Bah! Humbug!

Today we start a new series that we’ll use throughout the season of Advent. It’s not quite your typical Advent series because its based on the Charles Dickens novel “A Christmas Carol.” You likely know the story, whether from the book, the play, or its many movie versions. My personal favorite has always been the muppet version with Michael Caine as Scrooge - he’s so crotchety. But the reason we can look at a popular book and reflect on our faith is because we know that culture expresses something that God has placed inside of us. And every once in a while a book or a movie or a song can help us better connect with God and with each other.

Think about this - God creates the light and we can either enhance it, with big windows in our house or climbing to the top of a mountain, or we can diminish it by moving to the basement and closing the shutters. Some things in culture help enhance God’s light, and I think A Christmas Carol does exactly that. We are exploring how crotchety Ebenezer Scrooge is transformed into a man who loves Christmas and all the people around him. So as we begin I offer this thought - if Scrooge can be redeemed maybe we can, too.

Our scripture for today will be shared by Mary Ann/Laura. Its a passage from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is preaching and teaching on his way to Jerusalem. He has just finished a story about money and the religious leaders are ridiculing him. And Jesus says to them “God knows your hearts; what is good to people is often evil in God’s sight.” So he offers up this lesson about a rich man and Lazarus. This is a different Lazarus from the one that was raised from the dead, but we hear a story of a truly poor man and a very rich man and what the afterlife holds for them. This is from Luke 16:19-31, hear now the word of the Lord:

Luke 16:19–31 (NRSV)

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

***[And from Jeremiah 33:14-16

Jeremiah 33:14–16 NRSV

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

***] This is the word of the Lord for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Let’s join together in pray: Lord, may we be an inclusive community passionately following Jesus Christ. Move our hearts as Ebenezer Scrooge’s was, Lord! May we see a world of hope even as others can only see darkness. Bless us as we listen for your word to us today. Amen.

There’s a story around the famous Christmas song “Have yourself a merry little Christmas.” Legend has it that when the singer Judy Garland first heard the song she thought it was so sad and so awful that she was worried people would think she was a monster for singing it. See the original had different lyrics from what we know today. It was a much darker song originally and she didn’t want to be known for singing a sad, depressing Christmas song. Here are the original lyrics: “have yourself a merry little Christmas. It may be your last.” and a little later “Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us no more.” It was a truly sad song, focused on death and loneliness. Honestly it was probably very appropriate for 2020, but Judy Garland would have none of it. She demanded that the lyrics be rewritten and eventually they were! Now the song is about light, joy and troubles being far from us. Its a song celebrating friends who are together again. She was able to transform a song about misery into a hopeful tune to inspire us year after year.

Now some of us might appreciate that about Judy Garland, but aren’t sure if we have what it takes to make those kinds of changes happen. I think of a girl I knew years ago who would always bite her fingernails. For some reason it was a huge pet peeve for her mother and she would yell and scream at her daughter to stop doing that. And no matter how hard this young lady tried, no matter how much she wanted to please her mother she just couldn’t do it. She would stop for a while and then start up again. At one point her mom made her wear gloves in the house, but as soon as they came off, she would bite her nails again. Later stores came out with this liquid that you could cover your nails in so when you chewed them it would taste terrible. Her mom would apply it every day and she told me by the end of the day no matter how bitter the liquid was, she was always back to biting her nails. She felt like she just didn’t have what it takes to change.

I bet the folks who are involved in those terrible stories about Black Friday feel that way. They don’t mean to act irrationally, they don’t want to hurt other people, but there they are abusing others to save a little bit of money. My favorite is the two men at Staples who got into a fist fight over a 30 dollar label maker. The employees were appalled; they said it wasn’t even the last one! They just couldn’t handle themselves; they couldn’t change.

A lot of us go through something like this. Maybe you’re sick, maybe someone in the family is sick, maybe you’ve had too much turkey dinner, or work is overwhelming. Any number of things can throw us off track and lead to us feeling like we just can’t overcome whatever challenge we face. This is a malaise. It means you feel uneasy or a lack of energy. It could even mean you are on the edge of the onset of a disease. Things just aren’t right. This happens in the church, too. I think of one church I know where everyone was burned out. They had been carrying the weight of expectations for so long and things had been broken for so long, they just felt like they couldn’t fix it. Do you ever feel like that?

In the story of a Christmas Carol we hear about Ebenezer Scrooge and how he is such a cold and callous man, but we don’t know much about his past. The story starts with the line, “Marley was dead, to begin with.” Bob Marley was the business partner to our protagonist, Scrooge. They certainly made a lot of money together, lending money and charging interest on it, but Marley died and Scrooge had a rotten, twisted heart. He would shout “Bah! Humbug!” at anyone who wished him a Merry Christmas. When he is asked to give some money to help the poor he answers, “Are there no prisons? Are there no poorhouses?” He doesn’t want to give a dime to help anyone; he thinks all his obligations to others are fulfilled through the government. But I wonder, how did he get there? How did he become so cold? We’ll have to wait until next week’s ghost of Christmas past for more on that, but for now we just know that Scrooge, even if he wanted to, is unable to change. He lives by a mantra that is still quite popular today - “you reap what you sow.” Yes, those are words from the Bible. Its Galatians 6, but no they do not mean what you think they do.

Too often we think we get what we deserve. Its almost like Karma or something, where if we do something bad, then something bad will happen to us, or if we do something good then we deserve to get something good. That is not at all what the Apostle Paul is talking about in Galatians. Paul meant when you indulge the flesh then your results are here today and gone tomorrow, but if you make an investment in the spirit, then the results will last into eternity. Scrooge is totally convinced that only one thing matters on this earth - money. He won’t waste a penny on charity. He won’t pay a nickel more for heat to keep his employees warm and he won’t spend a dime on gifts at Christmas time.

So when he goes home and his doorknocker suddenly looks like his old partner Bob Marley, he is startled. He slams the door, goes to his bed and puts both locks on the door, but as he’s laying in bed he hears clanking and the rattle of chains. It’s Bob Marley again and this time he can see that the chain is made up of cash-boxes and keys and ledgers and deeds. All the deals and money Marley had ever made are now a burden he must bear. Marley is consigned to wander the earth to pay his debt. Scrooge remarks that Marley was always a good man when it came to business. And this is his reply, “Business! Humankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business.” He decries that the wisemen had a star that led them to the manger of Jesus, and that there must have been a star in his own life that would have led him to help the poor if only he had watched for it.

Scrooge finds himself in a hopeless position, knowing that he, too, has never cared for others. But we know redemption is on the horizon for Scrooge. Three more ghosts will visit to help guide him back to a life that is rightly lived. But for now he is focused on himself and his money.

Scrooge’s story is very much like the parable Jesus told in Luke 16. Lazarus is a poor man in need of help from the rich man, but the rich man has no time for him. He won’t let him eat even the scraps off of his table. Soon both men die and Lazarus is with Abraham and he finally has the comfort he never had through his life on earth. The rich man, on the other hand, is in such torment that he asks for a single drop of water from the finger of Lazarus. Abraham says it cannot happen, so the rich man thinks of his brothers. If they could be warned, they would be spared this awful torture, but, again, Abraham says it cannot happen. If the teachings of Moses and the prophets are not enough, even someone raised from the dead wouldn’t be enough to convince them.

These are pretty stark words from Jesus. People hearing it would have expected that the poor man who has nothing and, essentially, starves to death would receive a reward in heaven. But the story of a rich Jewish man, who would have had a beautiful funeral, with many dignitaries coming and celebrating his life, suffering in hell? That would have been appalling to them. The rich man didn’t do anything wrong. The only thing we glean from the story is that the rich man didn’t share from the scraps at his table. That probably wouldn’t have even been enough to even keep Lazarus alive, so why does the rich man suffer?

And the answer is not, as Scrooge would say, “you reap what you sow.” It doesn’t matter why Lazarus is poor. It doesn’t matter what caused him to lay at that gate begging for food, whether it was a mental or emotional instability, or a tragic death of a loved one or even a disease. What matters is that there is a clear need presented, and the rich man has the means to address the need but instead he does nothing. He is a Scrooge saying, “Bah! Humbug! I don’t have to help that poor person. I’m not responsible for someone else’s mistake. I don’t have to use my valuable time on someone else’s problem.” And Jesus is telling us that God knows our hearts. What we value is not the same thing that God values. We have to expect our perspective, our view of the world, to be pushed into uncomfortable directions in order that we may see things as God sees things.

God is less concerned about your wealth than he is about your assistance to those in need. God does not prioritize your good name among your friends as much as he prioritizes that you make a good name for yourself among the needy. We want to honor those who are successful and those who make us feel good, but Jesus makes it very clear that when we ignore the poor person on our doorstep, we’ve missed the point of our religion.

There is this idea prevalent in Judaism at that time that said every person has some light, some amount of wisdom at their disposal. Every person, then, was responsible to live by at least that much. The good news is that, even if you only have a little bit of light in your world, if you follow it, it will lead to more light. That was what Marley was trying to say to Scrooge when he said the wisemen had a star leading them, surely there was a star that would have led him, too, if only he had been looking for it.

If you find yourself in a place like Ebenezer Scrooge or the rich man in Jesus’ story its important to put things in perspective. I came across a story this week where the author was talking about the value of money. He said when you are first born you don’t care about money at all. If you put it on a chart the value of money would be nothing when you are a baby, a toddler or even first starting school. As we get older, though, money becomes more and more important to us. There’s a certain point, though, where suddenly money begins to lose its value. If you are sitting in a hospital not sure if you are going to live or die, money suddenly doesn’t matter. Your life is what matters. When you are sitting on your deathbed no one says, “if only I’d earned more money.” No, people say “I wish I had spent more time with my family.” “I wish I had invested in the people around me.” Money isn’t the priority; people are! Jesus is reminding us of a similar idea; being rich doesn’t get you what really matters. Caring for others is what brings life.

Don Ritchie knew what it meant to care for other. He lived for years in Sydney near a famous cliff called ‘the Gap.’ It was beautiful and had hundreds of tourists a day visiting. Eventually, though, it became known for something far more sinister as people began going there to jump off the cliff. Many people died and Don didn’t want that to happen any more. So he began approaching people who were there alone and he would simply offer them tea. He’d say ‘come have a cup with me’ and they’d sit and talk. He didn’t pry. He didn’t counsel them or offer any advice - just tea. This human to human connection was enough that people would leave his home and head back home. They left feeling like there was some good in the world and a piece of it was for them. So instead of jumping they went on living. Family of Don have confirmed that at least 160 people didn’t jump because Don gave them tea, but others say the number is more like 400. Think about that; sitting for tea may have saved 400 people’s lives.

Had Bob Marley paused for tea in his day, maybe he would have seen the light. Maybe he would have grown as a person and better understood what it means to live for others. Maybe he would have discovered his purpose and how Jesus is the reason for hope in this world. And may be people who can pause to make a real connection with someone around us. As the ghost of Bob Marley says, “humankind was my business.” May we learn to turn from our tendencies to be a Scrooge and instead find our life and our hope in Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen.

malaise (Scrooge says you reap what you sow)

wake up call (Bob Marley - “humankind was my business”)

struggling for hope (while Scrooge only loves money, the value of money plummets at death...)

Luke 16:19-31 - Lazarus and the Rich man - its not “reap what you sow,” but “all people have value.” Not recognizing that is destructive to our souls and

finding our hope in Christ

scrooge and his ghosts is “creepy” (but not as sad as the original version of “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” …Judy Garland refused to sing the original lyrics “…this may well be our last.”)

scrooge repents and turns from his ways (reminds me of a family member who refused the vaccine, but repented when he was sick in the hospital. There were no beds and minimal treatment available, and his children got sick as well. He apologized over and over for not getting vaccinated).

Bah! Humbug (so many people know it! its iconic)

Peace vs apathy vs passivity (when people are angry move toward the problem, not away. Receiving the peace of Christ doesn’t mean we “stop” fighting....only to have the problem become worse. It means we reconcile).

Jesus’ peace is different from the world’s peace p. 208

“they were caught wandering between where they were and where they were heading, [so] the people complained and wished they had died as slaves...” 225