1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock
and our Redeemer. Amen. One of the complaints that Christians often bring
up at this time of year is that Christmas has become too commercialized. Far
too many people observe the holy day of the birth of Christ without any
acknowledgment of Jesus at all. Everything’s about parties, presents, and TV
specials without any meditation on the
main focus of Christmas, namely, the incarnation of our Lord, his taking on of
our flesh to save us. Santa Claus gets more attention than Jesus.
2.
But,
maybe this problem can begin to be corrected by understanding where the legend
of Santa Claus comes from and the actual historical basis of who he is. Most of
us have heard of Santa Claus referred to as St. Nick or St. Nicholas. And, that’s
where the name comes from—Santa is a word for Saint, and Claus
is a shortened form in Dutch of the word Nicholas. Santa Claus, St.
Nicholas. Now Santa Claus has become the
stuff of fairy tales and myth. But St. Nicholas was a real person who lived in
the early AD 300s, some 1700 years ago. Since tomorrow, December 6 is the day
on which Nicholas is recognized in the Church, we will focus a bit on his life
this evening and meditate on what it has to teach us about Christ and
Christmas.
3.
Nicholas
was born into a wealthy family in Asia Minor, what is now Turkey. Having become
a Christian, Nicholas chose not to pursue a life of riches, but instead he
devoted himself to the Church. He eventually became bishop of a city called
Myra. Myra was a decadent and corrupt city, and Nicholas became well-known for
transforming it by his devout hard work and preaching of of Jesus. St. Nicholas was also known for his love for
those in need, such as poor widows and orphaned children. As bishop, he saw to
it that the Church worked to care for the needy. Maybe it was his giving of gifts,
especially to poor children, is part of what formed the Santa Claus tradition.
4.
And
there’s one famous story about Nicholas that stands out above the rest. There
was a man in the city of Myra who had 3 daughters. But he didn’t have enough
money to provide his daughters with suitable dowries necessary for marriage,
and without being able to marry, it was likely they would end up as
prostitutes. Nicholas was troubled about this, and he decided to help, but he
chose to do so in a way that wouldn’t draw attention to himself. Evidently
taking from his own resources, Nicholas prepared 3 bags of gold. On 3
successive nights, St. Nicholas went to this man’s house and threw a bag of
gold into an open window—one bag of gold each night for the 3 daughters, enough
to provide their dowries. Later, when this story was told in colder regions,
Nicholas was portrayed dropping the bags of gold down the chimney. Still to
this day, 3 golden bags or spheres are the sign of a pawnbroker, in remembrance
of how Nicholas bought these 3 daughters out of wager, you might say, redeeming
them from the fate that awaited them.
5.
There
are many more accounts of Nicholas helping others. For instance, once there
were 3 men who were falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to death. Nicholas
stepped in and spoke in their defense and was able to secure their release and
give them their lives back. It’s
interesting that in all the stories of St. Nicholas, the number three keeps
popping up—3 daughters without dowries, 3 falsely accused men, and in another
story, 3 sailors whom he rescued from drowning. And this is fitting. For
Nicholas was one who was a defender of the trinitarian faith, someone who
proclaimed belief in the one and only true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
6.
In
fact, it’s possible that St. Nicholas was one of the bishops present at the
Council of Nicaea, which defended and confirmed an essential truth about the
Trinity—the teaching that Jesus is both true God and true man. It’s from this
council in AD 325 that we get the Nicene Creed, which we confess before we
partake of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus in the Lord’s Supper. A certain
false preacher named Arius was teaching that Jesus wasn’t of the same substance
as the Father, that the Son of God was a created being, godlike but not true
God. This is what the modern day
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach. The Council of Nicaea rejected that heresy and
reaffirmed the scriptural position that Jesus is both fully divine and fully
human in one undivided person, true God from all eternity.
7.
Whether
or not Nicholas was present at that council, he was a defender of that faith,
faith in Christ the Son of God as the only Savior from sin, death, and the
devil. Nicholas preached Jesus, baptized people into Jesus’ body, absolved
people of their sins in Jesus’ name, and fed them with the life-giving body and
blood of Jesus. This is the real St. Nicholas. He wasn’t a Santa Claus taking
attention away from Jesus. He was a preacher drawing everyone’s attention to
Jesus. He wasn’t one making a list and checking it twice to see who was naughty
and who was nice. For he knew that his people were both sinners and saints at
the same time and that all desperately needed Christ’s forgiveness and mercy. By God’s grace, the love of Christ shone
forth in St. Nicholas’s preaching and in his life.
8.
We
give attention to the generosity of Nicholas because that ultimately draws our
attention to the generous love that he himself first received from God. It was
that love of God that was working through Nicholas in his life. After all, just consider his deeds. Nicholas
sacrifices and gives of his own resources to save the 3 daughters. Isn’t that
what Jesus did for us? He sacrificed and gave Himself for us to rescue us from
being eternally violated by death and the devil. He redeemed us not with bags
of gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with his innocent
suffering and death. So it is that we’re now worthy and prepared to be His holy
bride.
9.
In
the same way, Nicholas stood in to defend those facing death, risking his own
name and reputation. Is that not what Jesus did and still does for us? He stood
between us and eternal death on the cross and kept us from having to suffer the
worst of all punishments. Furthermore, the Scriptures say that even now Jesus is
standing before the Father as our advocate, speaking in our defense, responding
to every charge laid against us with the merits of his own blood and
righteousness. Through him, we’re set free to be people of God.
10. The same love of Christ that was
at work in St. Nicholas is at work also in you. For in your Baptism you were
crucified with Christ, and you no longer live, but Christ lives in you and
through you. The Lord is working in you so that His boundless love, which has
been shown to you, might spill over to others in the giving of yourself and in
the giving of gifts—not so that you can feel good about yourself or draw
attention to yourself, but giving that’s anonymous and for the good of others,
like a bag of gold through an open window at night. That’s why Christians too,
when giving a gift, might refer to gifts being given by Santa Claus, St.
Nicholas. For such a gift is given in a spirit that reflects the love of Christ
as Nicholas did, and ultimately it seeks to give glory not to ourselves but to
God, who is the true giver of every good and perfect gift.
11. In fact, every present that we
give is a sign of that greatest gift of all, the Christ Child in the manger—given
to us almost anonymously, noticed only by shepherds on that night, recognized
and received only by few throughout His life. But hidden within the wrapping of
His lowly humanity dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, full of grace
and mercy. Jesus is love in the flesh for you. There’s no greater present than
that. Jesus,
Love in the Flesh for You, Is the Ultimate Gift St. Nicholas Sought to Give.
12. So is there such a person as
Santa Claus? Of course, there is. If you don’t believe in the existence of St.
Nicholas, you might as well not believe in the existence of Mary or Joseph or
the shepherds or the Wise Men. Sure, you’re not going to find him sliding down
your chimney. But, like all saints, like all believers who have gone before us,
He is celebrating with us whenever we gather for the Divine Service. For in
Christ’s presence dwell angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,
all partaking of the same feast of which we now enjoy a foretaste. Thank God
that St. Nicholas lives. He lives forever because, just like you, he was
baptized and he believed in Jesus as his Savior, who was born, who died, and
rose for us all. Amen.
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