Humbug to Hallelujah Series
Outlines:
The most captivating Christmas story, other than the
birth of our Savior in the gospels, is A Christmas Carol by Charles
Dickens. Published in 1843, it’s one of the best-loved stories to be set
at this time of year. You probably know the story back to front. After
all, it’s been adapted into over 200 movies or T.V. shows, and is such a
powerful tale that it’s credited with helping to define our
contemporary understanding of Christmas.
Our Christmas sermon series will be titled From Humbug to Hallelujah. We
will be using some clips from Disney’s Charismas Carol with Jim Carrey.
We’ll recall the captivating characters; Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim.
We talk about Dickens’ original intent for writing the book and compare
that to the way many modern film makers look at the story.
The birth of our Savior is not a tale, a legend or story spun to make us feel good about ourselves. In fact it is the opposite. The fact that God gave His one and only son to us is not a reflection on the fact that God trusted Him with us but the fact that sin has corrupted us. There was no other answer but to give the Son who would be killed because without Jesus we all have a Scrooge in our heart.
If you have never read Dickens’ A Christmas Carol I suggest that you may enjoy this sermon series more if you read it or maybe catch a movie version. Either way I believe our Christmas services this year will encourage us toward the life transforming power that Dickens hoped sour old Ebenezer Scrooge experienced.
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