Isaiah:
Oh,
that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble
before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to
quake before you! For when you did awesome things that
we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since
ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God
besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You
come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.
But
when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have
become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up
like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your
name or strives
to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you are our
Origin. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do
not be angry beyond measure; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us,
we pray, for we are all your people. *****************************************************************************
Mark 13 In those days, following that
distress, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give light; the
stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ At
that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and
glory. He will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from
the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. Now learn this lesson from
the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know
that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things
happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this
generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. About that day or hour no one knows, not even
the angels in heaven, nor Jesus, but only the Creator. Be on
guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man
going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with
their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore
keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back -
whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If
he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say
to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
*****************************************************************************
(Scrooge clip)
Scrooge fell upon his knees, and
clasped his hands before his face.
"Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble
me?"
"Man of the worldly mind!"
replied the Ghost, "do you believe in me or not?"
"I do," said Scrooge.
"I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to
me?"
"It is required of every
man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk
abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes
not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world --
oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on
earth, and turned to happiness!"
Again the spectre raised a cry, and
shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.
"You are fettered," said
Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me
why?"
"I wear the chain I forged in
life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard;
I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its
pattern strange to you? Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the
weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this,
seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous
chain!"
******************************************************************************
"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,"
cried the phantom, "not to know that ages of incessant labour, by immortal
creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it
is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working
kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too
short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can
make amends for one life's opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was
I!"
"But you were always a good man
of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to
himself.
"Business!" cried the
Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common
welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all
my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the
comprehensive ocean of my business!"
"At this time of the rolling
year," the spectre said "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds
of fellow -beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that
blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes
to which its light would have conducted me!"
******************************************************************************
Although there is some controversy
about how Dickens expressed his opinions about faith, it is agreed that he
honoured the figure of Jesus, and was characterized as a professing Christian
with deep religious convictions. For Dickens, the true spirit of Christianity
was important.
During the
industrial revolution, Dickens wrote about the abysmal conditions in which most
people lived. Whole families were consigned to work in factories, children did
not go to school, wages were minimal, and those unable to work or who lived on
the streets were carted off to asylums or poor-houses where they generally
died. Dickens was a journalist, and highly critical of those who controlled the
economy. He believed Christian charity and concern had been pushed aside in the
name of progress and greed.
In the first
part of “A Christmas Carol” we meet two men of wealth - Scrooge and Marley. And
we meet two men of little means – one despised and even hated, the other used
and oppressed. Opposite Scrooge and Marley are Fred – Scrooge’s nephew, and Bob
Cratchit, Scrooge’s overused and abused clerk; one who is considered poor
although he has work, the other whose life is hard, whose child is ill and
dying, and yet who remains full of Hope; Christmas is for him a time to
celebrate and give thanks. Fred and Bob, for the purposes of this story are
‘everyman’, the common people. In this story, wealth is no guarantee of
happiness, and poverty is no means of despair, and the judgment of humans is
turned upside down in the eyes of God.
Scrooge is
portrayed as a stunted soul, who walls himself off from the world to avoid
personal pain. The acquisition of money becomes his one purpose. He cannot
fathom how his nephew Fred, and his clerk Bob Cratchit, can find joy in life
even while poor - yet he remains unaware of the poverty of spirit he carries
himself, despite his monetary wealth. In fact, Scrooge’s living quarters reveal
his stunted soul – for he does not use any money for himself. The acquisition
of money for the sake of its acquisition has become who he is.
And then the heavens are torn open, Scrooge is
caught totally unawares – he’s one of those who has been asleep. In the wail of
Marley’s returned soul we hear the wail of the Psalmist, calling out to God as
Marley does to Scrooge. “Do not be angry beyond
measure; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are
all your people.”
When we read of King
David, we find that in his life he has the opportunity to look back on his life
– as a boy, the confrontation with Goliath, King Saul who was his mentor; and
when he is King, his greed and dishonesty, rape and murder – he has a chance to
beg God not to hold those things against him, to help him turn around.
And Marley, only after his death,
realises his
single-minded focus on only being “a man of business”, until it is too late. “It is required of every person that their
spirit must go forth in life, walk amongst other human beings, connect with
other human beings – and if the person does not do so, the spirit is condemned
to go forth in death, dragging the chains of greed and corruption invisibly
formed in life – and be unable to offer any help any assistance.”
It seems to
me, if I believed in hell, that this would be hell – to realise the potential
of our lives, but come to that realization too late. Marley has no opportunity
in life to ask forgiveness, and repent – repentance meaning seeing the errors
of one’s ways, and turning in a different, better direction. And yet, the
chance for repentance is offered in death, and in reaching to his old friend
Scrooge.
Allow me to
paraphrase Dickens a little – or perhaps bring the story into today.
“You were
always a good man of business, Jacob.” says Scrooge.
“Business!!!”
cries Marley “Humanity was supposed to be my business; charity, compassion and
mercy, kindness and forbearance, all were supposed to be my business. The
dealings of my occupation were but a drop in what was the great ocean of my
true business. At this time of the rolling year”, he says “I suffer most. Why
did I walk through crowds of fellow human beings, my eyes turned down, shutting
them out and pretending I didn’t see, or that it didn’t involve me? Instead of
looking up to that Blessed Star which led others to a poor and humble abode.
Not even to be aware that no regret can make up for missed opportunities in one
person’s life.”
This
statement of Marley’s echoes the thoughts of Martin Luther, who believed that
the theology of merit” in the church, which rewarded people for good works,
actually further impoverished those already poor. He also believed that the raw
power of any superior group would always exploit the lesser group for its own
greed. Dickens assessment of the conditions in England are precisely drawn from
Luther’s assessment of the failure of the church to live up to itself. For
David the Psalmist, Martin Luther the reformer, and Dickens the writer – there
is the matter of a covenant with humanity, broken – for our covenant with God
means that we are the extensions of God in the world. If we do not take that
seriously, the covenant is broken by us.
Today, we
are faced with many situations which in some ways parallel the world of Dickens
and Luther. We don’t allow child labour in our own countries – and yet we allow
and exploit it in other parts of the world, so we can have cheap goods for
ourselves. Think Trans-Pacific Partnership, which might help some businesses,
but what about those who are displaced from their work, or poorer places on the
other side of the Pacific? We exploit people who, truth be told, we do see as
lesser than ourselves – so we don’t mind if they are consigned to poverty. The
tiny amount earned from the work they do goes into a family pool of
funds….often at the expense of education or health. We exploit our own in some
ways, paying them below a living wage and ignoring the fact that many have to
work two or three jobs to live. And we don’t lift our eyes up to the star, and
a poor and humble abode.
And today we
are faced with, yet again, another influx of people desperately running for
their lives. As Christians, what should be our response? Worry about our own
safety first, and then everyone else next? Turn them away, send them back to
certain death? We hear people complaining about “looking after our own”, the
homeless and the veterans – and yet those complainers are often the ones who
don’t really do much for the homeless or the veterans, for whom it is
convenient to keep looking down, looking away. Over against that we have even
those who are poor, offering what they can to help others who they perceive
need assistance. We forget that Jesus himself was a refugee – his parents took
him and ran from Herod. Although the Gospel stories as we go along into
Epiphany tell us of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus and running to Egypt, my guess
is that a whole lot of people ran into Egypt to escape Herod. And Egypt
accepted them. And I don’t think it’s any accident that the story tells us they
ran to the country which had made slaves out of their ancestors.
Mark’s Gospel is a good example of what is
called apocalyptic theology, the coming of the end times. Wars, famines, people
fearful of what is happening in the world. And Jesus says all of this will
continue, none of it will pass, until the word of hope, peace, the worth of all
human beings, has happened. Marley’s words precisely echo the Gospel – “for
this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is actually
capable is fully developed. Not being aware that any Christian spirit, working
even just in its own little sphere, will never be able to do all the things of
which it is capable in one life. Not to know that no amount of regret can make
up for opportunities missed.”
Marley says
clearly he was so focused on one tiny part of life, that he blanked out all
those instances of the breaking in of the realm of God, where the heavens are
torn open for God to enter, where he could have had a part and maybe added his
tiny bit to the coming of that realm. Now he is doomed to keep reliving those
times when he could have been paying attention and was too busy with himself.
The chains which he carries are of his own making, binding and blinding him –
until the chances he missed.
The
Psalmist, David, was lucky – he had the chance to turn his life around, despite
his transgressions and his age. Scrooge was lucky. Somehow, even though Marley
had been denied the chance for redemption, he has somehow been allowed to
return, and offer Scrooge the possibility of repentance. Scrooge, the man whose
heart had been so weighted down by despair and pain that he cut himself off
altogether, and could not see the coming. In the Gospel, Jesus says take care
that you don’t get side-tracked by things in this life, don’t let your heart be
weighed down with despair, be alert for signs of the coming realm.
And when Marley
says there is a chance for Scrooge to be redeemed, but will be faced with the
very real work of change, Scrooge does the completely human thing and says he
thinks he’s rather pass on the opportunity, and just remain the way he is. Or
perhaps take all three at once and get it over with.
And yet –
the light of hope and redemption shines through – he will be given three more
chances to reverse the course of his life, and make amends. So we go forward
with the largely unwilling Scrooge, on this walk to Bethlehem – with the light
of Hope on the road. May it be so.
Sources:
1. “A Christmas
Carol” Stave 1. Text, spelling, and punctuation as
published by Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C., London, 1890, from 1881
photographs of the author's original 66-page Chapman and Hall manuscript and
compared with the genuine First Edition {brown cloth}.
- “Blessed Are the Poor?” Pamela D. Couture. The Churches Centre for Theology and Public Policy. Washington, DC.
3.
“Scrooge and
Marley” sermon by Rev. Fran Ota,
December 2011.
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