Most of us are probably familiar with the holiday song which warns us that Santa Clause is "makin' a list, checkin' it twice; gonna find out who's naughty and nice. . . ." There are some, of course, who do not take this keeping a list thing seriously. Perhaps you have seen a person wearing a button that said, "I'm on Santa's 'Naughty List' and proud of it!" When I was a child, I did not want to be on Santa's naughty list. I was a bit mystified to think that Santa could actually keep records of all my actions, but in my childish naivete I accepted it. Sometimes older siblings use such gullibility to their advantage in what was a plot bordering on blackmail. They might try to convince younger children that Santa actually used people--like older brothers--to check on others. But part of this system was that certain naughty words or actions could be overlooked if the guilty party did certain things in recompense. So the younger ones may end up doing extra dishes, shined extra shoes, and did many of their chores to serve my juvenile penance--until they got smart.

Santa's list reminds me of another phrase we hear during this season: "Year-end Inventory." Taking year-end inventory is essential not only for the business of selling, but for the business of living. We ask ourselves: "How am I doing? What kind of person am I becoming? What about my mistakes? Is it too late to change?" There are times in life when we must stop and take stock--before it is too late.

Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is the story of a man who is forced to take inventory of his life. As a businessman, he knew all about business inventories. When Ebenezer Scrooge returns home on Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley, who had died seven years earlier.

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When the frightening specter of Marley's ghost confronts the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, he is weighed down with a long, heavy chain. "It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel." When Scrooge inquired about the chain, Marley replied, "I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."

Then Marley asked Scrooge, "Is its pattern strange to you? Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it since. It is a ponderous chain!"

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While I certainly do not promote to Dickens's speculations concerning the afterlife--for I find no justification from Scripture for a theology that human spirits are condemned to wander the earth as penance--still, we can appreciate the message. Dickens presents us with a vivid image of what we could call "the Law of the Harvest." Galatians 6:7-8 says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." The first principle we confront in this portion of Dickens's story is that we must face the consequences of our words and deeds.

I. Facing the consequences

Scrooge was being confronted with the truth about life. It's a truth we all need to learn: that our actions have consequences. We may be unaware of them in the present, but that does not mean they don't exist. If there is any point to be gained by Santa's list or Marley's chain, it's the fact that life accumulates. Our naughty-ness or nice-ness eventually catches up with us.

Our good works do matter
Let me hasten to add that I am not speaking at this point about the basis for our salvation and having eternal life. As I will explain more fully below, we receive the forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, by God's grace and mercy. But many have misinterpreted grace to mean that it no longer matters how we live. Such people reason mistakenly that because good works cannot save us, good works are not important. Countless passages in Scripture, however, point to the fact that we were created to do good works. Galatians speaks of our actions in terms of sowing and reaping. In Matthew 7:15-27, Jesus also uses the image of harvesting, speaking of good works as the fruit of a vital faith:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

No one can read these words of our Savior and think that our actions are incidental. They have consequences. Faith will bear fruit--or we must question if it was really true faith in the first place. In another passage Paul summarizes God's grace and our responsibility: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:8-10).

Scrooge was given a vivid image of the consequences of his choices. He had given all his efforts to selfish pursuits. Instead of bearing fruit that glorified God and served others, he had forged a chain of bondage and judgment. As we reflect on Scrooge, we see that the links of his chains are miserliness, misanthropy, and the love of money. As a landlord, we learn later in the story, he had held people in bondage to debt, showing no mercy or compassion. He also refused to give to charities, turning a cold heart to requests for their aid. He was uncaring as an employer and had no concern for the struggle his stinginess caused the Cratchit family. The cold links of bitterness, selfishness, and pride wound their way around him.

II. Freedom from Chains

But what about us? Have we, like Scrooge, sown seeds that we deeply regret? Have we, too, forged some Christmas chains that keep us from experiencing the true meaning of this season?

At this time of year, many of us are chained by materialism. We are caught by the allure of wanting and getting more and better things.

Or we may have hammered links of bitterness and hurt onto our chain because of old wounds.

Or we may be bound by unrealistic expectations of harmony in our homes, so we experience disappointment and anxiety as we approach every gathering of our families.

Or we may be weighed down by worry and resentment over the financial stress of the season. That's understandable when we realize that the average amount spent on gifts in the United States for one person is approximately $800-900!

And what about our children? We must ask ourselves if we are in any way forging links in their chains: links of greed; of over-stimulation and expectation, largely due our own lack of control or our fear of saying no; of thinking Christmas is about presents, instead of being about the presence of God in Christ.

These are not small matters. When we lose perspective, we lose the true meaning of this season, and our spirits know it. We fall under the humbug spell, living in ways that cause sadness rather than joy, frustration rather than freedom, and conflict rather than harmony.

The Law of the Harvest leaves us with little hope. There seems to be nothing we can do to change--unless we discover a power outside ourselves that can help us make lasting changes.

Finding the power to break the Christmas chains
The hope of Christ's coming is the hope of change. The promise of the gospel is that we are not doomed to wear the chains forged in life! Our painful past need not lock us into a hopeless future.

God's greatest gift in Jesus Christ is the power to change
In fact, change is God's main business. Jesus breaks the chains that hold us fast in selfishness, pride, materialism, and regret. He sets us free. The chains break when we realize that Christmas is not about us! It is about others. Even as God gave his Son to us at Christmas, so Christmas reminds us to give to others. I encourage you to say to yourself frequently, "Christmas is not about me." That thought alone can snap the toughest links, like a blowtorch melting an icicle. This theme is at the heart of Dickens's story. Marley describes it when Scrooge asks, "Why do spirits walk the earth?"

It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world--oh, woe is me!--and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth and turned to happiness!

Christmas reminds us that we were created for community, for fellowship, for love. Like Scrooge however, we can lose sight of this fact, think that business is an end in itself, instead of being a means to care for others.

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge.
"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

We may have no idea how our behavior toward another person may affect not only their lives, but also our own. When William McKinley was President of the United States, he had to make a decision about the appointment of an ambassador to a foreign country. Two candidates were equally qualified. As McKinley compared the two, he remembered the time when he was still a congressman. He recalled boarding a streetcar at the rush hour and getting the last vacant seat. Soon an elderly woman got on, carrying a heavy clothes basket. No one got up to offer her a seat, so she walked the length of the car and stood in the aisle, hardly able to keep her balance as the vehicle swayed from side to side. One of the two men McKinley was considering for ambassador was sitting next to where the woman was standing. Instead of getting up and helping her, however, he deliberately shifted his newspaper so it would look like he hadn't seen her. When McKinley noticed this, he walked down the aisle, graciously took her basket, and offered her his seat. The man was unaware that anyone was watching, but that one little act of selfishness would later deprive him of perhaps the crowning honor of his lifetime.

Freedom comes in getting outside ourselves and in giving ourselves to others, as God gave his Son to us. In fact, we will tap the greatest power of Christmas when we focus on what God has done, not on what we do.

Ultimately, chain-breaking power is not found in our actions, nor in our kind deeds. They have their place. But the real power is found in what God has done. God sent Jesus Christ into the world to break the bonds that hold us. As we read the rest of Scrooge's story we will be touched by the drama of his conversion. As moving as this is, however, we must realize that this is essentially a "humanistic" conversion. As a parable of human transformation, this story is powerful. As a presentation of theology, it is significantly deficient at crucial points. Lasting change is empowered by the Living Lord! "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13, emphasis added).

We are not doomed to wear the chain forged in life! Our painful past and bad choices need not lock us into a hopeless future. God reveals our need so that He can provide our deliverance; he forces us to acknowledge our sin so that we can receive our salvation. His greatest gift in Jesus Christ is the power to change. The hope of Christ's coming is the hope of change.

That's why I was drawn to the story of Zechariah's song in Luke 1:76-79. It proclaims the mercy and forgiveness offered through the coming of Christ. Zechariah, a priest in Israel, had longed to have a child with his wife, Elizabeth, but they could not. Then an angel visited Zechariah and said his prayers would be answered. They would have a child who would grow up to prepare the way for the coming Christ. But Zechariah did not believe this, because he and Elizabeth were well beyond the childbearing years. As a result, he had been struck mute, unable to speak a word throughout Elizabeth's pregnancy. He had forged a chain of doubt and unbelief. When the child was born, however, Zechariah believed and obeyed God by naming the child John. And he got his voice back. Zechariah reminds us that faith in God breaks the chains. He used his new voice to praise the power and promise of God, saying:
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace" (Luke 1:76-79).

The Lord is in the business of changing lives. One of the most dramatic stories of a changed life is that of Bill Wilson. In 1934 he was a grandiose, loud-talking New York City alcoholic. Nearly 40, he was feeding his habit by stealing grocery money from his wife's purse and sometimes by panhandling. Several times he had been hospitalized, but he always started drinking again, no matter what resolutions he made.

One November day an old alcoholic friend, Ebby Thatcher, paid him a visit. Thatcher was sober and had come to tell Wilson why. He had had a religious experience. Members of an organization called the Oxford Group had visited him in jail, where he had been incarcerated for drunkenness, and he had yielded his life to God. The desire to drink was gone, he said. His life was changed.

After several visits, Thatcher convinced Wilson--who was quite averse to religion--to attend a meeting at a Manhattan rescue mission sponsored by Calvary Episcopal Church, local headquarters of the Oxford Group. Wilson stopped at several bars on the way and was quite drunk when he arrived. He was, however, sufficiently moved by the testimonies to go forward and testify at length to his own changed heart. This change lasted less than a day: Wilson went on a three-day binge and was hospitalized again.

Thatcher visited the hospital, and at Wilson's request repeated his formula for conversion: "Realize you are licked, admit it, and get willing to turn your life over to the care of God."

Wilson fell into a deep depression after Thatcher left. As he was later to describe it, I still gagged badly on the notion of a Power greater than myself, but finally, just for the moment, the last vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself crying out, "If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything, anything!" Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. I was caught up into an ecstasy which there are no words to describe. It seemed to me, in the mind's eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on a bed, but now for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness. All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself, "So this is the God of the preachers!" A great peace stole over me and I thought, "No matter how wrong things seem to be, they are all right. Things are all right with God and His world."

Wilson never took another drink.

The Lord has come to set us free! What chains do you want to break?

Let me turn the metaphor around and ask: What holy chains do you want to make? What links of love do you want to forge? What bonds of friendship do you want to renew? What chain of events do you want to set in motion that will make this one of the best Christmases ever?

Instead of telling ourselves that things will never change, we can say to ourselves: "I will focus on how God can set me free in Christ this Christmas."

In Christ, you see, God can transform all things for his purposes. Our regrets can fuel the determination to live so that we will have nothing more to regret. As we will see in Scrooge, sadness itself can become the catalyst of joy, when we determine that we will be remembered as people who knew how to make things right.

Christ can transform our desires to get to desires to give.
Christ can empower us to make an apology that melts the frost of alienation;
Christ can empower the first step to encourage another to draw closer;
Christ can empower us to express the creative love that unlocks blessings beyond our imaginations.

Let's take a moment for silence. During this time I encourage you to simply reflect on what the Lord has impressed on you in this morning.

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