A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol (1843)

Charles Dickens

This evening my wife and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is my favorite version of Dickens’ classic tale.  I have a very deep fondness for both this particular story and the Muppets, so the combination of the two does not get old for me.

But I try to watch or read the story itself once a year, whether or not it is the Muppets’ version of it.  I’ve read the book multiple times and seen it scores of times, and have even written my own variation on the idea entitled “AChristmas Accounting” (the link here will not work for too much longer, but when I find a new home for the play, I hope to remember to update the link).

It is a story that is timeless and meaningful to all generations, and it is a story that we should continue to retell.  There is a Doctor Who episode in which the Doctor encounters Dickens, who asks him how long his books will last.  The Doctor replies, as though the answer were obvious, “Forever.”  I hope he’s right.  There’s a lot that Dickens still offers the world, and if the world will listen to him, he will continue to offer it.

We should wonder at part of that.  This is, I would argue, a distinctly Christian novel, not meaning that it is a cheesy book written for Christians (which is normally the sort of Christian art I talk about here), but that it only really makes sense in a Christian worldview.  It is at once refreshing that the world still will stand for this sort of thing, as post-Christian as we are becoming, but also worrisome that the world is missing the point. 

Christian Charity

We often make grave mistakes in our understanding of charity, and it would do us some good to look into what is meant by this term, and in doing so we will find that Dickens got it quite right.  A couple of things we should note off the bat.  The first is that we are not being charitable when we offer someone else’s money.  We like to do this most of all with taxes, saying that the government (read: the people paying taxes) should fun some charitable thing.  Well, it is not my purpose to debate the virtues of government getting involved in this way, but we must see right away that the person proposing this course of action is not at all being charitable.  We would see this clearly by applying it to the end of the story.  We would wonder at an ending where Scrooge awakes on Christmas morning, filled with charity, and says, “I will vote for a candidate who promises to help Tiny Tim!”

Secondly, we sometimes mistake charity to really just mean my particular cause and that cause alone.  I’ve run across this a couple of times, especially at work, when I am asked to fund some group or another.  I tend not to support any group without actually researching them, so there’s really not any time that you will get me to hand over money right away in such an instance, but on more than one occasion I have had my charity questioned in these cases.  To not give money to this one cause, it seems, means that I am an uncharitable person.

And that’s actually part of what I want to talk about – who we should give to.

Paul teaches us in Galatians 6:10, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

There is a lot there to unpack, but it is well-balanced.  There is no limitation there for our charity – we should direct it to all – but there is also priority, because frankly, the call to give money to everyone is not very practical.  There are a great many in need, and I do not have enough money for all of them, nor the time to research all the groups to make sure I approve of the way they would handle my money.  So what are my priorities?  Other Christians is one, but the other is often overlooked – as I have opportunity.  What is the need before me?  For many of us, it is our congregation, our block, our neighborhood, our city.  For others, it is different places around the world.  What opportunity do we have before us?

For Scrooge, it was the Cratchits first.  We are told in the final paragraphs of the story about the great investment he made into Tiny Tim’s life in particular.  Tim’s was the greatest need before him, after all.  So Scrooge not only helps financially, but invests time and effort into Tiny Tim himself, becoming, as Dickens tells us, like a second father to the boy.

I’ve known a great many people, and I include myself in this category far too often, who are content with their great contribution to charity in general, but have no personal contribution at all.  The money is greatly needed, and there should be no reason we should be ashamed of that, but our view of charity should perhaps most importantly be about what is before us.  Not just in money, but in time, in guidance, in a sympathetic year, or a party for your employees.

And it is a charity that has a source.  The Christian worldview is assumed in this book, and because it is assumed, it may be lost on many modern readers.  But it does take center stage at times.  When the Cratchits speak of Tiny Tim at church, we are meant to see the profound truth that is understood by this little boy.

“And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content.
 “As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”

Yes, Tim has seen the point, and he has seen purpose in his condition.  His compassion reaches out to those who are well and in good health, and his true and godly hope for them is that they will not pity him, but that they will be reminded of Christ. 

Dickens is calling the people of his age to the compassion and charity that they have seen in their Savior, and yet forget to act upon in their lives.  He is pointing in this book to Jesus as a model of how we are to love one another.  This is not some generic compassion that he is seeking as we use the word today, but a specific one that Jesus had for sinners, for so great was His love that He died upon the cross, taking the sins of His people upon himself, so that all those who repent and believe in Him will find life.

When we have received such charity, we should naturally respond in charity.  Not that we may be saved, but because we have had our hearts of stone removed and been replaced with hearts of flesh.

Repentance

Does Scrooge find repentance?  For certain he does, and the fruit of that repentance is his charity.  The ending of this story is interesting in that the climax of the tale is not the giving of charity, but in the turning away from his sin.  The last bit about how he makes things right with everyone is really the result of that change, and is not the change itself.  In other words, he turns from his miserly ways and into a charitable man before he gives a single penny away.

Repentance is not something we do or say.  It’s actually something we think.  It is a changing of mind toward the ways and truths of God and away from our own rebellion.  Now, we do and say things as a result of our repentance, but the major work is there – in the mind and in the heart.

And while this age loves Scrooge’s charity, it really should look more into that repentance, because that is something we are lacking greatly in.  For all our talk about compassion and charity, our hearts are just as blackened and calloused as his was, and even while we may be giving money to the local food bank or a homeless man, we still cling to our sin and refuse to give it up.

We think nobly of our virtues because they are often of the public kind.  We cheer with Scrooge’s change, but all the while our sin is with us.  But as I say this, I am struck by Michael Cane’s expression, playing Scrooge, when he hears his businessmen friends speak so callously of a colleague’s death, not then understanding that the death was his own.  In that moment, he did not understand that his own way would lead to a funeral with no mourners.  See, Scrooge magnified his own virtues too, and thought he was doing the right thing.  He is surprised to learn how much he is hated.

The only way to truly know whether we are on the right path or not is to allow God to teach us what the right path is.  Too many rely on their own emotions to tell them that they are moral and good, but even Scrooge thought that.  We all thing we generally make the right choices – that isn’t hard.  But there is a Standard, and that measuring stick is God.  His is the morality we are to measure ourselves against, and we will find ourselves wanting.

Scrooge repented of his sin.  It was a common sin in Dickens’ time, and he was calling for a great repentance of his people.  We applaud his repentance, but do not think that our job is done there.  Have we also repented?  Our time’s sins are probably differently focused, but we are no less in need of repentance.

Conclusion

There are few novels I would recommend for all people in all times before this one, and this is the season to enjoy it all the more.  God bless us, every one!