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[2234.60 --> 2237.46] with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, Spirited,
[2237.56 --> 2238.66] that's about that as well.
[2239.14 --> 2242.36] It is a story about a man named Scrooge,
[2242.46 --> 2243.72] Ebenezer Scrooge,
[2243.72 --> 2249.40] who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner
[2249.40 --> 2255.94] and then by three ghosts or spirits or phantoms or phantasms,
[2256.04 --> 2257.18] if you read it in the original,
[2257.66 --> 2260.52] of Christmas past, Christmas present,
[2261.02 --> 2262.88] and Christmas yet to come.
[2263.92 --> 2266.52] Now, Scrooge, you know the story, right,
[2266.56 --> 2268.26] is a curmudgeonly old man
[2268.26 --> 2272.30] and A Christmas Carol is his journey of change.
[2272.30 --> 2275.58] So the first ghost appears to him
[2275.58 --> 2278.24] and is the ghost of Christmas past
[2278.24 --> 2280.76] and takes him into his past.
[2281.36 --> 2284.50] A time before he was corrupted
[2284.50 --> 2286.94] by all the trappings of wealth and business
[2286.94 --> 2289.52] that had turned him into the man that he was.
[2289.96 --> 2292.46] And when he sees his past
[2292.46 --> 2294.46] and the good circumstances
[2294.46 --> 2296.80] and the good people of his past,
[2297.02 --> 2301.30] it actually functions for him like an accusation, right?
[2301.30 --> 2303.58] It's a voice of accusation
[2303.58 --> 2305.54] against the man that he had become.
[2306.26 --> 2309.56] And the weight of that accusing past
[2309.56 --> 2313.56] presses so heavily down on him
[2313.56 --> 2315.24] that he gets really angry
[2315.24 --> 2316.88] at the ghost of Christmas past
[2316.88 --> 2319.02] and demands that the spirit take him
[2319.02 --> 2320.66] back to his house,
[2321.46 --> 2322.10] to his bed.
[2322.10 --> 2326.20] What interests me tonight
[2326.20 --> 2327.92] is the second spirit,
[2328.60 --> 2329.88] the ghost of Christmas present
[2329.88 --> 2331.66] that appears to him.
[2332.68 --> 2335.54] Now, this ghost of Christmas present,
[2335.76 --> 2337.36] the way Dickens writes it,
[2338.06 --> 2341.78] is a jolly giant, glorious to see.
[2342.44 --> 2344.54] His eyes were clear and kind.
[2345.42 --> 2346.48] His feet are bare,
[2346.58 --> 2348.62] and then I love the way he writes this.
[2348.62 --> 2349.62] He says,
[2350.20 --> 2352.46] its capacious chest was bare
[2352.46 --> 2354.84] as if disdaining to be warded
[2354.84 --> 2357.02] or concealed by any artifice.
[2358.32 --> 2359.54] And I think what that means
[2359.54 --> 2360.48] is that his heart,
[2360.66 --> 2362.16] or the ghost's heart,
[2362.30 --> 2364.48] is on display for all to see
[2364.48 --> 2366.48] and that there is a generous love
[2366.48 --> 2367.72] that is just oozing out,
[2367.82 --> 2369.34] that is unwilling to be guarded
[2369.34 --> 2371.12] or unwilling to be hid away.
[2372.64 --> 2374.06] Dickens goes on, he says,
[2374.06 --> 2376.78] on its head it wore no other covering
[2376.78 --> 2378.26] than a holly wreath
[2378.26 --> 2379.90] set here and there
[2379.90 --> 2381.76] with shining icicles.
[2382.44 --> 2384.06] It's a sort of Christmas crown
[2384.06 --> 2386.02] that sits upon its head.
[2386.12 --> 2386.84] And then finally,
[2387.44 --> 2388.94] girded round its middle
[2388.94 --> 2390.98] was an antique scabbard.
[2391.38 --> 2392.92] It's a sword sheath.
[2393.42 --> 2395.00] But no sword was in it,
[2395.38 --> 2396.60] and the ancient sheath
[2396.60 --> 2399.04] was eaten up with rust.
[2399.04 --> 2402.42] Now, I love this description
[2402.42 --> 2404.52] of the ghost of Christmas present
[2404.52 --> 2406.44] because I can't but help
[2406.44 --> 2409.70] but hear something of Jesus within it.
[2410.42 --> 2410.56] Right?
[2410.68 --> 2414.66] Jesus, who is himself glorious to see.
[2415.48 --> 2417.84] John says in chapter 1,
[2419.20 --> 2419.50] says,
[2419.66 --> 2422.26] we have seen his glory,
[2422.40 --> 2424.66] the glory of the one and only Son
[2424.66 --> 2426.04] who came from the Father
[2426.04 --> 2428.88] full of grace and truth.
[2429.04 --> 2432.58] Jesus,
[2433.30 --> 2434.72] whose eyes
[2434.72 --> 2438.24] look into prostitutes,
[2438.78 --> 2440.12] into outcasts,
[2440.28 --> 2442.70] into sinners and rejects,
[2443.70 --> 2446.36] and as they look into his eyes,
[2446.50 --> 2447.16] they see
[2447.16 --> 2448.94] a love
[2448.94 --> 2450.52] and a heart
[2450.52 --> 2451.80] for them.
[2452.56 --> 2453.62] Jesus, whose heart
[2453.62 --> 2455.66] was open to welcoming children,
[2455.76 --> 2456.74] even though there were people
[2456.74 --> 2457.76] actively in his life
[2457.76 --> 2459.14] trying to push them away
[2459.14 --> 2460.28] and keep them separated.
[2460.70 --> 2461.46] Jesus, too,
[2461.60 --> 2462.66] who is crowned
[2462.66 --> 2463.70] with glory
[2463.70 --> 2464.76] and honor.
[2465.58 --> 2466.44] Here at Emmanuel,