1.2.2 12.4.2022 A Charlie Brown Christmas: Snoopy Goes Commercial
2023 1 Series Advent A Charlie Brown Christmas • Sermon • Submitted
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Entice: The month is upon us. We are weeks into the entertainment industry’s expansive assault on various TV and streaming services. A Christmas Story was on before Thanksgiving, a likely tie-in to a newly released sequel. Hallmark has made it a specialty to broadcast Christmas programming, basically the whole year. Old classics are rediscovered by new generations and new favorites become classics. To me none of the seasonal programming is quite like
A Charlie Brown Christmas.
This beloved special has
Distinct,
lovable
characters.
An identifiable “hero.”
The angst of Childhood.
A precocious boy who’s been attentive in Sunday School.
Engage: We all know that the incarnation of Jesus is the entire point, the reason for the season. Yet the constant clammer from the culture vies for our attention throughout the whole season.
In a Charlie Brown Christmas one of Charlies first moments of anxiety comes when he discovers that Snoopy is participating in a huge Christmas decorating contest. Charlie reacts in characteristic crisis
“My own dog’s gone commercial!”
“My own dog’s gone commercial!”
As we see Churches embrace and address the culture, we sometimes feel the same way
“The Church has gone commercial!
“The Church has gone commercial!
Yet if we did not decorate, sing carols, have parties, and say Merry Christmas! We would feel like we have missed something essential of Christmas.
Is it possible to be a part of our culture and to join in the celebrations around us while keeping our focus on the incarnation of Jesus? I think so. And it comes by remembering the Biblical details of both the expectation and coming of Jesus.
Expand:
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Excite:
Explore: We need to focus less on the holiday and more on the Holy Day.
Explore: We need to focus less on the holiday and more on the Holy Day.
Expand: To maintain this focus we should all beware of our commercial vulnerabilities during the Christmas season.
Body of Sermon: The first vulnerability is
1 Nostalgia.
1 Nostalgia.
How many Christmas tales exploit our need to think of how things were in a more idyllic past? A Christmas Story is about Christmas in the 40s. The most heart-wrenching scene in A Christmas Vacation is when Clark Griswold, stuck in the attic, gets all teary over old home movies. Christmas seems to bring out the kid in all of us!
Keep the following in mind..
1.1 The first Christmas did not lend itself to nostalgia.
1.1.1 For Mary and Joseph there was
Migration
Isolation
1.2 Much nostalgia is fantasy. The past we dream of was not real, and much of what we idealize was not pretty, comfortable, or memorable.
Another vulnerability during Christmas is
2 Novelty.
2 Novelty.
2.1 Our culture thrives on the shiny, new, and different.
That is the reason that every Christmas has a hot new gift
and for the kiddos there’s a new toy that they all want.
2.2 For the believer there is nothing more unprecedented than the following.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Micah 2:12–13 (ESV)
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.
2.2.3 God Himself, Immanuel at the head of His redeemed people leading them to safe pasture! It’s not a novelty, it is central to the Biblical story of redemption.
Last of all, many of us during this special season will be vulnerable to
3 Negativity.
3 Negativity.
3.1 We have a rich history of negative cultural stereotypes during Christmas.
Bah! Humbug.
Bah! Humbug.
Ebenezer Scrooge
You’ll shoot your eye out.
You’ll shoot your eye out.
Every adult in A Christmas Story.
Who’d want to know you?
Who’d want to know you?
Buddy’s Dad in Elf.
And our theme today...
MY own Dog’s gone commercial!
MY own Dog’s gone commercial!
Famous words uttered by Charlie Brown.
3.2 The Bible of course discusses some negative developments…
No room
No room
Lost Magi
Lost Magi
Wicked King Herod
Wicked King Herod
3.3 Yet, in 2022 each of us can decide how we will react to the world around us:
3.3.1 Will we Charlie Brown it?
3.3.2 Or will we embrace the season in faith and worship?
3.3.3 As Isaiah 7.14 anticipates, and Matthew discloses, God with us is the most positive development of Incarnation, that is what we celebrate. The rest is details.
Shut Down
I like Christmas. I like the old specials. I like the decorations (and my wife’s all out assault on the process.) I like cookies and children’s programs. Like everyone I will occasionally complain. And one of Jesus’ own ancestors said it best “Nothing new under the sun, nothing new to see here!” Charlie found out, throughout his Christmas adventure that the commercialization of Christmas only has the impact on us that we allow it to have.
We can have Joy
because Jesus has come.
We can have peace
because Jesus has come.
We can have salvation because Jesus has come.
We can celebrate because Jesus has come.