A Christmas Carol...

I guess Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" as a money-maker. He knew it wasn't "high art," as so many of his other novels would be, but he figured it would be a popular "supermarket" seller. It was. And is. However, it lives today as a play and a raft of movie adaptations. My wife and I have made it a personal journey to see as many of these as we can. The other night, we watched a British musical version on Amazon Fire video that was simply awful. Bad music, bad acting, and production values that made the used car ads of the 1980s look like Spielberg. But watched it to the end we did; gluttons for punishment we are.

Up until this past Friday night (December 16), our favorite was the movie version with Patrick Stewart. Seeing Captain Jean Luc Picard as Ebenezer Scrooge was just too good to pass up. Last Friday, though, the St. Paul's senior high youth put on a little dinner theater as a fund raiser for their Summer mission trips, and the play was a short-script version of "A Christmas Carol." It was so thoroughly enjoyable! The teens did an absolutely amazing job of putting life to the timeless characters of Dickens fame, and the little stage in our large fellowship hall was alive with magic in terms of innovative sets, high-tech effects, and even the stealthy use of a trap door to put two of our darling little ones up under the flowing robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present. Videos selected to set the mood and connect the necessarily disjointed scenes (due to set and wardrobe changes) were projected on the screen above the proscenium. A talented and passionate young woman played the staring role of Scrooge, a brawny young man with a sly but winsome smile played Bob Cratchit, and a host of other teenagers with great heart and dancing eyes filled out the cast. At the end, the whole house (and it was a sell-out) sang Christmas hymns and carols together as our Associate Pastor played the piano. This was an event, friends! Every year I look for something that will knock me off of my staid, ho-hum "holiday" blahs into a fresh Spirit of Christmas. The St. Paul's senior high production of "A Christmas Carol"--and all of the fixings thereabout--did just that. In the aftermath of the show, our Director of Student Ministries told me that the teens had a blast, and that several of them came forth as saying that they have been bitten by the theater bug! (This is a significant development, since many of them attend huge high schools here in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, two of which have been rated in the top 20 in the nation; even highly talented youth can't "crack" the casts of their schools' Quad-A extravaganzas that compete annually for the Gene Kelly Awards.) We are all so proud of these kids, and of the "cast" of adults who work with them throughout the year, and especially with this year's successful production.

And, of "A Christmas Carol": Is there a better message, beyond the Gospel story of Jesus' birth, that speaks the universal Spirit of Christmas any better that Dickens' little cash-generating novella? I think not. There is a Scrooge afoot in society that often denies the existence of "the poor," and there is a bit of that Scrooge in each of us. We are often scrambling to make ends meet ourselves (and most of the time the "crisis" is more of our own doing, extending ourselves beyond our resources), so we miss the less fortunate around us. Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim get us in touch with that soft center that we have for the "underdog" or the suffering small ones. (Our time had its own "Tiny Tim" a few weeks ago when we all saw that photograph of the injured little boy sitting on a chair in an ambulance in Aleppo.) Those same three "Spirits" haunt us all this time of year, don't they? And finally, the redemption and transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge means there is hope for us all. Isn't this the Good News in a nutshell? Dickens was a muse, my friend. The message of "A Christmas Carol" didn't only emanate from his creative brain.

So, as we ready ourselves for a fresh dose of Christmas, the birth of our Savior, and the wonder of children and families gathering to exchange gifts and empty calories, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas (and Season's Greetings to my friends of other beloved faiths). And I close with Tiny Tim's timeless words, "God bless us, Every One!"