Do You Know Ebenezer Scrooge?
Scriptures: Luke 2:8-12; Joshua 6:10-16, 20; John 14:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:17
Introduction
This is the time of year when our younger children are most excited. There is a feeling of Christmas in the air. The stores are full of Christmas decorations and “potential” presents for anyone on our Christmas list. The radio stations are playing all of our favorite Christmas carols while the television stations show the Christmas cartoons and movies that we love so much. I personally, being born in December, love this time of year. The cold weather, the snow (when we get snow), putting up decorations, shopping “on-line” for presents, since I hate going to the malls and yes, all of the cakes and pies. This is my time of year. I look forward every year to having a couple of weeks off and can totally give my time to my family. For me, as the song says, “it a most wonderful time of the year.”
However, for some people this is not the case. Do you realize that the suicide rates increase during this time of year? More people get depressed and despondent during the Christmas season than any other holiday. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it is cold and sometimes gloomy, I do not know. But whatever the cause, there are some among us that would rather this season come and go as quickly as possible. I cannot tell you what this person looks, but they are out there. They get very little out of this time of year or they find this time of year to be very distressing. Maybe they lost a loved one during this time of year, or it could be that they have hurtful memories of Christmas past. Whatever the reason, there are many people who do not share what we call the “spirit of Christmas”. You could be sitting beside someone who feels this way and never know it. You see, these people have put up so many walls and “fake identities” that you would think they are just as happy about this time of year as you are.
I. Walls of Life
Everyone in this room deals with walls everyday. Walls are used to protect, hide, divide and enclose. They are also used to support – as in the walls that support the roofs on our homes. There are two types of walls I want to mention this morning, physical walls and emotional walls.
• Physical Walls. The physical walls offer protection, privacy, support and comfort. They are also used to intimidate those on the outside of the walls. Remember the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho as found in Joshua 6? The people of Jericho had built a wall around their city that was 35 feet high and slanted so that their enemies could not climb over it. It was a very intimidating wall, so wide that chariots raced on top of it. That wall gave them comfort that the Children of Israel would not be able to conquer them. All of their previous enemies had turned away when they could not get over the wall. However, their assumption about the Children of Israel was wrong. The Children of Israel had someone extra working with them – someone who specializes in bringing down walls. You know how the story ends, the walls came down. Physical walls are often put up in response to the emotional walls that we have already put up around us.
• Emotional Walls. Emotional walls are often erected in response to something happening to us that we do not want repeated. They are often put up after we have experienced some type of hurt that we never want to repeat. Everyone in this room, or who is reading this message has some walls that were erected around us to protect us. If you have ever said “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” you have some walls up. If you have been hurt and you are operating in preservation mode, you have some walls up. These walls keep others out while at the same time place us in bondage. Just as others cannot get in because of the walls, we are unable to get out – our own wall traps us.
I want to ask you are question this morning – “Do You Know Ebenezer Scrooge?” Many of us know the story “A Christmas Carol”. It is a story of redemption and salvation. It is a story about hurts being healed and second chances. It is a story about walls coming down. My message this morning focuses on Ebenezer and the walls that he put up to protect himself and how he learned to bring the walls down and live.
II. Ebenezer Scrooge
The movie “A Christmas Carol” starts off with a glimpse of how Ebenezer is in the present day, a very cold and calculating man. He cares about only two things, making and saving money. Although it is freezing outside, he will only allow Bob Cratchet to place one lump of coal on the fire at a time. There were very few people that he cared anything about (on the surface) after his sister died and he went out of his way to let everyone know that he was too busy to be troubled by “their” issues. Let me tell you what happened to Ebenezer so we will be able to make the comparison to ourselves. Keep asking yourself, “Do I know Ebenezer Scrooge?”
• Introduction: On Christmas Eve when he arrives home to his cold, empty house, he prepares his meal to eat alone beside the fire. He is alone because he cares about no one and only one person (his nephew) cares about him. He is a very unhappy man who actually prefers to be alone. Our first impression of this man is that he is just a mean old man. However, what we see later is that he is just like each of us, a man who had been hurt and through the years built up several walls to protect himself.
• Visit From Mr. Marley: While he is eating, he receives a visitor from his old business partner, Mr. Marley. His business partner had been dead for several years and was being punished because of the way he had lived his life, not caring about anything but money. His purpose for visiting Ebenezer was to try and save him from the same fate that he himself had received. He told Ebenezer that he would be visited by three other spirits, Christmas Past, Present and Future. These spirits would help him find his way.
• Spirit of Christmas Past: The spirit of Christmas Past took him back through time when he was a little boy and through early adult hood. He began to remember happier times, those days before he became who he was at the present time. He also got the opportunity to see and revisit some of the things that had hurt him. He saw his father who had rejected him because his mother died giving birth to him. That rejection led him to a life of trying to prove his worth to his father with money becoming the way. He saw the time that he was in love and how he had chosen money over the true love of a woman. As he viewed all of these scenes, the walls that he had built up around him started to shake, yet he was not ready to bring the walls down. He did a good job of holding it together, but it was not as strong as it was before.
• Spirit of Christmas Present: This spirit gave him the opportunity to see what his life was truly like in the present. The spirit showed him that the fact that he cared about no one else and that he was losing sight of what was really important. He saw how people talked about him and what they really thought of him. He was able to see the life that his employee was trying to provide for his family with the little wages that he was making. When he saw his employee’s son, Tiny Tim, who was sick and he knew nothing about it, it struck him. He was reminded of how callous he had been toward those who had been sick and less fortunate than him, requesting that the sick go ahead and die and the poor go to what was known at the time as the poor house. By the end of the visit, he was starting to show concern for his employee’s son, Tiny Tim. He had seen his past and what he used to be. He had seen how he had started down the road to where he was at the present time. Now he was seeing where that road had taken him and what it all meant, nothing. Yes he tried to justify his actions by the money that he had earned and how successful he was, but in the things that counted, he had nothing. He was starting to realize his mistake. His walls were crumbling at their foundation. Cracks were starting to appear faster than he could patch them up. Then came the Spirit of Christmas future.
• Spirit of Christmas Future: When this spirit arrived, he said that this spirit scared him more than any other. He was shown the death of Tiny Tim, caused by the fact that he was so callous that he did nothing to help him. He was also shown the death of another man that no body cared about. As he listened to how people talked about this man, he felt much pity for the man. He asked the spirit if there was anyone who cared for this poor man. The man had died alone and there was no one to grieve for him. Finally he got up the nerve to ask about the identity of the man. He looked at the tombstone and read his own name. He realized that one day, if nothing changed, he would die a very lonely man. No one would remember his life because he had done nothing with it. This revelation broke down his wall. He began to cry and confess that he was a changed man, if only he could have a second chance. He begged for a second chance, the chance to start over.
• The Next Morning: When he woke up the next morning he was a different man. He was happy, carefree and giddy. He had experienced a change of heart. All of the walls that he had built up around him were now gone. He sent a large turkey to his employee for their Christmas dinner and went to his nephew’s house for Christmas. He offered apologies to everyone he met for the way that he was for he had experience a heart change. Now he was redefining his life, his future and his purpose. He doubled his employee’s salary and made sure that tiny Tim got the best medical care available. The story ends with everyone loving Ebenezer Scrooge.
Do you know Ebenezer Scrooge? Are you Ebenezer Scrooge, or on your way to becoming him? This is a difficult question for us individually to answer about someone else or our own selves. It is hard to look into the mirror and see the truth, so we get good at seeing what we want to see. It is hard to allow others to get beyond our walls so we let them feel as if they are making progress at getting to know the real us. Ebenezer became the way he was because of things he had experienced. It went all the way back to his childhood and the treatment from his father. What about the Ebenezers you know? Although we do not have the benefit of being visited by four spirits in order to help us make the change, we do have God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Through these we get to see our Past, Present and Future.
III. Our Past, Present and Future
Luke 2:8-12 “In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people, for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manager.”
Our Past: On the night that Jesus was born, an angel appears to shepherds and told them the good news that a Savior had been born. This news was for “all people”, the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ had come to save us all. Our past was wiped clean in His birth, life, death and resurrection. All of our pain, sorrows and hurts were wrapped up in His love for us. Our past can smother us no more, if we choose to release it. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” In Christ we become new – we have no need for the walls. When we look at out past, with all of the hurts, disappointments, and pain, we have the right to release them all to Jesus, we only need to find the strength to do it.
Our Present: Jesus teaches us how to love others as well as learn to love ourselves. He teaches us to release pain, hurt and sorrows that we carry around with us – to give them to Him. He came to save us from sin, but also provided us healing to save us from ourselves.
John 14:1-2 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”
The pains that Ebenezer endured which led to him putting up his walls are the same pains that face us today. However, Jesus is asking us to give it to Him. He is asking us to now worry about things, to take it one day at a time. He is asking us to trust in Him, no matter how bad it gets, just keep on trusting in Him.
Our Future: Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us, our own special place. We know that this life is temporary, but our “next life” is eternal. This is what the Word tells us about it:
I Thessalonians 4:16-17 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Christ is coming to get us. That is our future – we have a contract, it cannot be changed.
Revelations 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
We are experiencing the first things yet we know what our future holds, if we just hold out. Do you know Ebenezer Scrooge? Someone so troubled and in pain that they have forgotten the true meaning of our Christmas celebration. Someone whose hurts have cause them to put of walls and create false identities in order to exist in this world. Someone who is in prison behind the very walls they have erected in order to feel safe. If you know someone like this, or if this is you, there is help. God gave us a gift because He loved us. He gave us His only begotten Son. Once we accept Christ, we too become sons and daughters of God. The benefits are too many to name, but we have someone who is in our corner no matter what we go through in life. We no longer need the walls because we can hide in the shadow of the Almighty. If you are Ebenezer, don’t wait on four spirits to teach you the valuable lesson, the Holy Spirit is available right now – just open your heart.
God gave us a gift that keeps on giving. His gift was motivated by love and that gift of love continues to give. It is the only gift that keeps on giving. I leave you with this very familiar scripture:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
You will not perish in your pain, your trials and tribulation. You will not perish in your loneliness or in your burdens. God has given you everlasting life because you have accepted His Son. That life started the day of your acceptance, you just need to start living. May God forever bless and keep you is my prayer.
