Sunday Homily - August 4th, 2019 - Ebenezer Scrooge and Jesus

Ebenezer Scrooge, 

as portrayed by Michael Kane in The Muppet Christmas Carol

I.

"He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, that Scrooge:
 a squeezing,
  wrenching,
   grasping,
    clutching,
     covetous old sinner."
     [Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol]

This is how Charles Dickens
 in his famous novel A Christmas Carol
  describes Ebenezer Scrooge,
   a miserly, miserable old man who runs a money-lending business.

The story of the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge is so famous
 that I don't think I need to describe the plot of the book.
  But, the point of Scrooge's story
   and the redemption brought by the visitation of the three Ghosts of Christmas,
    the past, present, and future,
     is also intimately tied in with another character that instigates Scrooges redemption:
      the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's old business partner.

Jacob Marley, in life, was just as cruel and miserly as Scrooge became.
 But when Marley finally died,
  he was cursed to wear huge chains
   and to wander homeless forever on the earth
    as a punishment for his rampant greed.

Marley attempts to save Scrooge from that similar fate,
 visiting him on the frigid Christmas Eve
  in which Scrooge goes to bed a poor miser,
   and awakens the next day after the visit from the spiritual figures
    a completely changed man.

The theme embedded in Scrooge's character arc
 is that the hoarding and greed for money and possessions
  becomes lethal to one's soul,
   even to the point of chaining one's afterlife to a repayment of an impossibly large debt
    incurred by selfish living and even more selfish greed.

You might not immediately recognize Jacob Marley,
 Scrooge's old business partner,
  in today's Gospel just yet,
   but you might find an interesting parallel between this character in Charles Dickens' story
    and the rich man from Jesus's parable
     found in our Gospel.

II.

Notice how Jesus tells the story.

There was a rich man whose land produced abundantly.

In that one sentence,
 we have an interesting picture.

A rich man, already rich,
 has an incredibly profitable harvest season one year.
  A season so blessed that he doesn't even have big enough barns
   to store the yield he received from the crops!
    He was rich, and he just got richer.

And what does he do with it?

He decides to have a dialogue about this predicament
 with himself!

"What should I do with all my crops?
 I know what I'll do!
  I'll tear down my old barns,
   and build bigger ones!
    I'll store all my crops inside of these new barns,
     and I'll have plenty for the rest of my life.
      I'll say to myself, "Self, eat, drink, and be merry!
       All your worries about tomorrow are gone!"

Let's pause here for a moment
 and think about what just happened.

This rich man has a bumper crop during a harvest season,
 a blessing that God gave the man, because we can't really control the yield of our fields
  without God's help.

Then he has to solve the problem of his barns being too small
 to house the yield from his crops!
  But even better,
   he quotes Scripture from the Old Testament!
    Specifically, he might be quoting from the Prophet Isaiah,
     "Eat and Drink and be merry."
      [Isaiah 22:13]

But what does that end up doing to his eternal soul?

Because you know what's about to happen.

God looks at this miserly man,
 this man who was already rich,
  who got even richer off of land that he had no control over,
   who hoarded the crops for himself,
    and God says, "You fool!
     This very night your life is being demanded of you.
      And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

And the point of this story, Jesus tells us,
 is that this is the case for everyone who is not rich toward God,
  but instead grasps,
   squeezes, wrenches, grasps, clutches,
    covets the gifts God has given for our own.

III.

Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol get's his just desserts in the afterlife
 for the covetous life lived on earth.

But Ebenezer Scrooge was given a supernatural chance at redemption,
 brought on by a holy, ghostly visit,
  on in which Ebenezer was changed overnight
   into a redeemed man,
    lavishly generous to the poor
     and beloved by those who had little.

Ebenezer's conversion through this holy, ghostly experience
 breathed into his dead spirit
  new life.
   And in his new life,
    he passed on that new life to all he came into contact with
     in the spirit of Christmas.

Friends, this is exactly what happens to all of us
 in our baptisms by the Holy Ghost
  into Christ's body, the Church.

We all have the Old Scrooge in us:
 that part of us that desperately chases and grasps and clutches onto things,
  possessions,
   that ultimately kill our souls.

But for us who follow Jesus Christ as our Savior,
 we all have been given new life through that Holy, Ghostly indwelling
  of God's own Holy Spirit.

And as we welcome Debbie,
 one who is about to receive Baptism for the Forgiveness of Sins,
  to receive the Holy Spirit to indwell her,
   and to be buried with Christ in his death AND raised in His resurrection,
    we all are called to remember our baptisms
     and the Holy, Ghostly indwelling that redeemed our souls,
      just like Scrooge was redeemed.

And part of what we promise in our baptisms
 is that we turn away from greed and selfishness
  to the generous and humble service of Loving God with ALL of our being
   and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

But what this story also means, friends,
 is that where our dollars go
  is a sign of where our hearts are, too.

If we say we have been redeemed by God,
 then our bank accounts will show that to be the case
  in the way that we are generous toward God.

We, as Christians, aren't just called to give our tithes when it is convenient,
 nor give to the poor when we feel like it.

Instead, it is a holy demand on our lives to give our 10% to God through the Church
 and to give alms to the poor ON TOP OF that 10%
  because we know that the stuff we possess in life are gifts from GOD
   and not our own.

We, as Christians,
 redeemed by the water of baptism
  and renewed by the Holy Spirit,
   are called to see ALL of our life as gift
    and to live with open hands
     freely receiving the blessings God has for us
      and freely giving back those very things
       for the loving of God and the loving of our neighbor.

Give generously to God through the Church, friends,
 because the Church is the harbinger of the REALITY that is breaking into the world:
  the Kingdom of God.

Give generously to those in need, brothers and sisters,
 because the poor will inherit the Kingdom of God. (Gospel of Luke Sermon on the Plain)

And give yourself completely to Jesus Christ in Holy Baptism by this:

Love the Lord your God
 with ALL your heart,
  ALL your soul,
   ALL your mind,
    and ALL your strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself.

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.