Ebeneezer Scrooge and the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus

St Peters Orthodox Church

In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" Ebeneezer Scrooge is described as a self-absorbed old miser who lives only for himself. He is devoid of any community and, in this brief life, lives only for the gain and preservation of things non-eternal with blinders on to suffering humanity all around him. This is the same description Jesus gives of the rich man in the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus. Both Scrooge and the rich man were on a collision course with an eternal fate that no one would desire. Today we look at how Scrooge was brought to beautiful tears of repentance which freed him to become love and be enabled to receive love in one of the most beautiful descriptions of the transformation of a very broken person. There is a little of Scrooge and the rich man in each of us, how might we come to enjoy the fullness of life that is only found in becoming the love of God for those around us?