Good morning,
Praise the Lord for Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year. It was on this day, December 23, 1973, that my father died at an early age of 48. We (my mom, my brothers, my sisters, and myself) all go through moments of grief on this very date every year. Praise the Lord for the "sure and certain hope" the Lord has given us.
Sunita and Andy drove from Washington, DC last night and they arrived at home early this morning. Jessica and Tom will be coming home on Christmas day. Janice and her family are staying in Boston to celebrate Christmas at home - Boston style - this year.
We will meet for a special celebration this evening at 6 PM for a Christmas banquet followed by singing of carols and rejoicing. We will meet for two Christmas Eve services tomorrow evening, one at 7:00 PM and the other at 10:30 PM.
Alice has once again transformed the parsonage in to a Christmas house with 35 Christmas trees large and small, (and some that are very tiny). Praise the Lord for the Birth of our Savior and Lord. Christmas time is a time of hope, a time of joy, and a time of reconciliation. I am reflecting on Christmas in light of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". There is an echo of Christmas past that echoes down through the pages of history, whose timeless message haunts our every Christmas present. If we were to travel back further than the history of our own Christmas past, if we were to travel back further than the history of Scrooge’s Christmas past, if we were to travel back and re-visit that very first Christmas... 2000 years ago, if we were to gaze upon that first nativity scene – the Christ Child born in Bethlehem and lying in a manger, then all of our Christmas fears and disappointments would be dispelled and we would be filled with hope.
For on the night that Jesus was born, an angel appeared to shepherds and declared to them the good news that a Savior had been born. This good news was for “all people”. It was meant for young and for old, for rich and for poor, for Jews and the Gentiles, for you and for me. Christ had come, God in the flesh, to save us all. His birth wipes our past clean. All of our pain, all of our sorrows, all of our rejection, all of our broken relationships, all of our hurts are wrapped up in His love for us. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever might believe in him would not perish but receive eternal life’. That’s the hope and the promise of Christmas past. That is the hope and the promise of the God of second chances.
What becomes very obvious in reading "A Christmas Carol" is that Scrooge is a product of his history, of his Christmas’ gone by. Thus, the second spirit to visit him is the ghost of Christmas present. This spirit comes to gave him an opportunity to see what his life is truly like in the here and the now. He is shown the home of his employee, Bob Cratchit where, despite their poverty, it is filled with joy, compassion, and love for one another. There, as they sit down to their feeble Christmas dinner, Bob Cratchit still takes the time to share a toast to his greedy, selfish, miserly boss (the one who keeps him in abject poverty).
He is also shown the home of his nephew, the only person alive who has any affection for Scrooge whatsoever, even though that affection is totally unwarranted. Year after year this nephew had invited Scrooge to come and share in the joy and merriment of Christmas with him and his wife, and year after year Scrooge had rejected his invitation, but still the nephew invites.
The ghost of Christmas present shows Scrooge exactly what he has become. He reveals to him the hardness and callousness of his heart, as shown in his dismissal of the poverty and the needs of those around him. He shows total disregard and disdain for humanity itself.
Though he tried to justify his actions by the money that he had earned and how successful he was, in the things that counted he was nothing and he had nothing. The ghost of Christmas present shows him that even though he is utterly hard-hearted, bitter, and twisted, and though he may well seem beyond the point of redemption, despite all that the spirit shows him that others still love him and have not given up on him.
This is the promise of Christmas present. Every Christmas we are reminded that, no matter how bad we are, no matter how selfish we are, no matter how greedy we are, no matter how rebellious we are, no matter how much we reject him… God loves us and never gives up on us. Christmas is a time of love, joy, peace, and goodwill to all men. Scrooge was so self-centered, embittered, and materialistically motivated that he had lost sight of that completely. Before we become too critical of Scrooge, we need to remember that every one of us is capable of falling into the same trap, neglecting that which is truly important in life, and seeing money and the things it can buy as the answer to our problems. If we’re not careful the spirit of Scrooge can highjack every Christmas; turning our pilgrimage of faith into a pilgrimage to the shops.
Christmas is exactly what it says it is – a holy celebration of the Christ. However, for many people Christmas stopped being about Christ a long time ago. It has come to be about self- indulgence, extravagance, materialism, and money. And yet the story of Christmas is the very opposite. The story of Christmas is about the one who left all riches and all glory, gave them up, and came to be born in a stable, laid in a manger, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. That child was the one who came, not to be served but to serve. That’s the certainty of Christmas present.
At the heart of "A Christmas Carol" lies Scrooge’s transformation. Through his encounters with Christmas past, present, and future Scrooge was changed from a selfish, greedy, and bitter old man, into a grateful, generous, and compassionate figure. On that Christmas Eve he is confronted by the reality of who he is and where he is headed and he responds by changing his ways, he repents and changes his destiny.
Jesus, the Son of God, invites us to do the same. What better time than Christmas to receive his forgiveness, to renew our faith, and to rebuild our friendships? There’s a Scrooge in all of us that needs to be repented. The good news of Christmas is that we can learn from the past, to change now so that we can create a better future. It’s not too late: we can choose to change. Whatever our past has been, we can have a better future in Christ.
Scrooge learned his lesson well. When he was given a second chance he seized the opportunity and changed his ways to make the days of his life count. He became a man that understood the value of life and the joys of life, and he learned to truly love life.
I doubt that any of us will be visited by the Spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, or Christmas Future as Scrooge was. However, you will be visited by God’s Spirit this Christmas and every Christmas because He never stops trying to reach us. His Spirit will point us to the only pathway to a second chance for a new life. Jesus is not just another lifestyle choice. He claimed exclusively to be ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’. If you want to make this Christmas one to remember, you need only to ask Jesus to forgive your past and invite him to enter your Christmas present. Then your life will be transformed now, and forever.
God bless us, Everyone!
In Christ,
Brown
P.S. I have recently had some difficulty sending some of my bulk mail by AOL. Therefore, I plan to change over to Roadrunner in the new year. I will be posting my daily devotional on my home page at brownnaik.com . Our dear friend, Julie Huff, from Broken Arrow, OK, posts these for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR_8kmOmxyk
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