Joy and the Everlasting Father

Here I am on a typical Advent evening with my children, half-watching what was likely my own first introduction to Charles Dickens: The Muppet Christmas Carol. Maybe not the most faithful interpretation, but it’s still very enjoyable – a delightful mix of well-delivered direct quotation and bizarre vaudeville parody. As we round the final stave, I’m reminded of the tragic irony that even though this is ultimately a redemption story, and the Carol’s own testimony is that our hero was forever remembered as a man who kept Christmas well, in our own world the name “Ebenezer Scrooge” is still synonymous with cruelty and humbug. A legacy is just not something that’s in our control.I was recently given a copy of Dickens’ The Life of Our Lord, which he wrote for his children and refused to publish as he felt it was too personal. It’s a good thing, too, as the work’s theology is, well, bad. Let’s stick to the gospels, shall we? It’s sometimes disheartening to learn the truth about our heroes. Dickens was also apparently more miserly toward his family than we’d like to imagine from the man who painted the dignity of his fellow human so clearly on paper. There again, legacy is a tricky thing. I trust he sees even more clearly now, and I pray my own flaws are never examined by people 150 years removed.In our text this weekend, we explore the historical context for Isaiah’s prophecy of the Christ child, and we see a young king wrestling with his own flawed inheritance and tenuous legacy. We see painful parallels between him and us and a Dickensian orphan named Pip, and we discover the joy of an Everlasting Father.I hope you’ll join us for brunch first, beginning at 9:15!- Josh