『“The Power Of Love”』のカバーアート

“The Power Of Love”

“The Power Of Love”

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 December 7, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen. You’all know I love Hallmark Christmas movies. However, there is nothing quite like the ultimate story we hear at this time of year – A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. And as much as I love Hallmark, they just do not compare in their remakes of that classic, to the ones that star Alister Sims or Sir Patrick Stewart. Now, we are in Advent, not Christmas, so why do I bring this classic tale of Christmas up? For the same reason I did many years ago when I was preaching on the texts for this Sunday – especially the one from Isaiah, because Dickens knew how to create a setting. And, the truth is, while the movie adaptations are good, nothing is better than the actual book in telling that important part of the story. I mean, isn’t that nearly always the case – Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dune, the Chronicles of Narnia – I know, I am showing my fantasy/scifi side. Even the Harry Potter movies, while really good, were not as good as the books. The same is very true for A Christmas Carol. The opening paragraph of this Dicken’s seasonal classic makes one thing absolutely clear. It reads, “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” So, I guess Marley, old Scrooge’s business partner, was very much dead? Or, as we get from the coronor in The Wizard of Oz – Marley is “…not only merely dead, [he’s] really most sincerely dead.” Clearly we do not need to ask, in our best Monty Python voice, “Is he dead yet?” Marley is dead. Got it. But why all the fuss – why all the repetition? Well, as we continue in the story we realize that if we weren’t quite sure about Marley being dead, than it throws off the basis for the very strange set of Christmas Eve visitations that result in a miracle of new life for Scrooge. And it is this new life that is an important part of our Advent journey. The life that grows out of death. Now you might be thinking, isn’t that Easter, not Advent? Well, it is both, as will see in the passage from Isaiah, and also from St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (who quotes the very scripture in Isaiah we heard today). The passage begins with this: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” That branch, the passage continues, is the birth of a new leader – one who is righteous and faithful, who has compassion for the poor and the meek. Oh, how we yearn even today, for that. Now we often hear these words and think of Jesus, but Jews then and to today know these words as applying to King Hezekiah of Judah. Still, everyone all over the world yearn for this type of leader – one who has compassion for her people, and knows they are not God, but are there to serve God’s people. The prophet’s words remind all of us what is expected of those that lead the people of God. And it is a proper metaphor for the incarnation too. So, let’s get back to that stump, that leftover remains of a very dead tree. A tree that, as Dickins would likely say, is as dead as a door nail. Why is this imagery so important to the people then, or us now? Well, remember last week? The prophet was speaking of a vision of a new world where swords would be turned into plowshares? Well, that hasn’t come about yet. The Assyrians were still a threat to Jerusalem, and had destroyed many a city in Judah and Israel. In fact, in the chapter before the one we read from today, we hear about those rulers who oppress the people, turning aside the needy from justice, and robbing the poor and vulnerable. It was a time of darkness for the people, where hope was far gone and everyone seemed like the walking dead. The stump is a metaphor for the people who felt dead inside. The shoot is the birth of a new leader who is righteous, faithful, and good. That would be a miracle to those so worn down by the reality in which they lived. But the passage doesn’t stop there. This new life is beyond anything anyone has ever experienced – beyond even swords being made into plowshares. It is what we have come to call the peaceable kingdom…where “The wolf shall live with the ...
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