“…And it was always said of him
that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the
knowledge. May that be truly said of us,
and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim
observed, God bless Us Every One!” (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol[1])
Amidst the
soaring prophecies of Isaiah, the tender Nativity narrative in Luke 2, and the
bracing “Stir up” prayers of Advent, some of us take time in December to reread
Charles Dickens’s masterwork, A Christmas
Carol, first published in 1843.
This story
has woven its way into our cultural imagination, not only as a book to be read but
through all its dramatic and cinematic retellings. What an amazing metamorphosis of that miserly
curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge: “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous old sinner!”[2]
Through a
series of ghostly encounters with the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and
Future the old coot was transformed—all in one night!—into an endearing soul, of
whom it was said: “he knew how to keep Christmas well.”
Just what is this “keeping
Christmas” business, though?
Nowadays
one might conclude that “keeping Christmas” is all about attitudes, policy
positions and words of greeting. So we
vow to “keep Christ in Christmas” (as if that were really up to us!) We take sides in our culture’s “War on
Christmas,” whether by defending creches in public squares or by lamenting the
dearth of sacred songs in public school concerts or by emphatically countering
“Happy Holidays” with “Merry Christmas.”
But
“keeping Christmas” is about so much more than posturing or preening, words
that we say, and righteous (self-righteous?) positions that we defend.
Remember
again, how a renewed Ebenezer Scrooge “kept Christmas” on the first day of the
rest of his life:
· + He
began noticing the “little people”
he’d been ignoring…starting with a neighbor-boy on Christmas morning.
· + He
plotted ways to subvert the poverty
of his faithful employee Bob Cratchitt, the whole Cratchitt family, and especially
the invalid Tiny Tim.
· + He
pledged an eye-popping donation to
the community chest for “the poor and
destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.”[3]
· + He mended fences with those from whom he
had been estranged, starting with his own nephew Fred.
To be
sure, the repentant Scrooge did go to church on Christmas morning, and offered
greetings to others, with a hearty “Merry Christmas.”[4] Words do matter, after all.
But what
made all the difference in the world was Scrooge’s repentant resolve to keep Christmas
by keeping faith with those for whom
Jesus Christ came into this world (see Matthew 25:31-46).
And, in
Dickens’s own words: “May that be truly said of us, and all of
us!”
Let us
pray: Gracious God, teach us how to “keep
Christmas” in all the ways that really matter.
Help us notice those whom it would be easy to ignore—persons who don’t
look like us, refugees who simply want a fresh start, newcomers who desire to
become our neighbors. Teach us to plot
fresh ways to subvert poverty in our troubled world. Stir us to embrace eye-popping
generosity. And give us courage to build
bridges, mend fences and relentlessly pursue the reconciliation for which the
Christ-Child was born among us. In the
strong name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Amen.
Merry
Christmas, my dearly beloved ones. God
bless us, every one!
Bishop Lawrence Wohlrabe
Northwestern
Minnesota Synod
Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America
God’s work. Our hands.
[1]
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
(NY:Bantam Books, 1966), p. 88
[2]
Ibid., p. 4.
[3]
Ibid., p. 9.
[4]
Ibid., pp. 85-86.