CHRISTMAS 2014
BOYNES
One of my favorite stories is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It's the story of Ebenezer
Scrooge, and the new life he finds through the Spirit of Christmas.
Scrooge is a wealthy business man, but not a happy one. Dickens describes him as "a
tight-fisted hand at the grindstone...a squeezing, clutching, covetous old sinner!." Even
Christmas makes him angry: people spend a bunch of money they don't have, he has to give
his clerk the day off, he can't make any money!
Some fellow businessmen approach him for a donation to help the poor and needy.
Scrooge says, "Are there no prisons, no treadmills, no poor houses? I pay taxes to support
these institutions, that's enough." The men tell him, "Some cannot get there, others would
rather die." Scrooge says, "Let them die, then, and reduce the surplus population." To him,
human life is not precious but costly. He has no clue that they are made in the image of God,
just as he is. He's not yet seen The Light.
Scrooge comes home from work on Christmas Eve to a dark house. He only lights a
single candle and carries it around the house with him. "Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge likes
it." He did not yet know that the Light of Christmas is a free gift. We are here because we know
that Christ is The Light that conquers all darkness. Scrooge would discover this Light on that
very night.
His old business partner, Jacob Marley, had died seven years ago. Suddenly, Marley
appears to him as a ghost. He's bound in heavy chains, with money boxes attached to them.
He says to Scrooge, "It is required of everyone that the spirit within you walk abroad among
your brothers and sisters, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit does not go forth in life" it will
never find happiness, in this life or the next.
Scrooge asks why he's weighed down with these chains. Marley tells him he built these
chains through the choices he made in life, by not going beyond himself or his business. "My
spirit never walked beyond our counting-house...never roved beyond the narrow limits of our
money-changing hole." He tells Scrooge that his own chain is heavier and longer,
even though he can't see it.
Scrooge says to him, "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob."
Marley shouts at him, "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business;
charity, mercy, forgiveness...were all my business...Why did I walk through the crowds with my
eyes turned down, and never raise them up to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to such
a poor and humble dwelling (at Bethlehem)? Were there no poor homes to which its light would
have led me?"
Marley tells Scrooge that he came to help him, to set him free from these chains, to
show him the way to a new life. We have someone far better, who came to set Us free:
One who IS "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." One who offers us true freedom, lasting joy.
That's why we're here. That's what we celebrate at Christmas.
Three more Spirits appear to Scrooge on that Christmas Eve.
They show him the forgotten joy of childhood, and how he lost the woman he loved because he
valued fortune over family.
They show him the joy of people celebrating Christmas, even his poor clerk Bob
Kratchet, who can barely provide for his family, who can't afford medical treatment for his
youngest son, Tiny Tim...because Scrooge pays him so little.
They show him his nephew Fred who loves him and prays for him, who vows to keep
reaching out to him, even though Scrooge rejects him.
They show him some brothers and sisters in desperate need, that "surplus population"
as he called them earlier.
Finally, they show him his future, and how he'd be remembered if things didn't change.
Scrooge awakes the next day to the bright light of Christmas morning. He realizes that he's
been given a second chance, that he can shed those heavy chains that bind him.
He's become a new creation. Our God is all about new beginnings!
Scrooge begins to live each day as a gift, he tries to become a gift to others:
his time, his treasure, his heart. He's discovered that this is the way to true happiness.
That's what we experience here at this table when we celebrate the Eucharist. We
receive the greatest gift, God's fullness of life and salvation in Christ Jesus. Here at this table
we reinforce that habit of self-giving in our hearts. Here we join ourselves with Christ as an
offering to the Father, and to one another. That's why celebrating the Eucharist is the source
and summit of Christian life: it not only nourishes and empowers us, it also reinforces that habit
of self-offering, which leads to true happiness and freedom. And who doesn't want happiness
and freedom in their life?
If it's not your habit to be at this table every Sunday, make this a new beginning.
God is all about new beginnings.
Jesus said, "Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." To be poor
in spirit doesn't mean we have to be poor, but it does mean that we're generous. It means that
we don't hold onto material things too tightly. Scrooge realized that he was bound and chained
by his love of money, he was not free to enjoy the greater riches of life. It doesn't have to be
money. We can have other false gods like status, or physical appearance, or comfort and
security. Any number of things can limit our freedom and keep our spirit from 'walking abroad
among our brothers and sisters" as Marley put it.
The story of Ebenezer Scrooge is the story of Christmas, the story of the Gospel: that the
fullness of life comes from a gift - God's gift to us, and our gift to others.
Christmas reminds us that these are the gifts that keep on giving.
All we have to do is unwrap them!