From the Pastor's Study
From the Pastor’s Study
Misery and Generosity
Sept 28, 2022
In Charles Dickens story, The Christmas Carol, we are introduced to a man named Ebenezer Scrooge. Both his first and last names were carefully chosen by Dickens to give depth to the story.
Ebenezer is a biblical word, taken from 1 Samuel 7:12. In that story, the Philistines have amassed their armies to attack Israel, hoping to defeat them and take their people as slaves and their land as their own. Samuel, Israel’s spiritual and political leader of that time, prays to God for help, and God responds by sending a powerful thunderstorm that causes the Philistines to panic. Taking advantage of the disarray of the Philistine armies the Israelites attack and thoroughly route their enemies, pushing them back far beyond the battle lines. When the battle has concluded, Samuel set up a stone as a permanent marker to remind the people that God had given them the strength to protect themselves and win the battle. He names the stone, “Ebenezer,” which means “stone of help.” The name, Ebenezer, thus, is a witness to God’s helpful intervention in the lives of the people of this world.
The name, Scrooge, was also carefully chosen by Dickens. “Scrooge” comes from an old English word which means “to squeeze” or “to press.” Dickens describes Scrooge in this way: he was a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner . . . secret, and self-contained and solitary.” Scrooge, as we know, was a miser, eager to make money and loathe to spend it, and he had few friends, if any. he was a he
Ebenezer Scrooge’s name is a kind of oxymoron. An oxymoron is a phrase that contains contradictory terms. Examples of oxymorons include “working vacation,” “friendly fire,” or “honest thief.” These words contradict each other just as the names Ebenezer and Scrooge are meant to evoke a kind of contradiction. Ebenezer Scrooge would not have been rich without favourable circumstances, circumstances which people in Dickens’ time would have attributed to God, much as we do today. We do realize that while we are well-off in comparison to most people in this world, we cannot take credit for our wealth. We were born into a wealthy environment, had the opportunity for a good education, can choose our occupations, live in a relatively politically stable country, have access to markets for what we produce, etc. Simply put, circumstances over which we have no control have given us the quality of life that we have. Many, many people work much harder than any of us do, and they do so simply to survive. As Christians we attribute those favourable circumstances to God. What we have, thus, is entirely by God’s help, and we must raise our own stones, calling them Ebenezer. Ebenezer Scrooge’s first name is a reminder to us that we are where we are because of God and it was meant to be a reminder to him as well. He ignored that reminder.
His last name, Scrooge, tells us how he responded to what God had given to him. He did everything he could to keep everything God had given to him for himself. Dickens’ description of Scrooge (see above) is the description of a man who has decided that he will not allow others to experience anything of God’s blessings. He will keep them to himself.
Scrooge responded to God’s help by being a miser. Although I could have guessed it, I did not know until this week that the words, “miser” and “miserable” come from the same root. Originally, a miser was one who was “unhappy, wretched, pitiable, in distress.” That was the original meaning of the word, but over time “miser” came to mean, “a money-hoarding person.” We can guess that the development of the meaning was not accidental as people saw how lonely and wretched a money-hoarding person is. Dickens portrays that well. While he was the richest man in town, Scrooge was also the loneliest. He had no friends and he had alienated his family. He was wretched.
Paul Scalia, a Roman Catholic biblical scholar makes this astute observation: “Greed (being miserly) places possession over people. By its very nature, it isolates us from one another. We become accustomed to possessing and using, two things incompatible with authentic human relationships. The greedy man might have people who help him with his wealth or to gain more, but that just proves the point. Such people are used, not loved.” Miserly behaviour results in isolation, but generosity results in the building of relationships. Scrooge learned that very thing, for in the end of the story, he begins using his wealth to bless others, and, in the process, gains a place at the table of his alienated family.
Loneliness and isolation are an increasing problem in Canada. At the same time, we are being told more and more often that we should feel entitled to indulge ourselves. In fact, self-indulgence (using our money for personal luxuries) is proposed as the solution to our isolation. Perhaps self-focused activities and expenditures are not the solution to loneliness and isolation, but generosity is. I suspect that those among us who are often generous toward others feel far less lonely than those who have miserly tendencies. Perhaps we can still learn something from Ebenezer Scrooge, although, in the end, his last name did not suit him.
Pastor Gary
