@HomewithDean - Homily 12/13 - a podcast by KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)

I love Christmas stories. I love Christmas stories because so many of the best Christmas stories are all about redemption. Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch, both classic villains until they discovered even they could open their hearts. And redemption isn’t just for villains. Sometimes it’s for the nicest guy in town—a frustrated, depressed and suicidal George Bailey who discovered, despite all his unfulfilled dreams, his really was a wonderful life.

Redemption feels like one of those $10 theological words, but I like thinking about it in the simplest way possible; like redeeming a coupon, or how every aluminum can has printed on its side a redemption value. Ah, redemption value … I especially like that one. It tells me there’s value, real cash value, to that tiny scrap of metal. A value—and this is the important part—that transcends its usefulness as a can. If all you see is the can then it has a short and tragic life. We just throw cans away. After all, it’s only job is to hold my drink, right? And when the drinking is done and I have no more use for it, it has no more value to me.

Unfortunately that’s often what we do with people too. We look right past their essential value because it’s their story that defines them to us. It’s what they have or haven’t achieved, what they possess or what they believe or where they came from or how they choose to live. Because we so often define our own worth by our stories it’s other’s stories, not their essential worth, that are valuable to us. And when they’re not we toss them aside.

Redemption is when we come to see there is value in a thing apart from its story. Value in its very essence, whether or not it succeeds or fails at the purpose imposed upon it or even has any purpose at all. If only we would apply to one another what we’ve learned about aluminum cans! That no matter what shape we’re in we still have weight, mass, an essence filled with potential, and that essence … that raw immutable essence … is our redemption value.

I create stories for a living. Storytelling dominates my life, so believe me when I tell you there is a time to get caught up in stories, but there is also a time to look beyond them to what is always there … not the form we’ve ascribed to a thing but its real essence.

You know why some people hate the holidays? It’s the same reason we hate elections. Because it’s a time when we all cling like crazy to the stories that we think give our lives value, and we judge and argue and insult and reject anyone else whose story might threaten our own. The holidays are wonderful if your story fits well with those around you, but the holidays are also a time when people whose stories are no longer useful get thrown away. We forget that people have intrinsic value. I wish we printed it somewhere on us like we do to aluminum cans.

Everyone has a Redemption Value. The people around you matter whether they fit neatly into your story or not.

We’ve had a year, yes? There’s a lot of healing that needs to happen now. So I would encourage you, use this holiday season to reach out to those around you ... even if they don’t fit into your story ... especially if they don’t fit into your story ... and find their redemption value.

And if it’s you that feels like the used up aluminum can, because you’ve lost your story, your purpose, and you feeling like you’re beyond redemption … hear this …

I feel you. I’ve been there, and I want you to know that you have a value that nothing and no-one can ever take away. Hold onto that. You hold on and on and on for as long as it takes for the wheel to turn, for the season to change, until the immutable magical essence of who you truly are is reshaped into a new story, a new you, fresh and ready to build yourself a beautiful life.

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