Call Me Scrooge

 

Just call me Scrooge.

 

No, I’m not a Christmas hater. I’m a Christmas lover! And so was Ebenezer Scrooge—after his transformation, that is.

 

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was first published in December of 1843. It tells the story of  Mr. Scrooge’s journey from mean and miserly to good and generous.

 

When we meet the old coot at the beginning of the tale, he snarls to his nephew Fred: "What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money and for finding yourself a year older and not a penny richer! If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."  But, when he meets the ghost of Christmas Future at the end, his tone is decidedly different: "I fear you more than any specter I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company and do it with a thankful heart."
 

When a tardy Bob Cratchit arrives for work the day after Christmas, at best he expects a severe dressing-down and at the worst, dismissal from his position. Instead, his boss gives him the surprise of his life: "A Merry Christmas to you Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob my good fellow, than I have given you in many a year! I'll raise your salary and do whatever I can to help your struggling family. We will discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a bowl of Christmas bishop. But first, let's make up the fires. I want you to go out and buy another scuttle of coal before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit." Ebenezer Scrooge had been transformed—and because of it, his behavior changed as well.

 

More than just changed or transformed, because of what Jesus Christ did for me I am redeemed! To “redeem” is to “buy back.” “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 1:7) I used to be “dead in (my) transgressions and sins when (I) followed the ways of this world, but through the grace of God (I) am now to do good works, which God planned for (me) to do (Ephesians 2). I am a new me!

 

The name of Scrooge is much-maligned as we remember the man for what he was instead of who he became. Let’s make sure this Christmas that those of us who go by the name “Christian” live as the redeemed. No “humbugs!”

 

 

 

 

 

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