A few months ago, I started seeing some folks on my Facebook feed posting all sorts of things followed by the words, “Dilly dilly.” “The Houston Astros won the World Series! Dilly dilly!” “Jose Altuve won the MVP! Dilly dilly!” I’m like, “What is this dilly dilly stuff?” And I was too embarrassed to say anything either.
Then one day, as I was browsing an internet blog that I frequent called Intellectual Takeout, I saw an article titled, “Bud Light's 'Dilly Dilly' Commercial is Ingenious.” Well, that explained why I didn’t know what was going on. No television. But there was a link to the commercial on YouTube, so I watched it. Now, I am curious. How many of you have seen the “Dilly Dilly” Bud Light commercial?
The scene opens in a castle where a banquet is taking place. A guy walks up to the king and puts a six pack of Bud Light on the table in front of the king. The King says, “Sir Jeremy, you are a true friend of the crown. Dilly dilly.”
Everyone else in the room raises a bottle of Bud Light and says, “Dilly dilly.”
Then a lady walks up to the king and places a 20 pack of Bud Light on the table. The king says, “Madam Susan, you are an even truer friend of the crown. Dilly dilly.” The rest of the crowd raises their bottles and says, “Dilly dilly.”
The next person in line walks up and with gusto places this capped wine bottle in front of the king. The music stops. The king quizzically says, “What is this?”
The guy responds, “This is a spiced honey mead wine that I have really been into lately.” There is a slight pause until the guy shakes his head with a little smile and says, “So...dilly dilly?”
The king instead looks at the guy and says, “Please follow Sir Brad. He is going to give you a tour of the Pit of Misery.”
The guy looks at the king and says, “I’m sorry, what?” But before anything else can be said, one of the party guests yells out, “Pit of misery. Dilly dilly.” And everyone else says, “Dilly dilly!”
Then there is the ending credits where Bud Light is advertised.
Now, some of you might just be wondering what a beer commercial might have to do with Christmas and the arrival of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on earth. The two things seem to be miles upon miles apart and have nothing to do with one another.
But let me read to you an excerpt from the article that Intellectual Takeout posted:
When I first saw this, I laughed so hard to the point of nearly crying. This one ad brilliantly calls out the snobbery of craft brew culture and all the pomp that goes with it. Nowhere does it make a direct pitch for Bud Light. It just says exactly what we think but never say: Bud Light is a people’s beer, and that’s just fine because now the people rule.
So embedded in this commercial is a bit of the story [that]... No longer would the elite of the past determine the tastes of the kingdom and the way resources would be used. There would be mass production for the masses of people. It was a revolution in history, and one that would never stop.
And from a marketing point of view, this commercial deals directly with Bud Light’s real competition in the craft brew industry, which is making inroads by the day. Bud Light obviously cannot claim to have a better product. And guess what? Everyone knows that. Everyone knows what a Bud Light is: it is a beer-like drink that is watery but let’s you drink a six pack in an evening without any great disaster the next day. Sorry snobs, but the people like this feature.
...If you are in the know, you are starting to get the sense of a whole world in which the tastes and habits of regular people have become the prevailing cultural sense. No more ... top-down cultural impositions.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/bud-lights-dilly-dilly-commercial-ingenious
Now, I’m not advocating that it is perfectly okay to go home and down a six pack of Bud Light. Please don’t take that away from this sermon–unless maybe you are a Bud Light representative and would like to thank me for advertising your beer and would like to pay me for it. No. Just joking. JUST JOKING!!! What I am trying to call your attention to is the idea the last thought expressed by the author of this article. No more top-down cultural impositions. No more imposing one’s will by power or force. No more living a life of fear of punishment for failing to obey the ruler of the land.
You see, the fact of the matter of Christmas is that God could have chosen to come to earth with all sorts of power and might. God could have chosen to come to earth being born to a king enthroned in power and wealth and majesty. Jesus could have been born and raised in such an environment. He could have become powerful beyond any king ever known. He could have wielded the power of God from His thone, and, of course, He could have been very, very good. He could have fed His people and ensured that no one ever be touched by hunger. He could have healed His people from all disease and sickness. He could have brought peace and prosperity to His entire realm with His godly wisdom. But He also would have had to institute swift and immediate justice. He would have had to use His power to impose strict punishment upon those who failed to obey His commands. He would have had to harshly deal with those who stole or murdered. He would have had to swiftly uphold His statutes and laws lest someone try to take advantage of Him. He would have had to protect His people and unleash His power upon their enemies, striking them dead or rendering them helpless with a simple word. While everyone would love this king’s power for good, they would have feared His power and punishment against those who wronged Him. They would greatly love, but also greatly fear His reprisal for their failure. This is what happens when you have a top down imposition of culture. And while God does want us to obey His commands, He does not want us to do so in fear.
And so, instead of coming to earth as the baby of a king, God came to earth as the baby of an ordinary young woman engaged to an ordinary man. God did not arrive in a castle but instead in a stable. He did not arrive cuddled in warm blankets by a roaring fireplace, but He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger surrounded by warm hay. His birth announcement was not given by state employees to the nobility, but was given by angels on a hill side to common shepherds. God’s arrival on earth was not meant to impose fear, but to cause wonder–a wonder that would begin opening our hearts so that eventually we may see God’s great love for us.
And that love would be most visible, not in Jesus’ healing or teaching or providing food. That love would be most visible on the cross when He died for our sins. For this is truly how our fear of God is taken away. When you break the law, you deserve punishment; you deserve justice. And each and every one of us has broken God’s law–we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not loved God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We have pursued other idols; other desires and not kept God in His proper place. We have tried to justify ourselves and our actions saying that circumstances made us act a certain way or that other people caused us to fall into temptation. God’s anger burns hot against us because of these things. But Jesus, on our behalf says to the Father, “I will pay for what they have done. I will bear the cost of their sins.”
It’s not such a strange thought. I mean, what parent whose child accidentally breaks something in the store will have the store manager call the police to arrest the child for his or her carelessness? No parent that I know of. Most of us pay for the item that our child broke even though we were innocent. We paid our child’s debt because we love our child. The question becomes, does that child live in thankfulness for what the parent has done, or does the child continue with his or her reckless behavior?
You see, for us who believe in Jesus Christ, we look up at the cross, and we see what Jesus is doing for us. We see how He is dying for our sin; for the sin of the world. We understand that we are the ones who should be hanging there, and our hearts melt. Our hearts break with sadness for our sin, but then they are filled with wonder and admiration for the One who would give Himself for us. And we seek to put an end to our reckless behavior. We seek to put an end to our chasing after our idols. We seek to love and honor our King Jesus because instead of sitting in a throne in a castle, He has become enthroned in our hearts. We seek to follow His will and His law not because of fear of a top down punishment, but because we love Him so much for what He did that we do not want to dishonor Him and His sacrifice.
This love–this grace, is for the whole world. It’s for kings and shepherds. It’s for rich and poor. It’s for parents and children. It’s for Republicans and Democrats. It’s for craft beer drinkers and Bud Light drinkers. It’s for you and for me. This love begins being poured out on this night as we welcome baby Jesus in the town of Bethlehem. Let us rejoice that our Savior has come. I am awful tempted to end this sermon with “Dilly dilly!”, but instead I’ll say, “Merry Christmas and Amen.”
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