Music – Christmas Time Is
Here
Poor Charlie Brown! He has put up his
decorations. Christmas is here but he just doesn’t have the Christmas spirit.
“It all seems just so commercial,” he says to himself. “There must be something
wrong with me.”
He talks with Lucy, the child psychiatrist.
Lucy’s advice costs him $.05, in advance, but he gets what he pays for. Her
advice is that he should direct the Christmas play at the school. And Lucy
introduces him to the children in the program.
But it is an
unruly cast of characters that includes a dog that sometimes seems strangely
human, and a boy who still carries his security blanket with him.
The cast
realizes that Charlie Brown is way over his head directing the Christmas play,
and so they send him off with Linus to pick out the Christmas tree.
“Bring us back
a beautiful aluminum tree that has the feel of Christmas to it.” And as he
leaves, one child says, “… and make sure it’s a pink Christmas tree.”
Oh good grief.
Music – O
Christmas Tree
Charlie Brown and Linus find a small
evergreen tree that needs to be rescued from the Christmas tree lot. The small
evergreen tree on a wooden stand looses needles every time someone walks near
it. Some people would think it is the ugliest tree in the whole Christmas tree
lot. But Charlie Brown likes it, and he determines that this will be the tree
used to decorate the stage in the Christmas pageant. So they take the skinny
little tree back to the school.
When he shows
the tree to the other children, they all laugh at him. “You blockhead, Charlie
Brown! This isn’t a pink aluminum tree. This is just a tree that is too small
and too scrawny to give anybody the Christmas spirit!”
Charlie Brown
is the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Even his dog laughs at him. This is
so humiliating. Charlie Brown finally admits, “Then I guess I just don’t
understand the true meaning of Christmas.”
Linus steps forward and says, “I’ll tell
you what the true meaning of Christmas is, Charlie Brown.” The whole cast
becomes quiet as Linus does something no cartoon character would ever dare to
do on television today. He begins to recite some verses from the Bible.
(...
Joseph went) to Bethlehem…to be
enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for
her to be delivered.
And she gave
birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him
in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Now in that
region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night. And an angel of the Lord appeared
to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with
fear.
And the angel
said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great
joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day, in the city
of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God
and saying, "Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace among all people with whom the Lord is well
pleased!"
A smile of enchantment returns to Charlie
Brown’s face. As if under a religious spell, he picks up the tree from the top
of Schroeder’s piano, and walks out the school door back to his home. As he
proudly carries his tree home, the stars above him twinkle in the sky and
remind him of the words that Linus has just spoken.
But once again, Charlie Brown’s mood is
shattered when he returns home to find that Snoopy’s dog house has won first
prize for decorations. Snoopy has put lights and bulbs and tinsel all over his
dog house, and right in the middle is a bright gold ribbon that proclaims that
he has won first place in the neighborhood Christmas decorations’ contest.
Return to the Top
Go to the Middle
Go to the End
Middle
Music – Christmas
Time is Here
Charlie Brown
has an idea. He takes the decorations from the dog house and puts them on the
tree. As a final touch, Linus puts his very special security blanket around the
base of the tree. This scrawny tree symbolizes what Christmas is all about.
Christmas is finding love in unexpected places, wrapping your most treasured
security blanket around the symbols of love, and joining the angels to sing
glory to God in the highest, peace on earth to all people.
And that is a
Charlie Brown Christmas. It originally aired on television in 1965 -- that’s
forty-one years ago. We watched it first when we were newly married; we watched
it with our first baby, and our second and our third. I hope you did too.
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! Thanks for reminding us of the meaning of
Christmas once again this year. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown.
Music. O
Christmas Tree, reprise.
HOPE BUILDS PATHWAYS TO PEACE
As you left
worship last Sunday, I asked you to remember, “Advent Begins with Hope.”
Today, I ask
you to remember, “Hope builds pathways to peace in Advent.”
Peace needs us more than ever this year. It is easier to say
what you don’t like than it is to support the good that is all around you.
Don’t fall victim to that way of thinking.
Hope builds pathways to peace. Be a builder, not a demolitions’
expert.
EIGHT CENTERS OF CARE
We often assume that peace only occurs on
world stages or in stressful relationships. The search for peace is far more
pervasive, and should be part of the eight centers of care in human
relationships.
PEACE BEGINS WITH YOU.
PEACE ALWAYS BEGINS WITH YOU,
YOU JUST CAN’T ESCAPE IT.
In her
book, Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World, Patricia Ramsay
identifies eight different caring communities that I would like to rename. A
just and lasting peace is our hope in each of these communities. I have listed
them in the bulletin for you to think about this week. I’m going to read the
list twice. First time through, just hear my words and let me draw you from one
community into the next. On second
reading, I would like you to put the face of someone you know on each one of
them.
Advent begins with hope.
Hope builds pathways to peace.
In this season, God challenges you to
create pathways to peace as you…
·
care for
self,
·
care for
intimate others,
·
care for
associates and acquaintances,
·
care for
distant others,
·
care for
nonhuman animals,
·
care for
plants and the physical environment,
·
care for the
human-made world of objects and instruments,
·
care for
ideas.
Last
week I left you with some thoughts about hope; this week, I have some ideas
about peace for you to take home.
1.
Take home
Charlie Brown’s quest for Christmas even when he was ridiculed by the other
children, who seem very shallow by comparison.
2.
Take home
the eight communities of care, and see how you must work for peace in each one
of them.
3.
And take
home one of the following ideas about peace and make it your own in the week to
come.
·
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but
a means by which we arrive at that goal. Martin Luther King, Jr.
·
It isn't enough to talk about peace, one must
believe it. And it isn't enough to believe in it, one must work for it.
Eleanor Roosevelt
·
Those who are at war with others are not at peace
with themselves. William Hazlett
·
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Voltaire
·
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its
fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be
popular.
Oscar Wilde
·
All cruelty springs from weakness. Seneca
·
War is a matter of old men's pride, and young men's lives. Anonymous
·
Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. Oscar
Wilde
·
If you want peace, work for justice.
Pope John Paul VI
·
If I am brutal, and you use brutal methods to
overcome me, you become brutal just like me. Krishnamarti
·
There is no such thing as defeat in
non-violence.
Cesar Chavez
·
We do not inherit the earth from our fathers. We
borrow it from our children.
David Brower
·
Nonviolence doesn't always work -- but violence
never does. Madge Michaels-Cyrus
The musical interludes as noted were
beautifully played on the Clavinova by Mrs. Althea Wright.
Dr. John H.
Cushman
Presbyterian
Church of the Roses
2500 Patio Court
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
December 10, 2003
