“What Would It Take?”
What was the last significant change that you made, of any kind? It could have been a change of habit, of health measures, of relationship dynamics, of spiritual practice, even of sports team allegiance. Think about it, and once you have something in mind, keep reading.
What prompted the change? What did it take to overcome resistance, inertia, habit, tradition, familiarity, fear, doubt? Those are strong forces that favor remaining in place or as is. What turned the ocean liner of your life?
Charles Dickens uses the device of ghosts visiting his protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is wealthy but seemingly emotionless, and indifferent to the lives of those around him. On Christmas Eve, he is visited first by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who prepares him for three more visitors: The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. They reveal dimensions of Scrooge’s life that he had suppressed or missed altogether. It is the last visitor, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who has Scrooge finally on his knees, promising to change if he’s given the chance.
Which he is given, and which he does. It’s a (mostly) family-friendly story, still popular on stage and film today. What turns Scrooge around is fear of living into (and contributing to) an unbearable future.
Our Gospel reading on September 28th (Luke 16:19-31) takes a similar approach. Jesus uses a parable to exhort his hearers (which now include us) to turn our lives around while we are still living, before we lose the option. Unlike Ebenezer Scrooge, the details of our lives’ turning are not yet fully known. Our lives are still being written.
Also unlike Ebenezer Scrooge, Jesus uses more than fear of an unbearable future to turn us around. Far more often, he invites us into a future of unimaginable goodness, of abundance, of beauty, of love. When God is all-in-all, there will no longer be fear. But there will be love.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Don Wink