The Gospel of Xmas 4 - Santa

Tonight is the most exciting night of the whole year. Tonight Santa is gonna magically deliver toys to all the boys and girls who are on the nice list. In the US we think of him as a big guy in a red suit with a wizard’s beard. He’s got a flying sleigh pulled by magical reindeer. Most of this is based on the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” written by an Episcopal minister and an illustration published in Harper’s Weekly. Santa’s Coca Cola endorsement further solidified the image for Americans. The thing is, since he does his work in secret, and doesn’t let anyone really see him, people are just guessing what he looks like. Other countries imagine him differently and call him by different names.

In Sweden they think of him as a little gnome called Jultomten who pulls a miniature sled with a tiny goat—he only gives gifts to well behaved children who remember to leave him some porridge with a little butter on top for Christmas Eve. If they forget the butter, he might kill their cows. He’s serious about his butter. Also, he lives under the floorboards of their house the rest of the year. 

In Finland they are very serious about Santa, who they call “Yule-luh-pookie” (Joulupukki) and they’ll tell you that he lives in the Laplands with elves but once a year on Christmas Eve he brings toys to children and leaves them by the front door.

In England, Father Christmas is very much like we think of him—he visits each home on the night before Christmas to fill children’s stockings with goodies. In France, they call his Pere Noel and instead of putting the treats in socks, he puts everything in their shoes.

Martin Luther loved Christmas and came up with a few things that German people still use as part of their Christmastime—and he might also be the guy who popularized the idea of cutting down a perfectly good pine tree and bringing it inside the house. He introduced a character he called Christkind, which was an angel that looks like a young girl who flies with St Nicholas on his annual holiday mission to deliver toys to children. He thought there should be someone from the Bible to tie the Santa story to the Christmas story. SInce it was an angel that brought the news to Mary and the shepherds at the first christmas, it seemed like angels would probably still want to be in on the fun. He was also trying to take a little of the attention off Ol’ Saint Nick.

Saint Nicolas was a monk who became a priest and a bishop around 300 AD. He was known for being a truly devout Christian—for being kind and generous. He gave away all his inherited wealth by spending his life traveling the countryside helping the poor and sick. He was a genuinely nice guy. One of the best known stories of him helping someone is the time he rescued three poor girls from being sold into slavery by providing their father with the money he needed to save them. He was known to anonymously give gifts to poor children by secretly dropping off goodies at night when everyone was asleep—seriously, one of the nicest guys ever. Which makes one of his most interesting stories even more interesting.

Nicaea In 325 AD, a few hundred bishops from all over the world, including St Nick, came to the Council of Nicaea to settle an important theological dispute about Jesus. It was pretty intense. On one side there were a bunch of people saying that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, co-equal with the Father and Holy Spirit. That Jesus is God—which is what the church had always taught. On the other side were a bunch of guys who had come up with a new idea, the main ring leader was a guy named Arius. Arius said Jesus was really special, second only to God the Father Himself, but that Jesus was created and was not God. He even wrote a catchy little song that was a big hit at the time called “There was a time when the Son was not.” Topped all the charts.

So all the church leaders got together to decide which side was right. Up to this point, the church had been able to agree on big theological things. Imagine that.

Arius stands up and starts making his argument for why Jesus wasn’t God, and Jolly Old Saint Nick got up from his seat, walked right up to Arius, and hit him in the face. Yep. Now that’s a Christmas movie that I want to see right now!

I love that St Nickolas was so passionate about his faith in Jesus that he was willing to fight for it, but all things considered, I would rather he had just made a better counter argument instead of beating him up. Another bishop, Saint Athanasius, he destroyed Arius’ arguments and the church denounced the bad theology of Arius and the council wrote the Nicene Creed to teach the true doctrine to the whole church. We sing it after the sermon almost every Sunday. Still, how cool is it that Santa punched a heretic for teaching that Jesus isn’t divine?

St Nick didn’t get away with it. They arrested him and put him in jail but when Emperor Constantine was told about what happened, he released him from prison and reinstated him as the bishop of Myra. All’s well that ends well.

Saint Nicholas did his part to help save the very idea of Christmas—that God became man and that man, Jesus, is truly God. And he’s been connected to Christmas ever since.

He continued to be very popular, especially in Holland where they called him Sinter Klaas, which was pronounced Santa Claus by Americans, and everyone started using him to promote Christmas shopping as early as 1820. 

I think Santa is great and makes Christmas a lot of fun. But I’m pretty sure some people get Santa and God confused. 

I grew up believing in Santa but I didn’t know much about Jesus. Santa was some kind of supernatural being who lived up there at the North Pole, kept track of whether I was naughty or nice, I could ask him for what I wanted, and if I was good, he brought me those things on Christmas.

My idea of Jesus, if I would have put it into words, wasn’t very different. Jesus was some kind of supernatural being who lived up there in heaven, kept track of whether I was bad or good, and if I was good—well, he didn’t bring me presents but I would get to go to heaven. I supposed I might have thought I could pray and ask for things that I wanted, and he’d give them to me if I was good, but mostly it was about heaven. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” That’s a bit more terrifying than “he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.”

My idea about who Jesus is was so jacked, I’m pretty sure Santa would’ve had to punch me in the face, too.

So in honor of Christmas and Santa who eagerly defended Jesus’ divine honor, here is the Gospel According to XMAS — Christmas Eve Edition.

In Bethlehem in Judea, Christ the Lord was born to Mary. The tiny, fragile baby she held in her arms was Almighty God, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God with us, worthy to receive glory, honor, worship and adoration. God became flesh and dwelt among us. The Son of God, who had existed from eternity past—there was never a time when He did not exist as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity along with the Father and the Spirit—He did a new thing. He became a man. In time and space. He entered His own creation. Imagine that. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas. The feast of the incarnation. The day Almighty God became a human child. The day God gave the greatest gift the world would ever know. Exactly what we needed, too. 

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” 

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” 

This is why Santa gives presents at Christmas. This is why we give gifts to each other at Christmas. We’re remembering and celebrating what God has done for us. And when we say “God” we mean Jesus as much as we mean the Father and the Spirit.

Because there is only one God, and we worship Him alone. As it says in the Ten Commandments, “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one. You shall have no other gods. You shall worship Him alone.” 

And in 1 Corinthians chapter eight it echoes that same introduction to the Ten Commandments very clearly for all Christians, so that there can be no misunderstanding about Jesus: “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 1 Corinthians 8:6

There is one God—the Father. And there is one LORD—Jesus Christ. These are parallel statements. Like Thomas said when he bowed before the resurrected Jesus, “My LORD and my God.” He worshiped Jesus, and Jesus accepted his worship. 

Matthew 28:8-9 Jesus appeared before His mother and other disciples, it says they fell before Him and worshiped Him. 

Even when Jesus was a baby, in Matthew 2:1-2 it says wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked

“Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”

So that’s why we’re here tonight. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas. That’s why we show up here every week. To worship Jesus. To thank God for the gift He gave the world in that little town of Bethlehem. 

But we didn’t deserve it. None of us were on the nice list. Don’t confuse Santa and Jesus. When you sit on Santa’s lap and He asks if you’ve been good this year, we all lie and say, “yeah, of course I’ve been good, I want you to bring me some presents.” But he knows the truth—none of us have been good at all. We should all be on the naughty list and we know it.

That’s not what Jesus asks us. Jesus doesn’t ask if we’ve been good—He doesn’t want us to make it worse by lying. Jesus just gives us a gift with no strings attached. He knows you’ve been bad, hold out your hands and receive the gift that He purchased with His life anyway.

You were naughty, you were going to die in your sin,

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

Here, take it.

You know you don’t deserve it, that’s what makes it such an amazing gift,

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15

That’s the Gospel according to XMAS. That’s the Gospel. 

This Christmas, be like Saint Nick, be kind and generous, look out for people who need help, maybe slap the occasional heretic and believe in Jesus with all your heart—give Him everything, devote your entire life to Him. Christmas changed everything, it can change you as well.

2 Corinthians 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Merry Christmas!

Prayer: Father in heaven thank You for Christmas. Thank You for Jesus and for Your love, for our church and for bringing us together to celebrate Your grace and mercy and peace. Help us to always remember the Gospel, the good news for all people, that came to us as a tiny baby, the infinite king of glory wrapped in swaddling clothes. May we receive Your peace and walk in faithfulness. AMEN

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The puzzle. Here’s the final clues [Put up the clues].

As the band and choir are coming back… First one to solve it gets the prize.

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