intergenerational christmas eve worship (grinch style)

intergenerational christmas eve worship (grinch style)

Do you have a family or intergenerational service at your church on Christmas Eve?  We are pretty intentional at our church to involve and include children in worship on a regular basis.   For us, it means that we purposefully welcome children into worship and involve them in various aspects of the service as leaders and participants.  They are scripture readers, prayer leaders, and have their own space and stuff to make them feel welcome right inside the worship spaces.  When done well, intergenerational worship welcomes children into the presence of God, teaches them about the beauty and traditions of worship in an invitational way, and seems so natural that most of the time it just seems like a beautiful worship service for everyone.

Same goes for Christmas Eve.  So, on purpose, we don’t have a children’s service.  Instead, we have aspects of intergenerational worship in all seven of our services and one service that’s particularly led by the kids, welcoming towards the little ones, and yet (at least in my opinion) not specifically for the children.  While the cupcakes and birthday song for Jesus are for the kids, the message spoken in rhyme by me and the music led by our praise band is really more for the adults sprinkled with a little kid-flavor.

This is the third year I’ve delivered the Christmas Eve message in rhyme.   This year people are finally starting to believe that I actually wrote the message and wasn’t reading from a book.  Since the new Grinch movie came out this year, I thought I’d use the theme to inspire the service.  So, the message, the birthday cake, and the music before and after the service were all Grinch themed.

While the boys and I made 200 birthday cupcakes for Jesus, I asked one of my very talented friends to make the Grinch themed cake.  Her name is Charity. Her business is Sweet Charity’s Bakery and her cakes are always as beautiful as they are delicious.  And though I love to bake, I was thrilled to have this important part of the service beautifully taken care of as I knew only she could.

Here are the many cupcakes and my two helpers.  They were funfetti and chocolate with vanilla frosting.  Seems fitting, right??

 

And here is my sermon.  I hope you like it.  The boys helped me with the line about Fortnite!

 

The Grinch Returns- by Rev. Monique McBride

 

He’s back… that green guy with the heart that’s three sizes too small

He’s back and in theaters and the stores in the mall.

 

He’s back…who’d have thought we’d needed another sequel

He’s back..and in my opinion, he’s Jim Carrey’s equal

 

Three times I’ve rhymed the message now on Christmas Eve

Same cadence, same story… GRINCH AND JESUS…of which we are told to believe

 

It’s a lot of pressure you know, to make an old story feel new

But, if the Minion people can do it for Grinch, then I guess I can try too. 

 

That Grinch guy returned in the theaters so I again I thought I should preach

So, in Dr. Seuss style tonight I will teach

 

Tonight I thought it good to remember because, you see, I find

That Grinch feeling has again made space in our hearts and minds

 

Despite all our trying and our best of intentions

That Grinch found a place in our hearts in record breaking dimensions

 

We’re not quite sure how it happened for it happened quite slowly.

For it started quite small, when we were feeling quite lowly

 

It was that day in March when our team lost the game

That time we skipped lunch and the hangry feeling came

 

It was that Wednesday when we stepped in gum on the street

That time when our homework we forgot to complete

 

That day when our teacher assigned a pop quiz and we failed

That time when jury duty and traffic tickets to us were mailed

 

That time when we got spiketrapped in fortnite and got taken out by a newb

That day we went swimming and fell off our tube. 

 

It was three days ago when our Amazon order got lost

Yesterday when we got sick and our Christmas cookies we tossed. 

 

That day when we found we had a cracked I phone screen

That time when we didn’t intend to but out of our mouth… came something mean

 

Yes, that Grinchy feeling began to take hold

And our hearts once warm and content began to turn cold

 

We forgot to include God in our day to day

Forgot the beauty of worship and the feeling of peace when we pray

 

We got too busy to serve others, too worried and distracted to care

And all of the sudden our hearts just didn’t want to share

 

We didn’t do it on purpose, we just thought we could do life on our own

But, deep down inside we just felt empty and alone

 

So, that Grinch started taking up room in our mind

And to God’s love, hope, and joy we began feeling blind

 

And that’s when it happened, we became the green guy

But before you start squirming and begin to cry

 

Before you leave worship saying you just need to go

The good news is God’s grace and love can always again grow

 

For though my message starts off sad, a Christmas Eve downer

There’s hope for God’s grace is the big turn-arounder

 

For there’s joy in the Christmas story you know.

Joy that can grow hearts and return that bright Christmas glow

 

We just need to remember the story we once knew

The story of a savior born for me and for you

 

The story of faith in quite troubling days

The story of Jesus’s birth which has power to change even our ways

 

That story of Mary who when asked to be Jesus’s Mom

Said yes to God and though scared, proceeded with calm

 

Even though this story took place years ago in a far off distant land

There’s a lesson for us here at Christ Church… similar times are at hand

 

 

For it all sounds quite familiar to our own daily struggles

Life can also be hard and lonely for us stressed out, road weary muggles

 

This story of Bethlehem long ago reminds us of what we forgot

For life has a way of telling us of all things that we’re not

 

Though Jesus’s birth is an old story we all know

This year’s Grinch remake reminds us old stories can help shriveled hearts grow

 

See, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was written by Seuss in 1957

And yet the rewrites and reruns keep coming…nothing new under heaven

 

And the story of Jesus’s birth, well I’m pretty sure you all know it by heart

So, why come to church and keep rehearsing this part?

 

Something tells me the Christmas magic happens in the retelling

When we hear them again our Grinchy small hearts all the sudden start swelling

 

When we hear them, stories become a part of who we are

And the cold feeling of being alone in this world starts to seem far

 

Sometimes when we retell them we receive comfort from the past

Sometimes a new angle gives our foggy brains a blast

 

See this year’s Grinch seems to me instead of sneaky or greedy

 Like someone with a bit of baggage, more emotionally needy

 

 

This Grinch seems a whole lot more like me or like you

Someone who at Christmas feels not green and red, but blue.

 

Someone who at Christmas feels alone in this life

Who doesn’t know really know love, overcome with stress and strife

 

And I just can’t’ help but wonder if this year we’re supposed to remember

If the message this year on 2018’s 24^th of December

 

Is that faith, trust, and the community of church are the best gifts for us and for our kids to receive

So, this Christmas if you’re willing, take the next step.  Be ready to believe

 

Remember that at times we all feel like the Grinch and stumble in our ways

The good news is that God loves us and never leaves us, not one of our days

 

Christmas is about Emmanuel God with us after all

On all our days God is working out ahead of us and listening when we call

 

Like that Grinch remember that kindness, love and trust can warm the coldest of hearts

 

And we can feel that feeling too if we just do our parts.

 

 

You’re here tonight for a reason.  Something special brought you to this place.

 

Thought you think it’s just your Mom or Dad, it might just be God working to grow your heart’s space

 

God has a message of love just for you this Christmas and I pray that you hear it

 

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.