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“Marley was dead, to begin with.”
Jeremiah 33:14-16
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."
Psalm 25:1-10
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?
Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.
And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Luke 21:25-36
"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory.
Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees;
as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.
So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
"Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly,
like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth.
Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Advent is spread out across the four Sundays before Christmas Day. Each Sunday has a traditional theme: "Watch," for the first Sunday; John the Baptist for the Second; Mary's Magnificat on Gaudete, or the Third Sunday; and anticipating the arrival on the Fourth Sunday.
It struck me this year that Dickens’s Christmas Carol can be understood as an Advent story, and the Advent story can be understood through the Carol. This is a dangerous enterprise because it’s a familiar one for the preachers I grew up around: using cheesy stories because the scriptures aren’t interesting enough. I’m not trying to elevate the Carol to the status of scripture, or used by God to teach the benighted the salvific truth of the gospel. All I mean is to use the familiar story to discuss the meaning of the Advent, and what it offers. Using the familiar to explicate the unfamiliar. That’s an old epistemological, and pastoral, strategy, too.
My plan is to attach a ghost to a Sunday, and use them as metaphors, the way Dickens did. So this will be, in part, an act of literary criticism. And, in lesser part, a sermon, I’ll probably focus more on Dickens’s work than on the week’s scriptures (for me, a sermon is centered on the scripture readings); and in large part a meditation on Advent as a preparation, and a preparation for… something, rather than anything.
The plan makes Jacob Marley a prophet in the vein of Jeremiah and John the Baptizer. Christmas Past bridges between John and Gaudete, where Christmas Present is the joy meant by Gaudete (if I can pull this off). Finally comes Christmas Future, because the Fourth Sunday of Advent looks to the future; and Advent is meant to prepare us for that future, as Christmas Future points Scrooge to the future that will be if he doesn’t learn the lessons of Jacob, and Past, and Present, and Future.
Now let’s start with Marley and see if I can make this work.
Jeremiah is a prophet during the Exile. He condemns Israel’s apostasy even as he weeps for the suffering of the people, suffering caused by their apostasy. This makes Jeremiah a perfect example of what Scrooge isn’t: a man concerned with others even as he holds them responsible for their suffering. Scrooge is concerned only with Scrooge. The misfortune of others is their fault and none of Scrooge’s concern. It’s important to recognize this, or the redemption of Scrooge is ultimately meaningless. Jeremiah understands the people are suffering because of a system of governance, an order of things, which they have accepted, and which is punishing them. They are responsible for their suffering, but Jeremiah laments for them. Scrooge thinks the poor are victims of their own actions, and he disavows any responsibility for them.
Indeed, he does this three times before we know any more about him. First, he rejects his nephew’s invitation to dinner and his blessings of the season (“You’re poor enough.”); then a seasonal appeal for charity (“Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses. Are they still in operation?”); and finally he complains of his clerk having a holiday (“A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December!”). Scrooge rejects connection with family; his community; even his employee. And the ghost of Marley comes as an Old Testament prophet to tell Scrooge the error of his ways.
It helps to understand that the prophets were not scowling judges pouring out the bowls of God’s wrath on Israel. They were trying to tell the people what had happened, and why, and what to do about it. Jeremiah, especially, weeps for the people even as he tells them the truth of what they’ve done to themselves. Marley offers the same basic message to Scrooge. He wants to spare Scrooge his fate. And he tells Scrooge to keep awake, because Scrooge doesn’t know when the lessons are coming, or what they will be. But Marley is important in his own right. He has his own lesson for Scrooge.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. At one point in the story, when the rich man has died and suffers eternal torment for his neglect of Lazarus begging at his gates, the rich man asks Abraham to let him return to his brothers as a ghost, to warn them of the consequences of their selfishness and neglect of their duty to others. Abraham points out they have the teachings of the prophets, that if they won’t learn from that, they won’t listen to one returned from death.
Which Scrooge, the “man of a worldly mind,” doesn’t want to do: that is, listen to Marley.
“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
So Marley has to prepare the way for the Three Spirits. He has to prepare Scrooge to receive their lessons. Without that, their lessons would just be random anecdotes from the past, bits of Christmas pleasures in the present, and frightening aspects of a future that always scares us over the worst that could happen. Their lessons prepare Scrooge to change his life. Marley’s lessons prepare Scrooge to learn from the Spirits. Marley teaches Scrooge not only to watch; but what to watch for. And also what lessons he should learn.
A lesson resting on this thought:“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
“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!”
“Man of the worldly mind!” replied the Ghost, “do you believe in me or not?”
“I do,” said Scrooge. “I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?”
“It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, 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!”"Am I my brother’s keeper?,” asks Scrooge. “Yes!,” answers Marley. “Then who is my brother?” And Marley decides to show, rather than tell.
It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they were within two paces of each other, Marley’s Ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.
Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night.
Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.
The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.Marley, famously, doesn’t tell Scrooge who the Spirits are who will visit him; he tells only their number: the three spirits, who turn out to be the Spirits of Christmas. As it further turns out, they prepare Scrooge for Christmas.🎄 The next three weeks of Advent are supposed to do the same.
I love this.
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