Right now, many of us are carrying the heavy weight of silence. There are daughters who haven't spoken to their mothers over a period of time because of a fight over political party lines. There are fathers and sons who can no longer sit at the same table because their views on immigration or LGBTQ people feel like an immovable wall. We see siblings divided by how they understand race, diversity, or even the way they practice their faith.

A Christmas Carol is a Gospel story unto itself with lessons that go beneath its most obvious lessons. But like the theology of our actual Scripture, there are subversive messages that we need to get into to truly understand why we even have this text.

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas said, “If your version of Christianity always lines up with your political party, you’re not being discipled. You’re being used.”

We take no authority from the bishop of Rome, but when he speaks, we listen and digest for ourselves as Reformed Christians. There is much to learn from Leo’s first official papal letter.

When I pray “deliver us from evil,” I am not asking God to make me comfortable while the world burns.

Did you feed the hungry? Did you give water to the thirsty? Did you clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the imprisoned, care for the sick?

By rooting ourselves in Christ’s call to love our neighbor and repair the breach, we bear witness to a God who does not discard anyone, who always seeks the lost, and who calls us to do the same.

Advising people to skip meals to save money is not financial literacy; it is a symptom of a society that has lost its moral compass.