Dr. Dale Miller, December 3, 2006

The Ghost of Christmas Past

First in a four-part series "The Spirits of Christmas"

Luke 21:25-36

In 1988 the Sunday Telegraph newspaper of London gave Charles Dickens the title of "The Man Who Invented Christmas." Of course Christians had been celebrating the birth of Christ for centuries before Charles Dickens came along. But in England at the turn of the 19th century, Christmas had almost vanished from the scene. The disappearance of Christmas from English culture had much to do with the social impact of industrialization and urbanization. As large numbers of people left their ancestral villages to move to the large cities, they left behind most of their cultural traditions, such as the celebration of Christmas. Moreover, in the cities, bosses weren't inclined to encourage a holiday that meant a day off from work, even a day of paid vacation. Ebenezer Scrooge's reticence to give Bob Cratchit a holiday on Christmas wasn't that unusual in his day. Another implication of big city life in Victorian England was widespread poverty and human suffering.

Charles Dickens began to write A Christmas Carol in October of 1843, finished it very quickly, and it was published two months later. The story became instantly popular, not only in England but also in America. Because of his story, the observance of Christmas changed from the traditional twelve days to one day. Christmas also became an occasion for family and close friends to gather for luscious food, singing, dancing, and games. Christmas also became a time for being generous to the poor.

Now I have to confess that at the age of ten or eleven when I embarked on my first reading of A Christmas Carol I found it to be more of a scary story than anything else. The idea of meeting four unwanted ghosts in the darkness of my bedroom was a little bit more than I wanted to encounter. Of course, I had a plan for a ghostly happening. I kept my head underneath the covers. What I couldn't see could not possibly see me! I can remember one of our children in their much younger days, who could not go to sleep without their nightlight shining in the darkness. If we didn't turn that nightlight on I could guarantee you that we would have that child with us for the rest of the night! Did you ever experience that problem?

Do you believe in ghosts? The dictionary says "ghosts" are "persons" spirits appearing after their deaths." According to a 2001 Gallop poll 38% of Americans believe in ghosts, an increase of 13% over 1990. I'm not sure about ghosts as independent realities. I am more certain about them as creatures of my unconscious mind who come out to dance around my bed when I've had too much to eat the night before, or when I have something troubling me down deep inside.

Whether external realities or creatures of our unconscious, many of us could tell about our own encounters with them. Ebenezer Scrooge certainly could. Scrooge is, of a course, a character found in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge was a bitter old man possessed of an all-consuming desire to make money. He wanted nothing to do with Christmas almost as much as he wanted nothing to do with helping others. Scrooge lived for himself alone.

On one Christmas Eve, however, when despite the fact that he didn't believe in them, he had an encounter with four ghosts. The first was the ghost of Marley, his old business partner, who came to warn him that other ghosts were on the way. And at one a.m. the first ghost appeared on schedule. "Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me? asked Scrooge. "I am." "Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded. "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." "Long past?" inquired Scrooge. "No, Your past."

And then Scrooge asked the spirit why he had come on this errand. "Your welfare," said the spirit. Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end, the way many of us might respond to the ghosts who appear at our bedsides in the middle of the night. The Spirit must have heard Scrooge thinking, for it said immediately: "Your reclamation, then. Take heed!"

"Take heed," indeed. These words remind us of the words in the Gospel of Luke. "People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Over the last thousand years or so, why has the church selected texts like this to be read on the first Sunday of Advent? Does it have anything to do with our preparation to celebrate the coming of Christ the first time? Perhaps this scripture was first read at a time when the world needed to be reminded that the birth of Christ was more important than fear and hopelessness.

The earliest recorded celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th was not until the year 336. That was three hundred years after the event. As with other Christian holy days, the date of Christmas appears to have been set to provide an alternative to one or more popular pagan festivals. December 25th was originally the date of the feast to the Sun God, Mithras, a religion from Persia that had spread through Europe about the same time that Christianity did. This festival addressed the fear of how to live through the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. People partied through the night, afraid that if they fell asleep they would die.

The church did not choose to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th because it was the actual date that Jesus was born. Rather, the date was chosen to help people understand that God offers life, not death, whether it is in the dead of night or in the bright glare of daylight. Christmas is the alternative to hopelessness. Christmas is the alternative to despair. Christmas is the alternative to going through life shackled with the heavy chains of a failed life. Just as his old partner, Jacob Marley, visited Scrooge with the intent to save Scrooge from himself, so Christmas visits humanity with the intent to save us from ourselves.

Scrooge did not ask for Marley to come and visit him. Marley initiated the visit. Scrooge did not do anything to deserve Marley's help. Marley's visit was simply an act of grace. As United Methodists we call this prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is grace that comes before anything we do. Prevenient grace takes the initiative. It gets the ball of transformation rolling. Sound familiar? We didn't ask for Jesus to come and visit us. God initiated the visit. We did not do anything to deserve God's help. We cannot do anything to earn God's favor, nor must we. God's favor is given first, and everything we do is in some measure a response to that prevenient grace. That's Christmas!

Well, that is Christmas, but today is the first Sunday in the Advent. It wasn't until the 5th century the season of Advent came into existence. Advent was intended to be a time of personal preparation so that when the Feast of Christmas came, people would know what they were celebrating and could celebrate in ways that would honor the birth of Christ. Do we need Advent today? Do we need a time of spiritual preparation so that when we come to Christmas we will know what we are celebrating, and can do so in ways that honor the birth of Christ? Perhaps, we could learn from the "Ghost of Christmas Past" as we prepare to take our personal journey through Advent to Christmas.

In Dickens' story, the ghost does not take Scrooge on a tour of the history of the celebration of Christmas, but rather a history of Scrooge's own life. That, too, is a suitable agenda for our spiritual preparation for Christmas. Sometimes this remembering is painful. In the nighttime journey, Scrooge remembered parents who didn't care about him and how, in his loneliness and bitterness, he had turned aside the love and care offered by his sister, the friendship of the man to whom he was apprenticed (Mr. Fezziwig), and the woman who would have loved him as his wife. He had allowed disappointments in life to poison all his other relationships and to seek comfort only in making money, leaving him a sad and bitter man.

So what in past Christmases began to transform the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge? Nostalgia had something to do with it, as did the power of memory. Yet it was more than simply remembering the good ol' days that touched the soul of Scrooge. Hear the words of Dickens: "The vision of the Fezziwigs' party not only stirred Mr. Scrooge into a bit of vicarious celebration, but it also forced him to reexamine his own values. Mr. Fezziwig, whom the old Scrooge continued to hold in high regard, saw fit to spend a bit of money for the sake of others. 'The happiness he gives,' Scrooge insisted, 'is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.' There's more to life than money, the old miser began to realize."

His journey into compassion began at a most curious place, with Scrooge looking upon his own loneliness. It is as if Dickens realized that even hard-hearted people might have the tiniest soft spot for themselves and their own suffering. One might almost be tempted to say that Scrooge is acting out a sort of Golden Rule, loving himself so that he might love others as well. From a psychotherapeutic angle, Scrooge is getting in touch with his inner child. What can transform a stony heart? For Charles Dickens, the answer includes love, not of the romantic sort, but of the compassionate, self-giving variety. We believe that the ultimate transformation in life comes as we experience God's love for us given through Jesus Christ.

The early 19th century theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, observed what most of us already really know: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." And, our attempting to understand our pasts can be healing, just as it was for Scrooge. Remembering the past gave Scrooge the freedom to change his own life and enrich the lives of those around him.

Over a century before Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, another Englishman had something to say about the power of love to transform one's life. Consider how these words of hymn writer Isaac Watts express something like what happened to Ebenezer Scrooge.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all

This Advent we are all invited to revisit our pasts.

• Like Scrooge, we may not be comfortable with what we see. Along with seeing ways God was trying to work in our lives, we may see how we resisted those efforts.

• Like Scrooge, we may have let disappointments in life become the prison walls that keep us from the joy of human relationships.

• Like Scrooge, we may have become prisoners of greed, separated from generosity that would enrich our own lives and those around us.

The "good news" of the Gospel is that the future does not have to be a continuation of our pasts. That's what Ebenezer Scrooge discovered, and it is the healing that God is ready to work in us when we face up to our pasts. Hear again the words of Luke: "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

How appropriate, then, that we begin the season of Advent with Holy Communion, for this is an act of intentional remembering. We are invited to share in the symbolic meal. "Do this in remembrance of me," Jesus said. As we partake of the bread and the cup, let it be a time to recall not only the sacred memory of Jesus and the Last Supper, but also how God has been at work in our past bringing us to faith and to this place today.

And don't forget about Scrooge. Scrooge did not know that the "Ghosts of Christmas" would visit him. But they came and, however, scary, they brought the possibility of new life. In moments of stillness in the midst of frantic Christmas preparations, or in your bed awaiting sleep, don't be surprised if we receive a visit from a "Spirit of Christmas Past." We will not be afraid for it will be the Spirit of God offering us the precious gift of healing and new life. We do not have to hide our heads underneath the covers of fear. We have our eternal nightlight - the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Amen.