February 6, 2008

Ash Wednesday
Keeping the Spirit of the Season Alive

Read Luke 2:6-14, John 15:9-17

As we are all well aware, Lent begins especially early this year, seemingly on the heels of Christmastide and Epiphany. One of the things I notice each year is our society's penchant for putting Christmas away almost immediately after December 25. The half-price sales begin the next day, Christmas music broadcast on the radio (what little of it there is to begin with) ceases, holiday trees and decorations soon are removed from sight, and things return to “normal”, the joys and festivities of the season now becoming mere memories.

I've always found this situation to be a little sad as, since childhood, I've loved the Christmas season and every good thing associated with it. Growing up, it was an extraordinary experience, thanks largely to my mother. She came from a musical family, and she and her five siblings either played the piano, organ, or sang in a variety of church and other choirs (i.e., she in the General Motors chorus; her brother, the Rev. John Dykstra, in a touring men's ensemble while at university). So I naturally developed an interest in music, and over the years acquired quite a bit of Christmas music, art, and literature.

One of my personal favorites from this collection is Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol.” It is one of the most inspiring Christmas-themed stories I know, and embodies an important spiritual lesson. Perhaps because Christmas has become so secularized and commercialized, we find ourselves “going with the flow” and boxing it up at the end of each December. Yet, do you recall Rev. Wright stating in his Christmas Eve sermon that Christmas is not an ending, but a beginning? Though Advent and Christmas come at the end of the calendar year, they are at the beginning of the Christian year, a time during which we celebrate the lift of Jesus Christ and set our feet on a path of spiritual growth and adventure.

As the Bible bears witness, Jesus often taught in the form of a parable. My favorite is the parable of the Prodigal Son. I never fail to be moved by this marvelous story and think it has a universal human application. To me, Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” is a parable as well. At face value, it is entertaining and, at times, enchanting. Yet beneath the surface lies a lesson we might all do well to learn. I think, if we are honest, most of us exhibit a “Scrooge” characteristic or two, if not outwardly, then inwardly – in our thinking and in our attitudes to our fellow human beings and the world in general. At the point in the story where the ghost of Jacob Marley appears to his former business partner, it declares emphatically: “Business! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, benevolence were all my business. My trade was but a drop of water in the ocean of my business! At this time of the rolling year I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me?”

Through the dramatic visits of three spirits – the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come – Scrooge was given an opportunity to reassess his life and his relationship to humankind. Each time I view a film version of “A Christmas Carol” I feel inspired to try amending my ways, giving more caringly and lovingly, and, hopefully, keeping the spirit of Christmas within me the whole year through.

Dickens wrote of his character, Scrooge, in the last paragraph of the story: “... but it was said of him ever afterwards that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”

Doug Dykstra


Prayer: Dear God, once again we have gone in heart and mind to Bethlehem and seen the Christ Child visited and adored by the lofty and the lowly. We have stood in awe before the cradle of this Infant King and wondered how such a tiny babe could be your greatest gift to humankind. Help us to move beyond sentimental, seasonal adoration and take this gift into our own hearts, placing it permanently at the very center of our beings. Through the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, move us to gladly hear and accept the lessons Jesus came to teach, and guide us to apply them in our daily lives, recalling Jesus' own words: “This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.”
Amen.