Sorry. If you are big on Santa Claus, I am about to rain on your parade. Looking around our tiny house on Christmas Eve, I am probably the last person who should be critical of those who love the jolly old elf with his bowlful-of-jelly belly. My wife has been collecting Santa figures as long as I have known her. After we moved full-time into an RV, she had to curtail her urges to continue adding to the collection for lack of space to display them. Still, we have 21 figures that I can see from my seat at the computer. To my dismay, there is only one nativity in our collection. In my wife’s defense, and to salve my conscience, most of the characters we have displayed lean toward the original Saint Nicholas legend rather than the elvish one invented in the 19th century by Clement Clarke Moore.
The legend of Saint Nicholas is by no means a historical certainty. As the story goes, Nicholas was from a wealthy family. After his parents died, he chose to distribute his wealth anonymously to the less fortunate. One of the early versions tells of his nighttime visits to a home over a period of days or even weeks. It was Moore who cemented the gift-giving into Christmas Eve. Some believe he chose Christmas Eve in order to remove the materialism of gifts from the proper spiritual focus on Christ’s birth on Christmas Day. In spite of his attempt, Moore’s poem has done the opposite; Christmas has become he most blatant example of materialism anywhere on the calendar.
I am rereading N. T. Wright’s book Surprised
by Hope. His theme in the book is to encourage new thinking about the
resurrection of Jesus. Renewed thinking would be more correct, as Wright
suggests Christians have lost the true meaning of the resurrection. As evidence
of this, Wright points to the fact that the celebration of Christmas has dwarfed
the church’s Easter commemoration. While Wright does not discount the
importance of understanding Christ’s nativity, he firmly believes that
Resurrection Day should be the central event on the Christian calendar.
I agree with Wright. Certainly, there are elements of the
nativity that form necessary ground for the eventual culmination of the
incarnation. That God should become one of us, born of a virgin to live a
perfect human life and move relentlessly to the severe obedience of the cross
is essential to understanding the gospel. But it is at the cross where history
turns its most significant corner, and Jesus’ subsequent resurrection validates
the meaning of His life. We could, I suppose, know nothing of the Savior’s
birth and still celebrate His resurrection. But the birth without the
resurrection leaves us, as
Paul says, most pitiable.
My wife and I watch Miracle on 34th Street
every year at Christmastime. The theme is heart-warming and cannot be faulted
as a secular version of a child finding faith in something hard to believe.
There are dozens of other Christmas movies, some silly, some serious, that
encourage human kindness and selfless giving. There’s nothing wrong with fostering
positive traits through drama. I am at a loss, however, to think of one movie
that depicts Christmas as the time to remember the Holy Child who became the
Holy Savior on the cross of Calvary. Thinking about death at Christmas is kind
of a buzz-kill.
Perhaps my favorite character in my wife’s collection is the
one I have pictured here. It ignores Moore’s goofy elf and magical reindeer,
and it makes me think of the true meaning of Christmas. The ancient Nicholas,
long before the Roman Church sainted him, depicts the selfless spirit that
should motivate every Christian who understands what the Babe in the manger stands
for. Somehow, that fat bearded guy riding a sleigh in the parade fails to do
that for me. Sorry Mr. Moore.
Charles Schultz says it best with the words of Linus in the Charlie
Brown Christmas cartoon. “‘For behold, I bring unto you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the
City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord…’ That's what Christmas is all
about, Charlie Brown.” Linus nailed it. Christmas is about a Savior, and
without His death and resurrection, He would not have been anyone’s savior. If
I may borrow from N.T. Wright, the resurrection is what Christmas is all about.
Many years ago, I built a window display that featured a
cross standing
in a cradle topped by a crown: cradle, cross and crown. I stole
the image from the Bethel Bible Series lesson about the Gospels. Maybe I
will try to recreate that for next Christmas. I’ll still let my wife display
her Saint Nicholas collection. I have to admit, it gives me good feelings when
I look at it. Oh look! The rain is clearing up.
loved this one too!
ReplyDelete