Is.61:10-62:3
Ps.147
Gal.3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18

Christmas I
HE 2B 10:00
RCL

RUDOLPH

Credit: Pulpit Resource 12/23/84
Previous: 84,94,96,91,00,02.

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You've probably heard "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" about twenty times more than you care to; but there's an interesting story about the composer of that seasonal song; he brought Rudolph out of the pasture of obscurity and suffering.

Back in 1938 the author, Robert May, was an advertising copy-writer for Montgomery Ward, the department store. His boss came in and said, "I want you to write a folk story for a catalogue booklet this year. We've been buying these little Christmas books for children each year, but now we are going to put out our own to save money. Write us a good story."

This man had a child at home and his wife was dying of a terminal illness. He felt little inspiration for such a task. It was just one more burden. He paced about his small cubicle of an office and worried. Finally he had this dream of writing about a reindeer. He went to the zoo and looked at the reindeer for ideas. He came in with a story line for his boss, but the boss turned it off in a flash. "Too childish! Nothing to it," his boss said. The saddened writer took the script home for the weekend. He went back to the zoo with a friend. He sketched and revised the story. Then he read the new script to his dying wife and their child. The child's eyes responded with a sparkle (as children's eyes do when they are entranced). This man had poured his own sense of inferiority, his own sense of failure, into the character of Rudolph. You know the rest of the story ... "Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Robert May took the revised script to his boss who declared, "I think you've got something here." He certainly did. The story was so well received that the music writers wanted to publish it as a song. Robert May asked permission, but "Oh no," said his boss; "that song belongs to the company." But the boss was over-ruled. The Chairman of the Board of Montgomery Ward declared at a Board meeting that "the song is the property of the man who wrote it." He gave the rights to Robert May.

So now, when you hear "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," think of a young, shy, introverted man whose wife was dying, who was forced to write with an empty heart, and to pour his suffering into a lasting children's Christmas story. And think how often it happens that out of suffering comes new life. That is the message of the Cross as well. So the story behind Rudolph is a deeply religious one, and one that is of a piece with the Christian message. Amen.