December 17: "Altering the Future?"

MESSAGE

Christmas is one week away! Whew! Are you starting to feel a little bit anxious? Are you afraid that there’s so much to do, or that you don’t have enough time, or you’ve forgotten something important?

There’s nothing like a big holiday to stoke our fears. Some people are afraid of getting together with some of their more argumentative relatives. Some children are afraid that they’re on Santa’s “naughty list” and won’t get any presents. Some people are afraid they forgot to get a present for someone.

But those are pretty mild compared to some of the things that are making other people very afraid. Some people are afraid they won’t have enough money to cover the bills this month, even without spending much on Christmas. Some people are afraid that this might be the last Christmas they can spend with their loved ones who are sick. And some people, like those who live in areas devastated by war or famine, are afraid that their families will be dead before the day is over.

For the past three weeks, we’ve been looking at the classic story by Charles Dickens called A Christmas Carol. We’ve seen how Ebenezer Scrooge had a very eventful night as he is visited by one spirit after another. Each of these spirits – the spirit of his dead business partner Jacob Marley, the Spirit of Christmas Past, and the Spirit of Christmas Present – gave Scrooge a new perspective on his own past and on the way people around him live in the present.

But Scrooge was still expecting a visit from one more Spirit, and that one was the worst of them all. When this final spirit appears in Scrooge’s room, Scrooge cries out, “Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come? Ghost of the Future! Oh, I fear you more than any ghost I have seen.”

Scrooge knows that this spirit will show him “shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen,” and he is so scared by this thought, that “his legs trembled, and he could barely stand.”

This spirit was indeed the most frightening of all. The Spirit of Christmas Past was small and almost child-like in appearance. It wore a bright white tunic and had beams of light shooting out of the top of its head. The Spirit of Christmas Present had a kind face, cheerful voice, and joyful demeanor.

But the Spirit of Christmas Yet-to-be was truly scary. It was huge and wore a black garment that completely covered its face. The only thing Scrooge could see of the spirit was one ghostly outstretched hand. This spirit never said a word, but responded to Scrooge’s questions simply by pointing with that horrible, bony hand.

In describing such a terrifying spirit of the future, Charles Dickens was tapping into a common human experience: more than anything else, we fear the future and what it might hold.

The Spirit leads Scrooge through the city, stopping to point out groups of people who are talking among themselves. Scrooge listens to each conversation, and is confused to hear them all describing someone who had died. But the people aren’t sad about this death. Instead, they make jokes, or they talk about it in the most trivial way.

Scrooge knew that these conversations must hold some meaning for him, because the Spirit had pointed them out for Scrooge to hear. But he had no idea who they could be talking about. Who was it that died? Whose death merited either such a brief mention or being the butt of jokes?

Then the Spirit leads Scrooge into a very disreputable part of town, to a pawn shop of sorts, where he watched as people sold bundles of items they had taken from the home of someone who had died. These people also joked about this dead man, whoever he was. One of the women, who had brought the shirt that she had taken right off the dead man’s corpse, summed up their feelings about this man by saying, “He frightened every one away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead.” And then they all enjoyed a hearty laugh.

The Spirit then takes Scrooge to a room where a man was lying on a bare bed, dead, and covered in a ragged sheet. Scrooge longs to lift the cover and see who it is, but he can’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he begs the Spirit, “If there is any person in the town, who feels emotion caused by this man's death, show that person to me, Spirit, I beseech you.”

Scrooge is whisked away to a house where he watched as a young couple talk about the man’s death with relief and pleasure. The dead man had threatened them with ruin because they had owed him money – but now, with him being dead and all, they had time to find the money they would owe to a new creditor, who would certainly not be so merciless as the man who died.

Scrooge is at wits end. He cries to the Spirit, “Show me some tenderness connected with death!”

He suddenly finds himself back at the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, and he watches as the family speaks tenderly about Tiny Tim, who has died.

Finally, the Spirit takes Scrooge to a cemetery and points to a headstone engraved with the name Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge realizes that the death that people had been making light of or had been profiting from, was his own.

He cries out to the spirit, “Why show me this, if I am past all hope?”

Then he promises, “Oh, Spirit, I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

Suddenly, Scrooge finds himself back in his own bedroom, alive and well – and redeemed and transformed into a new man with a fresh outlook on life and love.

Although all three of his spiritual experiences played a part in his transformation, the last journey into the future had the most profound effect on Scrooge. Dickens suggests that throughout this part of his journey, Scrooge knew that the dead man was himself, but he couldn’t bear to face that possibility until the spirit led him to his own grave.

Scrooge was overcome with fear in the face of his death. But it wasn’t death in itself that scared Scrooge so much. It was the effect that his death had on others. He realized that in his life, he had been so angry and bitter and cruel, that people actually found pleasure in his death. This is what scared him most of all: not death itself, but that his death would bring an end to any chance he would have in life to have a positive effect on the lives of other people.

As we know, fear is a great motivator. We are living in very fearful times. Political leaders have tapped into and exploited the latent fear in our society for their own ends. We are fed a steady stream of visions of what “might be” if certain things don’t change. It’s that “might be” part that makes us so afraid.

As the Spirit took Scrooge to the cemetery, Scrooge said to the spirit, “Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?” Scrooge knew that the things the spirit was showing him were not set in stone – they were only a preview of possible outcomes if Scrooge did not alter his own course in life. It is at that moment that Scrooge experiences hope – hope that, yes, these awful things did not have to happen, and that he had the power to change them.

Fear is a part of life. There’s no escaping it. But fear of the future – fear of what MIGHT be – can keep us from knowing the joy that God offers us.

But in the book of 1 John chapter 4, we learn “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.” As United Methodists, we believe that we are going on to being made perfect in love. But it’s a life-long journey, and none of us are perfect in love yet. So, yes, we’re still going to experience fear as we continue on that journey.

But, as we’ve seen throughout the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, what matters most is how we respond to our fears. We can let our fears of the future make us defensive, and make us turn inward, and become angry or bitter. Or, we can realize that the things we fear are only what MIGHT be, and not what MUST be. We can alter the future by the ways we respond to our fears - as a true expression of our faith in the One who is God of the past, the present, and the future.

As Scrooge learned, his selfishness and concern for only himself took him to a place of despair, hopelessness, and fear. But as the apostle Paul writes in our reading from the book of Romans, when we allow ourselves to be led by the spirit of God, we are given the power to respond to our fears with compassion instead of selfishness, with hope instead of despair, and with joy instead of misery and dread.

At the end of his time with the Spirit of Christmas Yet-to-be, Scrooge cries out, “Assure me, Spirit, that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life.”

Well, guess what? We don’t need the Spirit of Christmas Yet-to-be to assure us, because we already have this assurance from God. We already know that by living and loving as Jesus did, we can alter the future and help bring it more in line with God’s purposes. We can change the future for ourselves, and more importantly, for the people around us.

We can help change that vision of what MIGHT BE from one of fear, despair, and violence into a beautiful, God-given vision of peace, hope, love, and joy. These are the blessings of Christmas.

So . . . may God bless us, every one! Amen.