Christmas Past, Present, Future: The Specter of Christmas Past

Isaiah 9:1-7 

One of my absolute favorite things every December was to watch A Christmas Carol. I was absolutely enthralled by the three ghosts. And the character Ebenezer Scrooge, that miserly, skin-flinted sort, was on the one hand pathetic and sad, and yet somehow endearing.

When he finally transformed, he represented something joyful—triumphant even. This year, during Advent, we’re going to look at Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future.

For the people in Jesus’ time, they were looking to—not Christmas past—but the ages past, especially the passages written by the prophet Isaiah: a hoped-for Messiah. And it’s because, as Isaiah tells us, the people walked in darkness. In fact, it was a land of deep darkness.

Their primary foe, the Assyrian Empire, ruled by Tiglath-Pileser III, was seeking to make vassal states of any neighboring countries. He had already conquered parts of Israel and eventually destroyed them. King Ahaz was asked to join a coalition to stand against this threat, but he feared a diminution of his power and did not trust his neighbors.

In the midst of this horrible socio-political context, Isaiah offers a resounding sense of hope while calling people to trust in God not political alliances.

This was the hope that Mary and Joseph and all the Jewish people looked to—a time of endless peace brought by the Messiah.

When the Ghost of Christmas Past transported Scrooge, he encountered some very fond and painful memories.

He saw his sister, who came to him at school to take him back home and said, “Father is so much better now.” We are given a clear sense that Scrooge’s was not a happy childhood and that the death of his sister scarred him deeply.

There was Fezziwig, his old boss, who brought a tremendous sense of joy to all those around him. Even Scrooge admitted that his was a talent that money couldn’t replace. And then, of course, we are enchanted by his fiancée, Belle, who was all sweetness and light. We are treated to scenes of great happiness between the two. But as his career ambitions grow, his love of money replaces his love for Belle. And she tells him the hard truth:“You fear the world too much,” she answered gently. “All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.”

There are dozens of fond memories many of us have of Christmases past—of Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and candlelight services singing Silent Night.

But do you remember what you hoped for? What you ached for? For me, as a teenager, it was a world without a nuclear arms race. That’s what was pressing upon my mind—the threat of annihilation—and a wish in my heart that such technology had never been discovered.

And following on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, it was a hope that our world could find a way to take hold of the joy and light of Christmas that perhaps might spill over into the whole year. That sense of brotherhood and sisterhood that made every encounter something holy and hopeful.

It is easy to take hold of nostalgia, admittedly, when we look at the past. Even the authors of the Bible did it.

They yearned for the days of old, when God spoke to people like Moses face-to-face and when God’s miracles were as common as the dew on the morning grass. They felt robbed of God’s presence, of God’s wisdom and God’s guidance. Of course it was there all along; they simply ignored it.

The role of the prophet in ancient Israel was not truly about telling the future; rather it was to offer warnings. If the people failed to heed God’s word disaster would come.

The fifth chapter of Isaiah is a lament which gives us a wonderful glimpse of how deep God’s love for Israel was, and the broken heart that ensues from the lack of faithfulness.

God had planted this wonderful vineyard of Israel, and it begins, I will sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard:

For God blessed them with so much:

• The law.

• The Ten Commandments.

• Instructions on how to worship God properly.

• Guidance to care for and love their neighbor.

• How to be a host of refugees in their land—the list goes on and on.

  
  

And instead, they were filled with moral corruption and idol worship and kings who drew them even further away. And so, the people are warned Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes (Isa. 5:20).

This is the sense we have of Scrooge. Without his beloved Belle, there was nobody to serve as his conscience, nobody to check his greed, nobody to calm his anger. And his wretched character festered with duplicitous degenerated depravity.

Thus, Dickens described him as “a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone; a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner.”

And as a result, Scrooge was alone in the world. As Dickens wrote, “Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts.”

This is what the people in Isaiah’s time lacked—a benevolent presence to guide and direct. King Ahaz, instead of trusting in the Lord, looking for support and guidance, direction and strength and courage looked to the Assyrian Empire of all places (like being in league with Darth Vader)! He formed an alliance with their greatest enemy! And it not only doomed Ahaz but doomed the people as well.

There are things about our past, as a country, that we might do well to return to:

• A slower pace that lacked rampant commercialism

• A greater sense of safety

• Community that cooperated and cared

• Those mom-and-pop stores that made shopping a time to meet friends

• The absence of social media which gives a megaphone to cynicism and vitriol

• Dinner at the table as a family!

• A greater devotion to God.

But we should not be too trapped in returning to the past. For we know that there were many people left out in the cold literally and figuratively.

Isaiah too lived in such a time; he tells us the leaders “grind the face of the poor” and that widows and orphans were neglected and unjust laws crushed the needy.

The failure to care for the poor and the outcast always goes hand in hand with the failure to properly worship God. It was true in Mary’s time as well. And I believe it is true in ours as well. Our land has too many resources to have so many people struggling.

Isaiah reminded the people that their hope would not spring from political alliances but from godly devotion and trust. This would lead to a flourishing not only for Israel but for all people. He showed us that trust in God expands the circle of compassion beyond our borders and tribes. The greatest lesson perhaps we can draw from Isaiah is that there is always hope when we have the courage to look to God.

So let us be guided not by our own devices but by a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting Father and a Prince of Peace. Amen.