things that build up, not tear down, community. It’s sharing in the joys and pain of others and doing your part in all sectors of life to love your neighbors as yourself. In the words of Dr. Seuss, in the song the Whos sang around the tree, the Whos celebrate the power of Love shared in community:
Christmas Day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp.
Christmas Day will always be
Just as long as we have we.
Welcome Christmas while we stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand.
Amen.
* quotes from the Grinch and information about the show are from this blog: https://ninjamonkeyspy.livejournal.com/585154.html
Let us pray…
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA