Lessons From Scrooge

Last year I posted a piece in another venue I called "Christmas Ponderings". I want to continue that tradition with a similar post for this year. If you read that post, some of this might be a repeat. If you know me, you will have heard some or all of this before.

George Barna recently reported a growing trend among believers: an increase in scriptural illiteracy. Why is that a big deal? If we don't know and understand the big picture how can we understand our place in the scheme of things. Some of the most common phrases uttered at this time of year come from our Christian heritage and the heavy Christian influence on the holiday.
PEACE on Earth
Good will toward all men
Joy to the World
Immanuel, God With us...
But how much of what we say so we truly understand or believe? Why are those the components many would like to remove from the conversation.

A friend recently shared the following: "I once heard a rabbi say that the first question anybody asks God in the Bible is, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' And, the rabbi said the rest of the Bible was God's answer to that question. I take that a step further. The last question anybody asks God in the Bible is, 'Why have you forsaken me?' See, if you answer the first question correctly, the second question becomes moot. But, Christians keep (missing the point)of the first question, leaving them with the second question, which they (also) fail miserably."

I have spent a little more time with Ebenezer Scrooge this year than in many year. I dare say, I have watch more versions of Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol" than I knew existed. And I was struck by how much they varied. Some more faithful to the dialog of the book than others. But there were two sequences that particularly caught my eye. One at the beginning; the other at the end. Together, they do a good job of reminding us of the true meaning, and the Christian heritage of the holiday... If fact they remind us that it is a Holy day.

The nephew broaches these points in his explanation of why Christmas is important:
PEACE on Earth: "There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round

Immanuel, God With us... "-- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that" ... And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

Joy to the World "-- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time:"

Good will toward all men: "the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

With the transformation, we see that Ebenezer became a new creation. "Scrooge was better than his word."
He became his brothers' keeper: "He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world."
He shared good will with all men: "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them;" He was at peace: for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms."
And he had the Joy of God in his heart: "His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."

If we want to live as Scrooge was said to have lived after his transformation, I am convinced we need Biblical literacy. While doctrine is important, I want you to look at the explanation of the Rabbi that the Bible is God's lesson of how we love Gd and love one another. I think that is a lesson even those of you who don't believe in the Gd of the Christians and Jews (and I think Muslims, too), can learn. So what is the lesson of Scrooge. Instead of being caught up in the hustle and bustle of the world at this time of year, let's let our "own heart laugh; and (let) that (be) quite enough for (us).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
LETS KEEP CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY!