Looking forward to November 25, 2018 -- Advent 1 -- Bah Humbug

This year we are starting Advent a week earlier than usual to give us time to work through a resource called The Redemption of Scrooge. This week's chapter of the resource is "Bah Humbug"

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• Galatians 6:7
• Luke 16:19-31

The Sermon title is Marley or Lazarus?

Early Thoughts: Do we really get what we deserve? Do we truly reap what we sow? Or is there a chance to change the path?

Those are some of the questions that get raised in the opening pages of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. By the end of the story we get an answer. But as people of Christian faith we already know it. At least I think we do. In Christ, God offers us forgiveness and a chance to repent.

But the story of Lazarus and the rich man seems to suggest an answer different than the one we find in A Christmas Carol and the one offered in Christ. Because the rich man can not convince Abraham to allow his agony to be eased or to warn his family to change their ways. It appears that there is no way out.

Marley offers a different message. Marley tells Scrooge (and us) that there is a chance, nay a requirement, for Scrooge to avoid Marley's fate.

Who will we believe -- Marley or Abraham and the Rich Man? Often we want others to reap what they have sown but we would rather have a chance to change. That is assuming that we are willing to change.

In Christ God offers the world a chance for transformation and redemption. At Christmas the annual cycle of transforming the world, of transforming the people of the world begins again. Abraham was sure that the family of the Rich Man would not listen to another messenger because they had ignored all the messages before that. Scrooge starts out wanting to ignore Marley or explain the apparition away "more of gravy than the grave". Which will we be? Will we accept the challenge of transformation God offers us in Christ?
--Gord