December 2006

I suspect you are familiar with A Christmas Story, Charles Dickens’ classic tale of a man who learns the true meaning of Christmas.  Ebenezer Scrooge is a man seemingly devoid of a heart and sees Christmas as nothing other than a bothersome distraction.  As he is confronted with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, he comes to realize that there is more to life than making money and begins to yearn for the “finer things” of life; family, friends and the spirit of Christmas.  He repents of his old way of living and hopes that his reformation is not too late to make a difference.  It is a classic tale of redemption and for good reason is a Christmas favorite.

In order to make the story work, Dickens needed to initially describe Scrooge in an entirely unsympathetic manner.  He begrudgingly allows Kratchet to take Christmas as a holiday, refuses the opportunity to contribute to the poor and lives a life entirely devoid of celebration.  I must confess that in reading the story as a youth, I found myself feeling sorry for Scrooge, a strange emotion, I admit, but one that I was unable to shake.  I found him a man to be pitied, defiantly resigned to his loneliness.  While his business success should have opened doors for him, in fact, it seemed to isolate him.  His wealth should have made him a leader, it left him an outcast.  The task of the Christmas ghosts was to make Scrooge yearn for something beyond himself and to be willing to change in order for his newfound yearning to be realized.  Scrooge yearned to belong, pure and simple.  He scoffed at his family members making such a big thing over Christmas when deep inside he wished to be a part.  He was outside the camp, longing to be inside.

Like Scrooge, there are many in our world who are interested in minimalizing Christmas.  The yearly battles to outlaw nativity scenes, the policy to remove a float from the Denver Parade of Lights because a church wanted to sing Christmas carols from it, even the push to have people say “Happy Holidays” instead of  “Merry Christmas” demonstrate this desire.  I believe that part of this attitude hearkens back to that of Scrooge.  They desire to be in the camp, to have a reason to celebrate, but they are on the outside looking in.  Their offence at our celebration masks a desire to party with us.  Our task is to do what the Ghosts of Christmas did for Scrooge, to awaken the yearning in their hearts for the good things in life, the celebration that God created for them and then to lead them to his heart and church where that celebration can take place.  Could there be a better gift than that?