Isaiah 52:7-10
Chris Ayers
God's Love Transforms (Even Christmas Villains)
Merry Christmas to you and yours, a merry Christmas. I am a messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, why says, Your God reigns,” If you listened to our scripture lesson from Isaiah then you know that pretty much is straight from the prophet. And for an exclamation point Isaiah adds, all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God, which means, even the Christmas villains we love shall be saved.
I’ve included a list of Christmas villains in your bulletin. Who is the Christmas villain you love the most? [Wait for congregational responses.]
Movie: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Villain: Henry F. Potter (played by Lionel Barrymore)
Brand of Evil: Vicious slumlord and the richest man in Bedford Falls. After creating George Bailey's crisis — by quietly "keeping" the $8,000 deposit envelope tucked inside the newspaper Uncle Billy hands him — Potter then refuses to lend George the money to save the Building & Loan from ruin during the bank examiner's visit.
Heartless Quote: "You're worth more dead than alive."
Movie: Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Villain: Granville Sawyer (played by Porter Hall)
Brand of Evil: Officious human resources screener whose job is to give employees intelligence tests. Sawyer takes it upon himself to psychoanalyze impressionable 17-year-olds and provokes Kris Kringle into busting out his cane as a weapon.
Heartless Quote: "I told you he had latent maniacal tendencies."
Movie: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Villain: The Bumble (aka the Abominable Snow Monster of the North)
Brand of Evil: Yeti who's inexplicably driven into a rage at the sight of Rudolph's lit nose. After being mocked by his reindeer pals, the loveable Rudolph is then pursued by this mono-syllabic thug until Yukon Cornelius knocks The Bumble out and Rudolph's fellow misfit, the dentist-wannabe Hermey, pulls out the monster's teeth.
Heartless Quote: "Roooar!"
Movie: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Villain: Grinch (played by Boris Karloff)
Brand of Evil: Cave-dwelling grouch whose hate of the whole Christmas season has turned him into "a bad banana with a greasy black peel." The Grinch has the "wonderful, awful idea" to stop Christmas from coming by dressing up as Santa, forcing a dog into reindeer slavery, and stealing every last crumb in Who-ville.
Heartless Quote: "They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do! Their mouths will hang open a minute or two then the Whos down in Who-ville will all cry Boo-Hoo!"
Movie: Frosty the Snowman (1969)
Villain: Professor Hinkle (played by Billy de Wolfe)
Brand of Evil: Inept magician who loses his hat to a gust of wind and is forever muttering affirmations such as "Think nasty, think nasty, think nasty." You know Hinkle's a bad guy when his pet rabbit, Hocus Pocus, joins forces with the adorable Karen to help Frosty make a break for the North Pole. Heck, even Santa feels the need to scold the mustached-antihero and sends him home to write the mother of all "I will not..." lists.
Heartless Quote: "Aha! I've got you! And the second you're all melted, that hat will be mine!"
Movie: Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970)
Villain: Winter Warlock (played by Keenan Wynn)
Brand of Evil: Mountain-dwelling wizard who lives to terrify trespassers. Winter has instilled enough fear in the forest animals that they immediately hide the baby Claus when his sled is blown off course and into the forest of the Whispering Winds. Later, Winter's icy heart is melted when the grown Claus presents him with a choo-choo, unleashing a villainous sense of humor.
Heartless Quote: "You mustn't mind the tree monsters. Their bark is worse than their bite. Ha, ha, ha, ha!"
Movie: Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970)
Villain: Herr Burgermeister Meisterburger (played by Paul Frees)
Brand of Evil: Aptly employed as the mayor of Sombertown, the Herr first encounters Santa when the infant is left on his doorstep. Later, he outlaws toys after he trips on a wooden duck and falls down the stairs in front of City Hall, breaking his funny bone. Unlike the Winter Warlock, Burgermeister Mesisterburger isn't reformed when given a toy by Santa. Instead, he issues Wanted: Dead or Alive posters and burns the town's toys in front of a group of crying children.
Heartless Quote: "Ah, take the little, er, baggage to the orphan asylum. That's the proper place for foundlings anyway."
Movie: A Christmas Story (1983)
Villain: Scut Farkus (played by Zack Ward)
Brand of Evil: Schoolyard and neighborhood bully who terrorizes the town of Hohman, Indiana, prompting Ralphie to plead for a Red Ryder BB gun and unleashing the events later known as "the Scut Farkus Affair." Years later, the adult Ralphie is still traumatized by Scut's yellow eyes and rancid coonskin cap.
Heartless Quote: "What, you gonna cry now? Go on, cry for me crybaby, cry!"
Movie: Scrooged (1988)
Villain: Frank Cross (played by Bill Murray)
Brand of Evil: Updated Scrooge as a selfish network TV executive who bah humbugs his way through Christmas Eve by cancelling everyone's bonus, firing a random low-level employee, and bestowing crappy gifts on his family.
Heartless Quote: "Grace, what in the hell is this? (Oh, it's a painting, one of my kids did. See, there's Santa Claus and there's Mrs. Claus.) Honey, how many fingers does Mrs. Santa Claus have here? (Eleven.) Eleven. Right. It's crap. Lose it. I don't want it on the wall."
Movie: A Christmas Carol (2009)
Villain: Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Jim Carrey)
Brand of Evil: Professional money lender/loan shark who hates Christmas, not to mention people — family, employees, business associates — and has a particular disgust for the poor. It's no surprise he's home alone when the ghosts show up.
Heartless Quote: "If I could have my way, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!"
http://www.reelz.com/article/797/think-nasty-10-christmas-villains-we-love/
They say we like the Christmas villain we are most alike. What does your Christmas villain say about you? Yes, I’m tricky.
My personal Christian villain fav is the Abominable Snowman who is inxplicably driven into a rage at the sight of Rudolph's lit nose. I have things that drive me into a rage also. And if the truth be known, I have a soft spot for mono-syllabic thugs, a soft spot even for mono-syllabic George Bush who led us to invade Iraq and found no weapons of mass destruction.
Who are your villains?
Are you in need of salvation?
God reigns. About time.
Peace. About time.
Good news. Been waiting for it.
Salvation for all. Well, if you just have to do it for everybody.
Even the villains, Christmas and otherwise, shall be saved.
The message of Christmas is that God’s love transforms everybody and everything. God indeed has a soft spot.
This Christmas may you experience God’s love in new and profound ways.
The earth shall see the salvation of our God. Amen, and amen.
