Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Luke 2:1-14 the Year 1938 Was Another Desperate Period for Americans Living in the Great Depressi

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Luke 2:1-14 The year 1938 was another desperate period for Americans living in the Great Depression. But for Robert May it was a year of personal tragedy. His young wife, Evelyn, was very sick and would die before year’s end. His meager salary with Montgomery Wards barely paid for food and rent, let alone the medical bills due to Evelyn’s illness. The only joy in his life was the couple’s four-year-old daughter, Barbara. Each night he took his little girl into his arms and together they took comfort by making up stories fantasy and hope. Drawing on his own awkward childhood and fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling, Robert created a story about a little reindeer that faced difficulty and insurmountable odds. The story was so popular with young Barbara that Robert decided to share it with his co- workers. At a Christmas party on a cold Chicago evening, Robert May warmed the hearts of his friends with the first public telling of a misfit reindeer named Rudolph. The employees loved it, and Robert’s boss, Mr. Avery, wanted to share the tale with children everywhere. He purchased the story from Robert and the following year each child who visited Santa Claus at Montgomery Wards was given a copy of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In fact, over 2 million copies were given away that year alone. Then, in 1946 after 6 million copies had been distributed, Mr. Avery did something extremely generous; he gave back to Robert May all publishing rights to the story, making Robert a wealthy man. By this time, Robert had remarried and his new brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, asked if he could make the story of Rudolph into a song. Johnny had a way with words and music, so he retold the story of Rudolph with simple lyrics and a catchy tune. Attempts were made to get famous singers like Bing Crosby, to record it, but no one wanted to take a chance on a children’s Christmas song. That is, until Ina Autry, the wife of movie star and singing-cowboy Gene Autry heard it and persuaded her husband to record it in 1949. The tune, like the reindeer, went down in history, and soon became the second best-selling Christmas song of all-time, just behind White Christmas. 1 As Paul Harvey used to say, “That my friend, is the rest of the story.” What does this red-nosed reindeer have to do with the real Christmas story found in Luke 2 telling us about Mary having a baby in the city of Bethlehem? Some would say not much. In fact, there is a great fear among some parents in blending these stories together so much that children can’t distinguish between the truth of Christmas and the fanciful tales of Santa Claus and reindeer like Rudolph. While I suppose there can be some confusion, if proper instruction and guidance is absent, I don’t think we have to protect our children from all the popular stories of Christmas which add delight to children everywhere. In fact, I believe we would do well to think about the ways in which the narratives of the non-Christian icons of our major Holy Days do in some sense mirror elements of the Gospel story. These omnipresent icons of Christmas wonder like Santa and Rudolph give us unique opportunities to capture teachable moments with our children and instill in them lessons about God and Jesus that last a lifetime. Kathleen O. Chesto writes about her family Christmas experiences in a book promoting family-centered intergenerational education. Every Advent season they would do what some of us are doing this year, reading an Advent devotion, lighting a candle, singing a song, and reading Scripture. The children took turns choosing a Jesus song each night. One particular night it was Beck’s turn to choose. She was five at the time and she chose “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Mama Kathleen patiently explained this was not a Jesus song. She had probably gotten confused because people sang Rudolph at Christmas. Becky insisted it was a Jesus song, but couldn’t explain what that meant. As her eyes filled with tears, Kathleen’s husband pointed out that she was being foolish and it just didn’t matter. Anything could be a prayer and of course they would sing it. Kathleen listened to the words more closely this time: “All of the other reindeer use to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.” He really was an outcast, excluded from his own kind. It made Kathleen think of the Suffering Servant songs of Isaiah, you know the ones that say the Messiah would “be despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering” (Is 53:3). And how did this Messiah come on Christmas Eve? Was it not as a light unto the Gentiles bringing them the gift of salvation? Again Isaiah prophesied, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2). So Kathleen turned excitedly to her five year old daughter and said, “You meant that Jesus suffered too and he comes as a great light on Christmas.” “Yes, Mommy,” said Becky delighted that her mother had finally overcome her ignorance. Our children can teach us many things about God if we only listen. If we let them start in their world and reveal what they are seeing, then we can help them interpret that world. Then their world and ours become great learning centers about God and his matchless love for us. So what lesson can we learn from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? I think the main lesson is that even misfits, those that are despised and rejected by their peers can be used for the advancement of God’s kingdom. The story begins with Rudolph’s birth. His father Donner is ashamed of Rudolph’s red nose and tries to cover it up with mud. As he grows up he goes out to play in the annual reindeer games and all is going well, until his secret is revealed. (Take a look. Start: when he flies. Stop: when he walks away crying) Luke’s account of Christmas The Christmas story as told by Luke depicts the scandal of God choosing the most unlikely people and places to bring salvation to the world. Notice the misfit characters that God chooses to carry out the most important event in the history of the world, the incarnation. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is an unwed teenager. She’s not old enough to vote or drive a car. And what could be more misfitting than a mother who’s a virgin. No one had ever thought such a thing was possible and they certainly would’ve believe her if she tried to explain what happened to her. She is married to a man named Joseph, who was well-respected, until he got connected to this girl pregnant with a son and yet claiming she had never been with a man. Mary made Joseph a misfit. Their son claimed to be a king, and yet neither of his parents came from royalty. Most kings are kings at birth. You are born into royalty. Mary and Joseph were anything but royal. Then, on the night that Jesus was born, he was welcomed into the world, not as a king should be. There were no diplomats or kings to bring him gifts. (It would be years, later, when the magi from the east arrived at his house with their bag full of goodies!) The night of Jesus’ birth brought to his cradle shepherds who had been out watching their flock by night. There are no showers in the fields with sheep. It’s a dirty smelly job. They were considered dishonest men by most Jews. They didn’t mind stealing a sheep if necessary and grazing on land that wasn’t theirs if they could get by with it. The first persons outside the mother and father to see Jesus were not royalty, diplomats, or for goodness sake, they weren’t even family. They were dirty, smelly shepherds who had left their sheep to take a look at this child declared a Savior. The characters of the Christmas story are more like Rudolph than Roosevelt. And the places of the Christmas story are certainly not fit for a king. Quirinius was the governor of Syria, but Jesus wasn’t born in Syria. Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome, but Jesus wouldn’t be born in the capital city. Joseph is from Nazareth, a town not even mentioned in the Old Testament. The only person in the NT who mentions Nazareth says of it, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46). He is to travel to Judea, to Bethlehem. Judea, now there’s a fine country for you. Over the last 1000 years it had been dominated and occupied by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. These folks had more national anthems than we have Christmas carols. And what of Bethlehem? Even the people who speak fondly of it called it the least city in Judea, and we already have listed the attributes of Judea. And if all of those places are unlikely places for the birth of a king, I’ll ask you to zoom in on your Google map just a bit closer. If you zoom in to the actual location of the birth you see it’s in a disgusting barn meant to house animals.

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