The gospel according to Dickens

Today is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth, and the screen and airwaves are alive with the characters and stories from his fertile imagination.

Dickens' portrayal of the brutality, fragility and hilarity of life in Victorian England is remarkable for its influence in social and political reform. For example, Marx and Engels were heavily influenced in their critique of the capitalist political system by their reading of Dickens. But it is probably his characters that most endure in our minds and culture - from the helpless victims of Oliver Twist, Pip and David Copperfield to the vicious perpetrators of cruelty like Wackford Squeers, Billy Sykes and Fagin.

While rarely explicit in Christian comment, Dickens' works contain many themes and illustrations that can be raided to illustrate and apply the Gospel. These themes from A Christmas Carol are worth exploring, while this story is helpful for explaining substitutionary atonement.

But how about this for a commemorative timely sermon outline that picks up on the themes of the week:

Our world is A Tale of Two Cities. Because, while we were created to know God, and enjoy him forever, we chose to reject God and so live in a Bleak House of our own making. All we can expect are Hard Times as we face the judgement of God. But God loves us and A Christmas Carol was sung when Jesus was born to rescue us. Because of Jesus' death and Resurrection (now there's an Oliver Twist), we can be born again into a living hope. The church may appear to be an Old Curiosity Shop, but it is filled with forgiven people with Great Expectations - eternal life with Christ.

Yes, it's cheesy, but a groan is worth a dozen laughs from the pulpit, as someone once said—though I'm pretty sure it wasn't Dickens.