My drive to and from work every day is a total of 2 hours ... minimum. A while ago I discovered several websites that offer free audiobooks. To be sure, these are not new books. These are old books, out of copyright. But it's been fun "reading" through classics to and from work. Several months ago I watched a classic movie and thought, "I wonder what the book was like?" because, well, I knew the movie but had never read the book. That started a whole series of books to devour that had created movies most of us know. The only book to date that had any real correlation to the movie (or movies) that made the story so well known has been the latest one I just finished -- Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The movies pretty much matched the book. However, reading the book gave me a whole new view of the story.
You all know that heartwarming tale. It's about Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserable old man who hates Christmas and is on the verge of eternal torment if he doesn't change his ways. His old partner, Jacob Marley, appears as a ghost and tells him there will be three spirits who will visit him. As you all know, they are the spirits of Christmas past, present, and yet to come. And going through these experiences Ebenezer changes from the epitome of the miser to the best darn Christmas keeper of all time. How nice!
Me? I came to the end with tears in my eyes. No, not because it was such a warm tale. It was because it was perhaps the saddest Christmas story I'd ever read. Think about it. What was Scrooge's problem? There was no place in his heart for either God or Man. His first problem, then, was a violation of the Great Commandment and its second -- Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Scrooge indeed stood at the abyss of eternal damnation. And what was the solution? Well, if he could just become a nice person, then all would be well.
We know, however, that this is not the case. It is the position of man-made religion, but not Christianity. (Dickens, by the way, was an Anglican -- a self-professed Christian.) Christianity says you can't make it. There is nothing you can do. The debt is too great and you do not have the capability to repay. The answer of Christianity, then, is Christ's death on the cross on our behalf. It was God's plan for salvation. And when did that plan begin to unfold? Christmas morning. It started in earnest the day that the Son of God arrived on Earth as a human being to become a sacrifice for us.
So, here we have a desperate sinner in need of salvation standing on the edge of the answer. It's Christmas. It's Christ's arrival. No amount of good works can save him; he needs the One who came on the day around which the story is told. And what do we get instead of a genuine solution? We get Christmas ignored, answer ungiven, and a lie as a reply. Right here, Ebenezer! Right in the day you're celebrating. It's in the coming of the Messiah, the birth of Jesus. The answer you seek is in front of you! And we pass off a "It's okay; just be good" answer and call it a heartwarming tale.
Some version or another comes up every year at this season. Everyone is warmed by it. It's a tradition, a "Christmas carol". So sad that the friendly outcome offered is a lie from the pit of hell. So sad that the answer required stood at the doorstep, only to be ignored. But, then, perhaps I just think too much. Better to let it lie. Right?
2 comments:
Yeah. Here I believe you are indeed thinking too much. Scrooge had a concept of what was the proper way to live. He had felt he was doing life the right way. He was shown his self-worship, which is what his lifestyle was, was wrong and was then made to see what a real Christian looks like. In short, serving (and loving others) versus serving the self alone. That's the lesson being taught, which is not a lie as regards what a Christian looks like.
And that is to say, what a Christian looks like from the Christian's perspective. I don't think Scrooge saw himself as wrong or immoral at all until he was shown just how wrong he was. I don't recall that the story claimed he wasn't a Christian in his own mind (though it might not seem so). I know many who have said something along the lines of "God and I have an understanding" while they live clearly unGodly lives. Each of these could use a Scrooge-like evening as well. Maybe we all could. (Note one particular "Christian" we know who truly believes he's right with God, but supports "loving, monogamous" homosexuals).
A common theme in many of Dicken's tales was the hypocrisy of so many of his time. It was the reality of their lives versus image some of his characters sought to project.
P.S. I would also say that I think the reason for the season is at the very least implied in the story. I'll have to re-read it confirm.
Of course I was thinking too much. That's normal.
I'm quite certain that the Christ (you know, about whom Christmas is supposed to be) has no part in the Dickens Christmas Story.
It is true that Dickens wasn't trying to offer a Christian story. It is true that Dickens was protesting the conditions of his time. And it is true that a Christian lives more like the Scrooge of the end of the story than the beginning. But ignoring Christ at Christmas makes me sad in whatever venue I find it.
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