Keeping It Well

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 18, 2016—Fourth Sunday in Advent

Keeping It Well

To you is born this day … a Savior,

who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

(Luke 2:11)

“Humbug!”

“Humbug!”

Who among us doesn’t know that word well,

the favorite word of Ebenezer Scrooge,

Charles Dickens’ miserable, miserly,

money-grubbing,

misanthropic creation.

Ebenezer Scrooge,

who thought Christmas a waste of time

because it kept people from business.

Scrooge, who barked at his nephew,

“you keep Christmas in your own way,

and let me keep it in mine.”

To which his nephew retorted,

“But you don’t keep it!”

Ebenezer Scrooge,

described as a “squeezing, wrenching,

grasping, scraping,

clutching, covetous old sinner.

Hard and sharp as flint.”

He couldn’t have cared less about Christmas,

considered it a humbug,

which back in Victorian England

of the 1830s and 40s,

meant that he thought those who went around

with smiles on their faces saying,

“Merry Christmas” to any and all,

were hypocrites,

insincere, phonies, frauds:

“What’s Christmas time,” he said,

but a time for paying bills without money,

a time for finding yourself a year older

and not an hour richer.”

There was no joy on Christmas Day for Scrooge,

nothing that tied the day in his heart or mind

to the words of the angel to the shepherds:

“I am bringing you good news of great joy

for all the people:

to you is born this day

in the city of David a Savior,

who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

                 

Nothing that tied the day in his heart or mind

to the story of the Wise Men,

who “set out; and [followed] the star

that they had seen at its rising,

until it stopped over the place where the child was.

[And] when they saw that the star had stopped,

they were overwhelmed with joy.

[And] on entering the house,

they saw the child with Mary his mother;

and they knelt down and paid him homage.

Then, opening their treasure-chests,

they offered him gifts of gold,

frankincense, and myrrh.”

So, in Dickens’ marvelous story,

ghosts—spirits—

came to visit Scrooge,

came to visit him to open his eyes,

his mind, his heart

to the joy of Christmas;

came to help him see how others

celebrated the day with all their hearts;

came to help him see how men, women,

and children kept Christmas,

and kept it well.

It was the Ghost of Christmas Present

who showed Scrooge how even his own clerk,

Bob Cratchit, and his family,

kept the day joyfully,

kept the day even after Scrooge had earlier

snorted at Cratchit,

“You, a clerk, on 15 shillings a week,

with a wife and a family,

talking about a merry Christmas.

I’ll retire to Bedlam”.

Bedlam: London’s terrifying asylum for the insane.

Bob Cratchit may well have been a poor clerk,

making barely enough to get by,

but in his home,

as small as the room might have been,

as spare as the furnishings surely were,

as threadbare as was the clothing

he and his family wore,

there was warmth, happiness,

peace, contentment,

joy and love

as he and his family kept Christmas.

Scrooge’s eyes were finally opened, of course;

the ice that had encased his heart

finally melted away

by all that he saw that Christmas Eve

in the company of the three spirits.

As he finally said to the

Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come,

“I will honor Christmas in my heart,

and try to keep it all the year.”

And, as the book and the many movies tell us,

“Scrooge was better than his word”.

Watch my favorite version of the story,

the classic 1951 British film starring Alistair Sim,

and you’ll see Scrooge walking

through London’s streets,

a smile on his face,

waving to shop keepers and passers-by,

putting a coin in the cup of a beggar,

petting a dog,

and then, of course, walking home

hand in hand with the healthy Tiny Tim.

This is what Christmas is;

This is what Christmas should do to us:

melt our coldness,

warm our hearts,

fill us with joy.

This is what it is

not just to keep Christmas,

but to keep it well.

        

Last week our Confirmation Class students

talked with our children about what presents

we might get Jesus for his birthday.

How easy it is to overlook the fact

that it is Jesus’ birthday we are celebrating;

We should get him a gift,

hang a stocking for him and fill it.

But what gift should we get him?

What should we put in Jesus’ stocking?

What should we get Jesus,

As our confirmands asked our children:

should we get Jesus a football?

the newest video game?

a bicycle?

Jesus was always on the go –

maybe a gift card to Starbucks.

NO! our children all shouted out.

They understand,

even if we grown-ups forget.

They get it:

we should fill Jesus’ stocking

with love,

compassion,

goodness,

forgiveness,

kindness,

patience,

unselfishness,

all those things the apostle Paul calls

the fruits of the spirit.

As the Bishop in another classic Christmas movie,

“The Bishop’s Wife”, suggests,

“the stretched out hand of tolerance”.

Doesn’t our world need that now more than ever?

Aren’t those the gifts

we should put in Jesus’ stocking?

And, if we did that,

wouldn’t that help us, each of us,

to keep Christmas,

keep it well,

help us to do as Scrooge promised to do:

honor Christmas in our hearts,

and try to keep it all the year?

In a few minutes our Choir will sing a lovely piece,

and the words, if we listen to them,

if we hang onto to them,

if we take them with us,

will surely help us keep Christmas:

“Let the stars in the sky

remind us of man’s compassion.

Let us love ‘til we die,

and God bless us, ev’ryone.

In your heart there’s a light

as bright as a star in heaven.

Let it shine through the night,

and God bless us, ev’ryone.

‘Till each child is fed,

‘til all men are free,

‘til the world becomes a family.

Star by star up above and

kindness by human kindness,

light this world with your love

and God bless us, ev’ryone.”

“It was always said of Scrooge

that he knew how to keep Christmas well,

if anyone alive possessed the knowledge.

May that be truly said of us,…all of us.

And so, as Tiny Tim observed,

God bless us, Every One!”

For “I am bringing you good news of great joy

for all the people:

to you is born this day … a Savior,

who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace

and goodwill among all people.”

God bless us — everyone.

AMEN