“Sing a New Song” sermon preached at Keswick-Ravenshoe Pastoral Charge December 27th, 2015

Colossians 3:12-17  

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as God has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Jesus rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. Be thankful. Let the word of Jesus dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God; and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God through him.

“Sing a new song unto the Lord, let your songs be sung from mountains high.

Sing a new song unto the Lord, singing Alleluia!”**

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Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the time before him was his own, to make amends in!
``I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!'' Scrooge babbled, as he scrambled out of bed. ``The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!''
He was so flustered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would barely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
``They are not torn down,'' cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms, ``they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here: I am here: the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will!''
His hands were busy with his garments all this time: turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
``I don't know what to do!'' cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect fool of himself with his stockings. ``I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world!'' 

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He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows: and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk -- that anything -- could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house, for dinner.

******************************************************************************“Merry Christmas, Bob!'' said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. ``A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit.''

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

Advent and Christmas – a journey from the desert of John the Baptist to a small cave behind an inn; a call to repent, to examine our lives and ourselves, to change our lives.

We stopped along the way, at a place called Hope. Hope in something new, hope for a future, hope that we can change, hope tied up in a star, a comet, whatever, leading the way and lighting the path.

The second stop was Peace – the outgrowth of Hope, that the world can change, that we can change the world so that it is a place where all can live, and grow. Hope that we can change.

Still led by the Star, we heard a young woman sing a song as old as earth, a song of Joy – and yet a radical song where the accepted order of things is turned upside down, where the poor and destitute are fed and clothed, where work and education and health care and shelter is available for everyone – and where the rich are no longer first nor in control. The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. In Mary’s song, she says “The rich shall be sent away empty.” 

The last part of the road, where we encounter Love – love in all its richness; love of companionship, love of friendship, the love of life, the love of the world and the love of the call into the world. Love manifested in a child, a baby – not only a baby, but one born into the poorest of circumstances, to two people with a tiny income; who arrived too late to even find a room in the hotel, and instead had to shelter in the space where the animals were kept.

…and yet – because of this one child, so many things changed. Mary and Joseph sang a new song – a song which encompassed hope, peace, joy, and love. Angels sang a completely new song, one they had never sung before; the shepherds too, sang a new song – something they had never heard, yet in the depths of their souls, they knew.

So too, on Christmas morning, an old man bounced out of bed. He too had been on a journey – one in which parts of his life were brought back to him; his cruelty about the poor around him, suggesting they could die and decrease the surplus population, complaining about the taxes laid on him to support factories and poorhouses; who had no time for family or friends. His journey took him through celebrations – seeing that while he had no joy in his life, those so much less affluent could find immense joy in the very act of living. His journey took him right to the doorstep of his own physical death, and showed him the result of the lost chances to use what he had to make the world a better place. Each of the spirits who visited him pointed out the chance of reclamation, of redemption.

So on Christmas morning, he bounced out of bed, literally singing a whole new song, and dancing a whole new dance. He stepped off on the road of Advent, and found along the way, the meaning of Hope, Peace and Joy – and most of all, Love. Love of family, love of neighbour – indeed, he has learned who his neighbour really is.  There is no outright mention of religion in this story, not really, except right at the beginning in the words of Marley – was there no poor home to which the light of the star might had guided him, if he had lifted his eyes instead of always looking down. Yet the word is as clear as can be.

Ebenezer Scrooge, the wealthy old miser who hid in his office even on the death of his partner, is redeemed. He has learned what his poor assistant already knew. One does not need money to be happy; but with money and no humanity, one cannot ever hope to live.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is considered one of the foremost Jewish theologians of the 20^th century.  He said that the time for the coming of the realm may be far off, but the task is plain: to retain our share in God in spite of peril and contempt. There is a war to wage against the vulgar, the glorification of the absurd, a war that is incessant, universal. Loyal to the presence of the ultimate in the common, we may be able to make it clear that human beings are more than just human beings, that in doing the finite we may perceive the infinite.

“The greatest problem” he said “ is not how to continue but how to exalt our existence. The call for a life beyond the grave is presumptuous, if there is no cry for eternal life prior to our descending to the grave. Eternity is not a perpetual future but actually a perpetual presence. The seed of eternal life has been planted in us. The world to come is not just a hereafter but also a here and now.”

There’s a little song Rabbi Heschel composed, and I believe it’s the song Scrooge sang as he bounced out of bed that Christmas morning: “Just to be is a blessing, just to live is holy. Just to be, just to live, is a blessing, is holy”

Let’s sing: 

Sources: 

1. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

2. From "Sing a New Song", by Daniel Schutte.

The Ghosts of Christmas Part II: Past, Present, Future December 20, 2015 Keswick-Ravenshoe Pastoral Charge

“The Spirit of God is on me, because I have been anointed to proclaim good news to the poor. I have been sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

For most of us, Christmas is a time we associate with family, friends, good feelings, food, wine, laughter, a time of reflection, celebration, affirmation, joy, whether or not we are religious. They are all positive emotions, and for most of us, they put us in a more generous and better frame of mind, we are little more open to others, a little more patient - we come a little closer to what Christmas is supposed to be about, and what we are called to be about.

Now Christmas is almost upon us. For some, this will be a time of great joy, with family home - grandchildren and maybe even great grandchildren. For some it will be a time of great sadness - a loved one gone, no food on the table, no gifts for children, fractured families, anger and hurt, illness, loss of work. The ghosts of other Christmases come to haunt - just around the edges, a lingering loneliness, remembering times as a family when we ourselves were children.

Dreams are strange things. We can do things in dreams that we can’t do during our waking hours. When I worked in World Outreach at the national UC office, one of my roles was computer management, I often solved problems while dreaming, went to work the next day and tried out the solution. Musicians tell stories of memorising pieces of music in dreams, or composing in dreams. Our minds keep on working while we are asleep. Dreams tell us things about ourselves that we aren’t always able to face otherwise. There are lots of logical explanations, but it is still miraculous what the mind can do, and how it can help us see ourselves. And the line between dreams and reality is often negligible.

Charles Dickens, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, wrote stories about the abysmal conditions in which many people lived. “A Christmas Carol” is probably the best known, and its message is timeless. For Scrooge, Christmas Eve might have been described as a nightmare. He certainly thought it was a nightmare, at least at the beginning. Had the visitations stopped after Marley, or maybe after the first of the three “spirits”, he would have written it off as that particular piece of mouldy cheese he’d eaten earlier in the evening with his thin gruel - and nothing would have changed. He would have gone back to sleep, no different.

But those ghosts – Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come – do make their appearance, and Scrooge is confronted with his own life in review.

 The Ghost of Christmas Past, a spirit of age, yet appearing young – and shining with a light so bright Scrooge cannot bear it, and asks for it to be covered. Truth can be hard to look upon directly.

``What!'' exclaimed the Ghost, ``would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow!''

So we travel into Scrooge’s past. We see a small boy, sitting in a classroom at boarding school, while his classmates go home for Christmas. His mother died giving birth;, and in grief, his father rejected the baby. A little bit of this boy hardens up and closes away.

The same boy, older and more mature, stands alone in the same schoolroom. His sister comes to tell him he can come home for Christmas. “Father is so much kinder than he used to be” she says “that I wasn’t afraid to ask him once more if you might come home.”  We find hints of abuse, of deep anger and hurt, we never quite know exactly, but the suggestions are there. This sister died, giving birth to Scrooge’s nephew. And Scrooge rejects the nephew as his father had rejected him.

A Christmas party – every year Scrooge’s employer closed down the business early, pushed all the chairs out of the way – a feast was laid on, and there were fiddlers, singing and dancing – and Christmas celebrations. And finally we see him, confronted by the woman he has loved, as she lets him free of his promises to her. Another idol  - one of gold – has replaced her. It is telling that when she leaves, Scrooge lets her go, not having the will to let go his obsession with money.

Christmas Present is a spirit of great energy, generosity and compassion. “You’ve never seen the likes of me before, have you?” he asks. In the Albert Finney musical version of the movie, Scrooge finds himself getting quite giddy on a drink the spirit offers him – he says “I’ve never tasted the likes of this” to which the spirit replies “Yes, I supposed you haven’t. It’s called the milk of human kindness”. As the Spirit goes down the city streets, sprinkling Christmas water from his torch, Scrooge asks the Spirit if there is any special flavour in the water. The spirit answers that there is a special flavour in any meal kindly given, but especially a poor one. When asked why a poor one, the spirit responds ”It is needed the most.”

We see how little Scrooge knows even about his clerk, Bob Cratchit - that Bob had children, one of whom was ill. When Scrooge asks if Tim the child will live, he is given back his own words “If he’s going to die, he should do it, and decrease the surplus population.” As this spirit moves on, he leaves Scrooge with one particularly pertinent message. Under his robe huddle two scrawny, thin and sickly children with hands like claws. “This one is Ignorance” says the ghost “and this is Want. Beware both of them, but particularly beware Ignorance.” Asking if there are no services for them, the ghost answers with Scrooge’s words “Are there no factories, are there no poorhouses?”

It never ceases to strike me how relevant this message is even today. We all know people who have been hurt by life, through no fault of their own, but who carry the grief, who close themselves off, or make something else more important. Scrooge is not, in fact, a particularly complicated man. He has simply reacted to the hurt and disappointment in his life by building protections for himself.

The interesting thing about Scrooge, is that he punishes himself as well. He piles up money, but spends little. He lives in virtual poverty, both of body and of soul. The money itself isn’t important. In his pursuit of the accumulation of security he shuts out everything which could touch him - even losing the woman he loves because she is content to live on a modest income, and be of service to others. He has no idea of the causes of poverty and trouble around him; he even resents that he is taxed to support institutions for the poor and destitute. Yet he has more than he ever needs for himself, beyond all comprehension.

Remember Jesus reading from the scroll of the Torah, the words of Isaiah, “The Spirit of God is on me, because I have been anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. I have been sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” Remember Scrooge’s first encounter with the ghost of his friend and partner, Jacob Marley. Remember the long, heavy, ponderous chains Marley dragged - and the length and weight of the chains Scrooge had forged for himself in life - and those were the words Marley used - forged in life. Is this not exactly the message of the Gospel - “it is required of every person”, says Marley, “that their spirits must go forth into the world in life”, and if they don’t, they are chained and crippled beings, prisoners of their own making, blind by their own hands, weighted down and oppressed by the chains forged in life.

The last visitation, Christmas Yet to Come, demonstrates the consequences of not being aware, not being attuned to the world around, not being engaged in the world. A father walks slowly home from a graveyard; a small chair sits empty, with a small crutch beside it. It is not because of anything Scrooge did that the boy died, but precisely the opposite - he didn’t do anything. He minded what he thought was his business and the rest of the world minded theirs, or so he thought. Along the way he lost track of the world - the poor and marginalised, the hungry and mentally ill, the sick and bereaved, the lonely and hurt - they are precisely our business - Ignorance and Want are our business.

Scrooge sees a man dead, and someone stealing the very slippers off the body’s feet. He sees his belongings being sold off by his own housekeeper. He finds himself in a graveyard, seeing his own name etched on a gravestone. The reality of his existence comes crashing in on him: “I am not the man I once was, I am a new person, I will keep Christmas in my heart. Tell me these are not the shadows of things that will be, but the shadows of things that may be”. Whatever we do or don’t do - either by action or by inaction - there are still consequences. Cause and effect - everything has some kind of consequence, some kind of result. We cannot be disengaged from the world if we are Christian. We cannot be Christian and not take action. To be Christian means to be involved.

I can’t help but align these three spirits with the words we sometimes use in the service of communion – the mystery, and the hope of our faith: “Jesus has died. Jesus is risen. Jesus will come again.” Christmas Past, Christmas Present, Christmas Yet to Come. What we were, what we are today, and what we may yet be.

Christmas in all of life, the birth of the child in our hearts, and what may grow. Thanks be to the one who calls us into life. May it be so.