Title: It Wasn’t A Very Hallmark Christmas” Scripture: Mt. 1/Lk2
Type: Christmas Eve Message Where: GNBC Christmas Eve 2022
Intro: Tonight, I want to take us back in time to that 1st Christmas Eve. I want to compare and contrast the events, mindset, and mentality of the nativity of Christ to what we commonly consider as essential to our modern-day entertainment adaptations for holiday entertainment. We need look no further than to the flagship of all seasonal movie makers: Hallmark! Don’t get me wrong, I actually like a lot of Hallmark movies. They are usually moral movies without profanity, violence and inuendo. They are refreshing in our profane, over sexed and overly violent society. However, they usually are NOT good representations of what the true meaning of Christmas is or is about. The original Christmas had precious little to do with the usual format found in a Hallmark holiday movie.
Prop: “This evening I want to demonstrate 5 Ways in which the original Nativity was not a Very Hallmark Christmas.”
I. A Hallmark Christmas Would Have a Frustrated, Professional, Career Obsessed Woman as the Protagonist.
A. Because so many Hallmark movies feature someone from the big city coming to a small town (another popular trope), or someone returning home for the first time in years (another trope!), there are a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies that also feature a big change in the end, not just a romantic happy ending. That often involves one of the main characters making a big career change, like taking over the family business they had initially abandoned, or finding that their passion lies somewhere completely unexpected. The Christmas Bow, for example, sees a formerly passionate violinist rekindle her love for music. Heart of the Holidays features a woman leaving her big city job by the end of the movie for life in her small hometown.
B. The Original Christmas Presented a Significantly Different Protagonist.
1. Rather than being a dominant, career driven, frustrated 30-something professional, Mary was a poor, scared, chaste, humble, teenaged girl. Women in that day and age had few, if any rights, and even fewer career options. There were few professions in which a woman could try her wings. Marriage was the source of survival, protection, and meaning in life for a young woman of her standing. The world was a very harsh and cruel place, a young woman needed and wanted a man’s protection, not independence.
2. In the Biblical Account, this godly, humble girl is offered the most important position any woman has ever held in all of history!
a. In the typical Hallmark cinematic account the protagonist is usually an author, an event planner, a doctor, an ad executive with an amazing CV/Resume. Read Lk. 1:31-33. Top that on your resume! “Mother of God”!
b. The beauty of Mary is her godly response to this monumental task: Read Lk. 1:46-47. Although she wonders at how this can be (She is still a virgin Lk. 1:34), she responds to the task in total obedience and faith that to this day makes her the most beautiful and beloved woman in history.
C. Applic: Mary, the protagonist in the original nativity, is not a career obsessed and completely stressed 30-something year old attempting to find meaning and purpose in life. Rather, she is a very humble, poor, teenage maiden who finds meaning in life in being used by God for His purposes.
II. A Hallmark Christmas Would Have a Single Father to Whom the Protagonist is Magnetically Attracted.
A. In the 2016 Hallmark classic, “A Christmas in Homestead”, A famous movie star travels to a small town, Homestead, Iowa, which is obsessed with Christmas, and falls in love with a single dad. Will the budding romance work out or will their different backgrounds get in the way? In “Christmas in Homestead”, the incredibly beautiful Taylor Cole and the handsome and sensitive Michael Rady are paired up together. They have great chemistry together, and from their first scenes together, it's easy to root for them.
B. The Original Christmas Presents a Significantly Different Father Figure.
1.Joseph, the Biblical “father figure”
a. Most of the Hallmark love interest single fathers are handsome hunks who are emotionally scarred or misunderstood. However, the beautiful protagonist eventually pulls them out of their reclusive shell.
b. In an attempt to prop up an unbiblical doctrine about Mary, one section of the church created an entire narrative about Joseph’s earlier life. They attempt to say that Joseph was older, widowed, and had multiple children, when married the much younger Mary, whom he kept a virgin the rest of her life. Although fanciful, this theory is not very factual. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible to support this theory. Rather, Joseph was probably 18-22 yrs of age, had completed his apprenticeship as a carpenter, had built his home, and was pledged to take as his wife the young woman he had probably known his entire life.
2. Joseph Needs Special Attention to Overcome the Emotional Scarring he receives in an unexpected announcement: “Mary is with Child!”
a. Joseph is met with deeply disturbing news (Read Mt. 1:18-20) which undoubtedly overturned is entire world! We read this story every year. We know it by heart. Yet, we sometimes neglect the emotional trauma this would have cause Joseph. His beautiful, chaste, godly, bride is with child and he is not the father! HOW COULD THIS BE?! Matthew write briefly, three verses, that must have encompassed volumes of emotions.
b. In this dilemma we see into the depths of Joseph’s godly character as well as love for Mary. By law, he had the right to have Mary stoned publicly for any immorality she might commit in their betrothal year. However, Joseph acts with mercy and grace, proving the gentleness and godly behavior needed to be the step-father of the Lord.
C. Applic: IN a dream, an angel comes and minimally explains. Mary is chaste. She has been uniquely selected by God for this monumental task and Joseph must help her! Joseph believes and is an example to all of trusting God even in difficult circumstances.
III. A Hallmark Christmas Would Have the Protagonist Take a Trip to a Small Town to Enjoy A Local Christmas Festival. (Read Lk. 2:1-4)
A. In Hallmark’s 2018 “A Christmas at Pemberly Manor”, the stunning Jessica Lowndes plays Elizabeth Bennet, a high flying, New York City event planner who goes to a quaint small town to organize their Christmas festival. And of course, while there, will meet the handsome, though misunderstood, William Darcy, played by Michael Rady. (I seemed to remember these characters being used in some previous lesser work of fiction!!!)
B. In the Original Nativity, the Protagonist had to take a Trip!
1. So here, we see that the producers at Hallmark got things half right! Mary and Joseph had to make the journey to a small town. Bethlehem means “the house of bread” and is located six miles south of Jerusalem in the hill country of Judea. In the Old Testament, Bethlehem was first called Ephrath (“fruitful) and was the burial place of Rachel (Gen 35:16, 19; 48:7). It was also famously home to Ruth and her husband Boaz. Bethlehem was a small town, a village, certainly less than 1000 inhabitants at the time of Christ’s birth.
2. Mary and Joseph made this Trip at Great Expense and Peril to themselves.
a. Many of the OT prophecies proclaim that Messiah would be born in Judah, and Bethlehem (Including Micah 5:2; Is. 11:1; Jer. 23:5-6). So, how do you get an engaged couple with the woman being 9 months pregnant to travel nearly 80 miles over rough terrain and bandit filled country, not in an air conditioned hybrid, but on a donkey!? That’s easy! A Festival! You say, wait Pastor, what’s the Festival in the original Christmas story? Did Bethlehem have a festival? No! Rome did! It was called: “The Go to Your Hometown to Be Registered so Rome Can Tax You More Lest We Kill You” Festival! (The name never really caught on , though the idea has been adopted by most governments!)
b. Again, this point shows us the spiritual depth of the 1st nativity that is lacking in all Hallmarkish Christmas movies: There is a sovereign God! God allows a Rome to rule so that a young, expectant woman and her finance will be forced to make this harsh journey at the most inopportune time, so that Christ will be born in the exact time and place the Heavenly Father had planned in eternity past and prophesied centuries previously.
C. Applic: Mary and Joseph have to make a trip to a small town, alright. They have to go to Bethlehem. Not to enjoy a quaint and corny “Holiday Festival” but to fulfill the plans of a Sovereign God Who had every detail of this drama planned to the nth degree!
IV. A Hallmark Christmas Would Have Love and Romance in Mind.
A. In the 2019 Hallmark production, “Christmas Town”, on her way to a new job as teacher, Lauren stops in Grandon Falls, where she meets and befriends single handyman Travis, his foster kid and many other locals in the weeks up to Christmas. Of course the relationship sparks begin to fly! But then again I could have inserted just about any Hallmark film to fit this bill. If you are unfamiliar with the Hallmark genre, always, I mean ALWAYS, at some point about 15-20 minutes before the end of the movie some perceived conflict sets in to potentially tear the young lovers apart. This fickle love conflict is usually reversed in the nick of time and the movie closes out with the couple kissing.
B. In the Original Christmas A Different Type of Love was Made Evident.
1. As I said previously, instead of taking place in the final minutes of the movie, the perceived conflict takes place at the beginning of the original Christmas drama! Mary is with Child! (I think Hallmark would go to ads right then!)
2. Rather, in Mt. 1:25, Joseph honors Mary. The young couple grow in love together based on their commitment to God and to one another. Their young relationship grows, not in the meadow of some whirlwind romance in an idyllic and unattainably beautiful setting, but rather through the harsh struggle of hardship, deprivation, communal ostracization, and utter and complete dependence upon God! Certainly, starting their married life together by taking a cross country trek at the tail end of maternity would not have been easy! They certainly had little money and no comforts for their journey.
a. (I have often told my kids that I have an idea for a tv dating program. Instead of putting a covey of beautiful women and handsome men at a mansion on a beautiful Caribbean Island, they should force a couple to live for a month in slums of Camden, NJ, while trying to hold down factory jobs on different shifts. If they stay together you know it really is love!)
b. The Biblical account has no glitz and glamour of a Hallmark movie. Rather, it has grit and determination. It has the hardship of real life in a impoverished and occupied country in the 1st century.
C. Applic: In Mt. 1:24-25, we see that Joseph does the most honorable thing he could do. He obeys God and marries Mary, and does not force himself upon her, but protects her purity for the duration of the Biblical Christmas drama.
V. A Hallmark Christmas Would Be Focused on a Feeling: “The Christmas Spirit”
A. In possibly the worst title ever, “A Shoe Addict’s Christmas”, we see this overused theme played out. On a positive note, this movie is packed with heart, faith and memories of Christmases past. A guardian angel (played by Jean Smart) gives Noelle (played by Candace Cameron Bure) a pair of magical shoes — like Cinderella, but with a touch of Hallmark magic — that take her back in time to reignite her faith in Christmas. I ask, “What does that even mean?” Nearly every Hallmark film talks about people needing to “get the Christmas Spirit”. Even our President (Biden) this past week, talked loosely about a nondescript “Christmas Spirit” that apparently to our “theologian in chief” applies equally whether you are a Christian, Atheist, Hindu, Muslim, or Jew.
B. The Original Christmas Has a Focus: Deliverance!
1. In an attempt to usually be completely nonreligious, Hallmark movies, talk about a generic and nondescript “Holiday Spirit” which is code name for family, food, fun, and memories. It’s a world in which people decorate “Yule logs” and never sing a sacred Christmas Carol. That world is about as far away from the original nativity story as could possibly be. The message of Christmas is: Messiah has come! Deliverance has come to mankind. The original Christmas is harsh. The bitter oppression of sin and death will be defeated! Even here, Satan attempts to kill the Christ thru the deranged dealings of King Herod, but good triumphs over evil.
2. The Good News of Christmas: Christ has come to Deliver us!
a.Illust: 150 yrs ago the great evangelist DL Moody told the following story: The incident occurred during the last mutiny on the land of India (1857), while under British control. The English were besieged in the city of Lucknow, and were in momentary expectation of perishing at the hands of the Sepoy rebels that surrounded them. There was a little Scottish lassie in this fort, and, while lying on the ground, she suddenly shouted, her face aglow with joy, “Dinna ye hear them comin’; Dinna ye hear them comin’?” “Hear what?” And she sprang to her feet. It was the bagpipes of her native Scotland she heard. It was the 93 Highland Regiment led by Collin Campbell, beating their drums and blowing their pipes. It was a native air she heard that was being played by a regiment of her countrymen marching to the relief of those captives, and these deliverers made them free.
b. If we are looking for permanent and ultimate goodwill, love, and peace, and deliverance we must look beyond our gift-giving, get-togethers, and office parties. We must look to no other place than to a manger. We must look to a baby born not with fanfare, pomp, and circumstance, but to poor parents in desperate times. We are all poor and living in desperate times. Some of us are better than others at camouflaging it. Nevertheless, we are all poor and desperate, so we all need the promise bound up in that baby. We are in need of a way out of our poverty of soul and the deliverance only this child can bring. We find it in Jesus Christ, the long-promised Messiah, Seed, Redeemer, and King!
C. Applic: Close by reading “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”