A Case for Claus

In recent conversations, there has been established a solid stance against the "commerciality" of Christmas. 

Beneath this umbrella of commercial promotion lies the feverishly-awaited holiday toy catalogs, card-swiping lunacy from the dawn of Black Friday on, the crushing pressure to beat the Martha May Whovier's of every twinkling-light-clad season no matter the cost, and, to my own personal horror, our dear St. Nick.  

Now, let's backtrack for a second.  The purpose of Christmas celebration as it's intended to be is earth-shatteringly glorious.  The SON OF GOD came to us, a pitiful, ill-intended, selfish, callous, shameful kin, to cleanse and free us of our hard-earned death sentence. Jesus shattered the chains of our burden, laid it upon himself, and open the doors to an eternity we never otherwise would have known.  We cannot even fully fathom love like that. JOY to the world!!!!

Our Jesus also left us with several instructions. Orders we too often choose to overlook and instead fall comfortably back into our padded armchair of selfish destruction. The Christian community (church, youth groups, and friendly gatherings) is intended to keep the fire for Christ's directives alive, a family of accountability partners.  It is within this community that a legendary follower of Christ who found himself with an unexpected inheritance used his fortune to fulfill the command of Christ to care for the poor.  He gave freely and defended the word of God with steadfast integrity and great passion, even suffering incarceration for his actions.  In his time as Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas sought to restructure the focus of his community, condemning idol worship and redirecting praise to God.

(Such an interesting link! Read more on St. Nick here:  http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/bishop-of-myra/  )

With this knowledge, it is shockingly ironic that St. Nick is on trial himself for taking the focus off of our perfect Savior. In truth, once again, St. Nick cannot be convicted, as it is we who carry this guilt. We, as a culture, have redirected the focus of the season from the foundations of our Nativity to the big-store catalogs that slaughter forests at a time to cram our mailboxes full of what we can get get GET (I feel, ya Mr. Grinch!).  We have transformed St. Nick's annual visits into the purpose of our jovial preparations, when, in truth, it was St. Nick who insisted on reserving the attention solely for the endlessly generous heart of Jesus and his command to give as freely as we have been given to.

It is our responsibility as a Christian community to keep our festivities Christ-centered.  God gave us his SON, his faultless Child, to redeem us from the depths of our condemnation.  Jesus returned life to us.  He GAVE, in every sense, the light of hope, how to pray, the truth, the way, the substance of love, life.  If we are to focus on taking, as we have, let us redirect our gaze to how Jesus robbed the grave, erased our guilt, and released us from the confinement of our trespasses.

In turn, let us release St. Nick, throw his bag of giving over our own shoulders, gifts for a thankless world,  and commit to celebrating the one true gift we have to cherish: the hope brought by a baby who brought the world to its knees.


(per usual, photo cred to Janae Rose Photography!)