O Come let us adore Him,
Christ the King
And she brought forth her firstborn son,
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there
was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7)
Here Comes Santa Claus!
Long
ago and far away, a colorful character was introduced to children as the main
attraction for the Christmas season. Like God, this jolly old man in the red
suit was omniscient. He knows when you are sleeping; he knows when you’re
awake; he knows if you’ve been good or bad so be good for goodness sake. Like
God, this character could be at all places at all times, and could fly through
the air like an angel on a sled. He became the great benefactor of Christmas
and gradually took the place of the forgotten Baby in a Manger – the Son of
God. Every child would respond “Santa Claus” if you asked them what they looked
forward to a Christmas. They were not told by their parents Santa Claus was
merely another fairy tale, but the REAL thing. If they were good, Santa Claus
would know, and reward them at Christmas. (and the devil smiled)
Believe
it or not, Santa Claus is based upon a real live person – St. Nicolas, Bishop
of Myra. I have attended the church named after him in Slankamen. He was very kind and compassionate, and
gave gifts freely to the poor – but he was not Christ! He was merely a good man
and servant of the Lord. Though Santa Claus had become the main attraction at
Christmas, his advent came at a time in history in which no one dared call the
day anything else but CHRISTMAS!
Time
passed, and many of our youth who believed in the literal Santa Claus became
adults. Except for gift-giving, there was no longer anything very special about
the name of the Holy-Day (the term from which holiday derived), so they
believed it would be perfectly OK to omit that longer title of the holiday and
rid themselves of the troubling name of Christ – so they came up with the idea
of omitting Christ’s name altogether. They would call the day, X-Mas! Even
Christians fell for the trick and, if asked, would give some semi-implausible
explanation about the special meaning of ‘X’ in the Greek alphabet. For
whatever reason, there can be no name like unto that of Christ. He cannot be
replaced by either English or Greek letter. But those who insisted on brevity,
for the sake of brevity, brought the term, X-Mas, into wide use. It began to
show up on all public advertisements and in the print media. (and the
devil smiled)
When
the professing Christian frogs had adapted themselves to the rising temperature
of the water, a new term for the holiday was conceived by men who were not so
much concerned with brevity, but deplored any spiritual application whatsoever
to the Season of Christmas. Why not teach our children to call the day by an
altogether different term? Shall we call it ‘Winter Break,” or “Winter Holiday?”
Yes, that will do fine even if more letters are required to write Winter
Holiday than Christmas! So all of the schools, and most of the print and
televised media, fell into line to call the former day commemorating the birth
of Christ by the term The Winter Holiday. (and the devil smiled broadly
for he had achieved his prime purpose)
The
point of this Christmas letter is to remind us of the Reason for the Season –
the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no great harm in teaching our
children the legend of Santa Claus as a fairy tale, but I know many children
who truly believed the lie until they were mature enough to question the
credibility of such an outlandish tale. They may have asked as well, “Were my
par- ents lying as well about Jesus Christ?”
MERRY,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(Do
not allow store clerks to get away with any other greeting!)
For
The Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide,
Jerry
L. Ogles
Presiding
Bishop
PS:
This letter will probably evoke greater umbrage among adults than if I wrote
claiming Christmas was not about Jesus. Why do you suppose that may be the
case?
