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Santa Claus is real after all!
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 12th December 2004 - Advent 3
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Santa Claus is real after all!
Doubters – you'd better watch out!
Santa's picture is in the SCMP most days at the moment
• as he directs "Operation Santa Claus".
It's the annual charity drive to support Hong Kong groups like
• Alzheimers's Disease Association,
• Riding for the Disabled,
• and the Society for Promotion of Hospice Care.
This charity push is wonderful,
• but is it enough?
Does our Christian vision demand more?
OK so Santa might not be real in the way you and I are real people,
• but his spirit lives on.
I mean the spirit of the original Santa Claus.
For Christians, the original Santa is St. Nicholas,
• whose day is celebrated on 6th December –
• last Monday.
For many Christians it is a traditional day for exchanging gifts.
Tradition has it that St. Nicholas gave gifts to children in need.
He saved three girls from a life of prostitution by giving them marriage dowries.
Nicholas lived in the 4th century
• and was Bishop of Myra
• in modern-day Turkey.
Many images depict him as a cross between a Bishop and Father Christmas.
Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus via the Dutch name "Sinterklaas".
The spirit of St. Nicholas lives on in modern charitable giving at Christmas time.
And not only the spirit of St. Nicholas,
• but the spirit of Jesus.
In this morning's Gospel, Jesus says to John the Baptist's disciples,
• "Go and tell John what you hear and see:
• the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
• the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
• and the poor have good news brought to them."
In a strange twist, our modern, secular Operation Santa Claus is very close to Christian belief:
• the disabled walking with horses;
• the dying given comfort;
• the poor given good news.
As an SCMP headline put it 2 weeks ago,
• "It's about giving with our hearts – that's what Christmas is about."
We can secularise everything, but you can't keep God down.
On Thursday I was at an assembly here in the school.
It was about Christmas charity.
One of the teachers,
• against all his personal beliefs,
• but to provoke the students,
• said that he was bored with Christmas charities and their annual requests;
• that Christian charities normally impose their beliefs on people;
• and people should help themselves anyway.
Then it was my turn to tell the students about three charities I admire.
I showed them a Christmas gift catalogue, a condom and I took my shirt off!
It was Heifer International's Christmas catalogue.
The condom was for the Cathedral's HIV Education Centre.
And under my shirt I had a Christian Aid T-Shirt from the Jubilee 2000 campaign:
"Break the chains of debt".
Our Christian vision for this time of year is rooted in the Hebrew tradition
• the tradition that formed Jesus.
Like Isaiah saying
• "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
• Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.
• He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.
• He will come and save you."
• Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
• then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy."
That reveals the difference between our Christian vision and the secular charitable vision.
"Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense."
For us, Advent is not just about charity;
• not just about remembering the sick, the disabled, the poor,
• those who are so much less fortunate than we are.
The charitable vision is wonderful and godly,
• but it still leaves us rich in our castle and the poor at our gate.
It also leaves us with only ourselves to answer to.
The Advent vision includes God's judgement.
God's judgement on the structures that keep the rich so rich
• and the poor so poor.
God's judgement on the values that mean so much is spent on beauty and youth
• and relatively little is spent on the disfigured and the elderly.
God's judgement on lifestyles that accumulate so much and consume such quantities
• yet pay little attention and give few resources to the spiritual and holy.
In Advent we look forward to God's presence amongst us in the birth of Jesus.
We look forward with hope to the comfort of God's peace.
But in Advent we remember that God doesn't come amongst us like Santa,
• to lift us on to his knee,
• give us lovely warm hug
• and another present.
God doesn't enter our world to confirm the status quo.
God comes with vengeance and terrible recompense.
God in Christ challenges our human way of doing things.
God shines his spotlight on all that we hold dear and asks,
• "Does this fit with my vision for the world?"
At the Advent Carol Service at St. John's two Sundays ago,
• this bidding prayer was used:
"We are gathered to proclaim and receive into our hearts the good news of the coming of God's kingdom, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate with confidence and joy the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
"We pray that we may respond in penitence and faith to the glory of his Kingdom, its works of justice and its promise of peace, its blessing and its hope.
"And as we seek to renew our allegiance to God's loving purpose, we pray for all who at this time especially need his pity and protection: the sick in body, mind or spirit; those who suffer from loss of dignity or loss of hope; the victims of poverty, injustice and oppression; those who face the future with fear, or walk in the shadow of death."
Advent is a time to practice what we pray.
It's a time to open our hearts and lives to God's judgement
• and to prepare for Christ's coming amongst us.
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