Sermon Audio:

Sermon Text:

How many of you watched a Christmas movie this year? We have a tradition at my house, though we haven’t been the best at it this year, of watching Christmas movies throughout the month of December. We like the fun ones like Elf, Santa The Clause, Home Alone, Miracle on 34^th Street, Rudolph, and the Grinch, but we also make sure to watch other ones like The Nativity and It’s a Wonderful Life, but my favourite one is probably A Charlie Brown Christmas. Has anyone watch that one this year?

It’s a really interesting story. Charlie Brown starts off the movie quite sad because he doesn’t feel happy at Christmas time. He wants to feel happy, and looks around to see everyone else enjoying themselves, but he just can’t join in. He even says, “I think there’s something wrong with me. Christmas is coming but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” He likes Christmas trees and decorations and gifts, but none of it really seems to cheer him up enough. It doesn’t help that no will send him a Christmas card. He figures that the problem is that everyone knows something he doesn’t.

So, his solution is to go to Lucy to ask for some advice. He pays his nickel and she tries to figure out what’s wrong with him. In the end, her advice is simple: “You need to get involved in some real Christmas projects.” and invites him to be the director of the Christmas Play. Charlie Brown agrees, but on the way to the Christmas Play, he sees even more reminders of what people think Christmas is all about.

Lucy wants to be the Christmas Queen. Snoopy is setting up a dazzling lights display on his doghouse so he can win “money money money”. Even his baby sister, Sally, asks him to write a letter to Santa to ask for lots of presents, but figures if that’s too hard, then Santa can just send her money – preferably 10s and 20s. For them, the true meaning of Christmas is all about showing off and getting things.

When he finally gets to the school where they’ll be having the Christmas Play, Charlie Brown walks in on a huge party! Everyone is dancing and listening to music. He yells, “Stop the music! We’re going to do this play and we’re going to do it right!”. He hands out the scripts for everyone to learn and yells, “Places everybody!” and tells the piano player Schroeder to “set the mood”. He blasts into the party music again and everyone starts dancing! Even though he’s told them their parts as innkeepers, shepherds and sheep, they just want to party! For them, the true meaning of Christmas is all about partying and having fun.

Charlie Brown stands frustrated off stage and Lucy comes up with a big smile, snapping her fingers and saying, “Hey Charlie Brown, isn’t this a great play!?” and tries to convince him that it doesn’t really matter what they do in the play as long as it’s loud and “commercial” (meaning that it’s flashy, popular, and gets people to spend money on tickets). Charlie Brown says he doesn’t want the play to be “commercial”, but wants it to have the true meaning of Christmas, the “proper mood”, so he grabs on to the one thing he thinks will help – a Christmas Tree! Maybe that’s the true meaning of Christmas – a Christmas Tree!

But what happens? When he goes out to buy the tree, he can’t even find one that’s made of wood! They’ve take the old fashion trees and made them “commercial”: big, metal, multicolored and fancy! They don’t even look like trees anymore! What happened? Well, just like Snoopy and his sister and all the kids in the play, no one wanted the real thing anymore, but preferred something bright, shiny and fake. Even Linus asks, “Do they still make wooden Christmas Trees?” But Charlie Brown is resolute! In an act of rebellion, he gets a little, withered, old fashioned, wooden tree. It’s the only real one in the whole tree farm.

Charlie Brown wants the play to go right, so he can find out the true meaning of Christmas. But when he brings it back to his friends, everyone HATES IT! They wanted the fake kind, not a real one!

He’s seen a lot that day. His family thought Christmas was all about showing off getting presents. His friends thought Christmas was all about partying and having fun. But none of it feels real to him. He feels like that little tree!

Frustrated and sad after being laughed at and abandoned by all of his friends – even his dog – he yells out, “ISN’T THERE ANYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT!?”

Drop the Blanket

And Linus steps in. Now, Linus has been pretty quiet so far, but one thing we know about him is that he is famous for having a blanked he takes everywhere. Lucy keeps telling him to get rid of it, but he doesn’t want to. When Lucy threatens to punch him, he uses the blanket as part of his costume. When Sally embarrasses him, he hides under his blanket. When everyone is trying to throw snowballs at an empty can, Linus uses his blanket as a slingshot. He uses it for everything! He says that when he grows up he’s going to turn it into a coat! Nothing can separate him from his blanket!

But now, when his friend Charlie Brown needs to know what Christmas is all about, he knows it’s his time to speak. And here’s what he says:

Did you notice something? It happens very quickly, and most people don’t notice it, but it’s there. As Linus is quoting the story of the shepherds from the Bible, the moment he says, “Fear not!” he drops his blanket.

It’s not until he is done that he picks it up, walks over to Charlie Brown and says, “That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.” Charlie Brown smiles, grabs the tree, and heads out to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

But there’s still a problem. Charlie Brown is alone. He tries to decorate his little tree, but it doesn’t work and he thinks he killed it with one decoration. And then something very special happens. All the kids who had listened to Linus’ story about the true meaning of Christmas follow Charlie Brown home, see his little tree, and dress it up for him. They even like it now! And they all sing “Hark the Harold Angels Sing”, a Christmas hymn all about Jesus coming as Saviour of the World.

Fear Not

This is one more reason I love this little cartoon – because of that moment with the blanket.

In the Bible story that Linus was telling it says that when the angels came to the Shepherds, “they were filled with great fear”. This happens a lot when angels show up in the Bible – people get scared. But the Shepherds had more than just the shepherds to be afraid of. They were living in very difficult times. Most people hated shepherds. They weren’t allowed to go to the synagogue, which is like our church. They had bad reputations as being untrustworthy and unlikeable. Sure, they wanted their sheep and wool, but they didn’t want to be their friend. Religious people wouldn’t even talk to them. It was a rough life for a shepherd.

Plus, they were under Roman Rule. Their money was often taken by the government, they were abused, and they didn’t get much to themselves. It was a sad, lonely, life full of dirty, hard work.

And yet, who did God send to see Jesus first? The Shepherds! One character in the Charlie Brown cartoon doesn’t like that he has to be a shepherd – maybe because he doesn’t think they’re important enough – but they were incredibly important to God. They may have been the very first people, other than Mary and Joseph, to meet Jesus the Saviour!

These men, full of worries and fears hear a very special message from the angel who says, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” “You don’t need to be afraid. Be full of joy because the promised Saviour has come to you. Go see him and rejoice!”

Conclusion

This is why the Christmas story is so important to us Christians. It reminds us that we never need to be afraid because God knows who we are and Jesus is always near.

Like Linus, we all have our own blankets that we cling to. Maybe it’s a person or a thing, a teddy bear or a special toy, that we grab when we’re scared or worried. Some of us adults cling to more complicated things like money, food, chemicals, or other bad habits. We turn to them when we’re worried, afraid or alone.

But the message of Christmas tells us that when we trust in Jesus we can drop our blanket because Jesus will take care of us. The moment that Charlie Brown heard the story of Jesus, his whole view of Christmas changed. He suddenly knew the true meaning of Christmas, and it wasn’t the presents, the lights, or the parties, but the message of joy that the angels gave about Jesus…

And it was that message that brought all his friends together. The boy who didn’t get any Christmas cards, who everyone called a blockhead, but who wanted desperately to know the true meaning of Christmas had found it in the story of Jesus and the love of his friends singing praises to God.

So, my encouragement today, as you celebrate Christmas, is to remember the true meaning of Christmas. That Jesus came to set us free from fear, to be the one we can turn to for help, and to give us a brand new family of believers to help take care of us.