Ebenezer Scrooge is the focal character of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol. In the beginning of the story, Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old man who despises Christmas, and is well known for saying “Bah, humbug!”, especially to his very low paid employee clerk Bob Cratchit. Dickens writes: “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice...” The story has been portrayed on stage, film, TV, radio, by many actors, including Orson Welles (1939 on radio), Albert Finney (1970), Walter Matthau (1978), Henry Winkler (1979), Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, 1988), Patrick Stewart (1999), Ross Kemp (2000), Jim Carrey (2009), Michael Gambon (2010) and many others. Ebenezer Scrooge becomes a transformed character, after meeting the ghost of his previous business partner Jacob Marley, then the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas yet to come. Jacob Marley reminds Scrooge how living a selfish, greedy, unprincipled life here and now will have eternal consequences of suffering and never resting. The ghost of Christmas past reminds him of how kind he used to be, and how much he has changed into the miserly old man he is. The ghost of Christmas present shows him how much wealth there is, but how it is not properly shared out, with the poor being kept in poverty so that the rich can be richer. The ghost of Christmas future shows what his fate would be if he doesn’t change. He realises that he needs to care for others, for them to be well cared for, for him to be cared for in response, and for his eternal future to be brighter than it would be if he kept living the way he was living. Ebenezer Scrooge reminds us of the past, present and future The character of Ebenezer Scrooge is not only a familiar Christmas tale—it is also one which reminds us to consider the past, the present, and the future. At this time of year, as we are about to start into another year ahead, it is timely for us also to consider our past, our present, and our future. While we don’t have to wait until the end of the year to consider our future, it is helpful to do so at the end of one year, and the beginning of another. How have we lived for the Lord this past year? What will be our eternal future because of how we live? And what can we do to improve our situation? If we are pleasing the Lord, what can we do to please him even more? Ebenezer isn’t just a Dickens’ character! In the Bible, Ebenezer is a word which means “(which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the LORD has helped us!” (1 Sam 7:12). It is very likely that Charles Dickens was aware that the word Ebenezer was used in the Bible to note a point in time in the present, which looked to how the Lord had helped in the past, and which anticipated the Lord’s help into the future too. Certainly, his choice of forename for Ebenezer Scrooge would have resonated with many of his readers at that time, who would have known the name Ebenezer from the Bible, from 1 Samuel. This name was popularised by the Puritans in the 17th century as a title for some meeting houses or churches. It later became used as a forename among devout believers. While Dickens undoubtedly made it more well known, in the long term he also probably contributed to its decline in use as a forename for boys. However, there are still some people today who are given this name at birth. This morning, I’d like us to consider the Ebenezer in the Bible, looking to the past, considering the present, and also anticipating the future. We have regrets about our past, maybe our whole lives, or maybe just how we should have served the Lord in the past year, but didn’t. We have concerns for the present, how we ought to live, because our eternal future is determined by whether we live godly lives as God’s children, and whether or not we have returned to God by asking for his forgiveness for sins, through faith in Jesus Christ, so that we can have a glorious future guaranteed for eternity with God. Let us consider our past, our present, and our future, and see whether we too can say; “Up to this point the LORD has helped us!” (1 Sam 7:12).