And The Blind Shall See Series

Bah! Humbug!

These words … and the person who spoke them are so iconoclastic … so famous and well-known … I’ll bet that every one of you can tell me who said them. [Pause.]

That’s right … Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ famous and beloved story “A Christmas Carol.” Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” is the second most popular Christmas story in the English language … second only to the original Christmas story in the Gospels.

Everyone “knows” the story but how many of you have actually read Charles Dickens’ original “A Christmas Carol”? [Pause.] Most people today only know the story from watching movies and plays and there are a lot different versions and poetic variations of the story out there … which is why I would suggest that you actually read the original “A Christmas Carol” this Advent season so that you can form your own opinion about what Dickens’ is describing, It’s not a cute Christmas story like the movie “A Christmas Story” where little Ralphie almost shoots his eye out with his new official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot BB gun with the compass in the stock. Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is a complex, dense, rich, powerful story about a lost soul … and we are going to follow and observe Scrooge’s salvation and redemption over the next four weeks.

I have always found the title to be interesting … “A Christmas Carol.” To me, a “carol” is a song … a hymn … like “O Little Town of Bethlehem” … “Away in a Manger” … or “Silent Night, Holy Night.” In fact, “carols” are technically “festive songs that may or may not be religious and may or may not be sung during worship … they have a positive, festive, and popular character” (Differencebetween.net). Humm … One doesn’t tend to think of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” as “positive” or “festive” but it certainly is “popular,” amen? Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” may not be a song but it is, in fact, arranged like a “carol” or a hymn. For example, it is divided into five “staves” or “stanzas” like a carol.

Hymns and other religious songs are meant to communicate theology, tradition, and an experience of God … and music is the vehicle through which theology and tradition and story are learned. That’s how we learned our “A, B, C’s,” remember? [Sing the “ABCs.”] Perhaps Dickens called it a “carol” in the hopes that his story would be shared over and over again … year after year …. like a familiar Christmas carol … in order to bring people together in in joy.

Like songs, stories can also help us to remember important information. This is one of the reasons why Jesus spent so much time teaching through stores called “parables.” The parable of “The Prodigal Son” reminds us of God’s grace, for example. The parable of “The Good Samaritan” teaches us about being compassionate. The parables of “The Lost Sheep,” “The Lost Coin,” and “The Pearl of Great Worth” describe the lengths that God will go to find a lost soul … and how Heaven celebrates when they are found. Although Dickens’ “carol” is much longer than a parable and isn’t set to music, he uses the power of story to remind us that there is no soul that is too gruff … too cold … or too cantankerous for God’s redeeming power … not even a gruff, cold, cantankerous soul like Ebenezer Scrooge.

“Ebenezer” Scrooge. Unusual first name … one that you don’t hear too often these days … I mean, when’s the last time that you met someone named “Ebenezer” … but the name “Ebenezer” is a very, very important name in the Bible. Do any of you know what an “ebenezer” is? The word “ebenezer” comes from 1st Samuel 7. The Philistines had stolen the Ark of the covenant. The Israelites were in complete shock and disarray. It was then, the Bible tells us, that the people repented and turned their hearts back to the LORD. They sacrificed and recommitted themselves to the LORD … and they were victorious over the Philistines. To commemorate their victory, the Prophet Samuel set up a stone as a monument and called it an “ebenezer,” saying: “… for the LORD has helped us.” The Hebrew word “ebenezer” means “stone of help.”

Dickens, I assume, did not give Scrooge the first name of “Ebenezer” by accident or for no reason. An “ebenezer” is a reminder. An “ebenezer” stands as a monument to God’s faithfulness. It marks a “milestone.” It serves as a visual and physical symbol of a moment in time when everything changed. When you see an “ebenezer,” it reminds you of a time when God was faithful and delivered you out of your troubles. At the same time it reminds you that the God who delivered you then is with you now … and the same monument gives you hope that the same God who delivered you in the past is the same God who is with you now … and the same God who will be with you no matter what happens in the future. An “ebenezer” is something that you see in the present that reminds you of something from the past to give you hope for the future … simultaneously, a symbol and a monument to the past, the present, and the future … like the three spirits who will come and visit Ebenezer on the night of Christmas Eve.