Posted on 12/22/2015 2:07:29 PM PST by Kaslin
It's that time of year for us to realize how far societies tend to veer from the true essence of things. We live in a desperately superficial culture that is too often satisfied with veneers. If it's shiny, new and untouched by real life, it strangely gives us the false assurance that it will last forever.
Anyone can package up junk, put a nice shimmery bow on it and pass it off as the got-to-have-it-or-you'll-die item of the season. Even when what's inside is genuine and something we truly need, too many are content with the outer misleading packaging.
We've been consuming so much materially and ideologically, we've confused the packaging for the occasional essential stuff inside. In a selfie-obsessed, soundbite-fed, hashtag-driven world we are fixated with mere reflections and obvious distortions. Holidays have become exactly that. Are we okay with the reality that most of them have devolved into conduits for filling real or virtual store shelves with junk we don't need and meanings divorced from their original intent? I'm not going to blame capitalism. No one is forcing us to spend our money on emptiness.
Many of America's churches, sadly, lead in the superficialization of the most sacred of holidays by delivering an enticingly packaged Christ, all year round, who might as well be Santa. He's been so stripped of the true nature of who He is—love, mercy, grace, righteousness, righteous anger, compassion, intolerance (of sin), and forgiveness—that he’s become a caricature. Is it any wonder so many children put equal value in Christ and Claus? Interestingly, it's okay for Santa to be judgmental as he decides who has been naughty or nice. But today's westernized Jesus is someone who not only accepts everyone as they are, He's perfectly fine with them intentionally remaining as they are, sinful behaviors and all.
But this facsimile of Jesus denies us of the most beautiful gift of love He offers us: redemption and transformation. There is an ever-widening void in our spiritually craving culture that is being filled by relativism and revisionism. Jesus Christ and Saint Nicholas are hardly distinguishable as both are dim reflections of the real flesh and blood persons who represent(ed) each name. Jesus, the only Son of God, became one of us because our Creator loved us enough to rescue us from ourselves.
That deliverance was in the form of a child, born to a poor yet courageous teenage mother and a father who chose adoption over abandonment. Christ chose to die for us in a brutal display of self-sacrificial love. Saint Nicholas, a Greek who served as a bishop in Myra, Turkey during the 4th century, was a fierce defender of this Savior in a time when priests were killed for not renouncing their faith. He was one of the signers of the revolutionary Nicene Creed.
I like that Santa more. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against imaginative creations. I'm a creative professional, and I enjoy make-believe in the right place and time. Sadly, too many don't--or can't--distinguish between faith and fantasy and render holidays like Christmas meaningless. Instead, they fill it with commercial clutter instead of simple clarity.
There is a Savior who continues to love, continues to redeem and doesn't need to be repackaged for a 21st century world.
Excellent read on the true meaning of Christmas.
Doesn’t “need to be repackaged” — because He will repackage Himself (”I have become all things to all people so that some may be saved.”)
The truth stays the same, the style changes. We have ways to witness to the wonders of God that the 1st century didn’t have. And this was due to the obedience to the age old command, to subdue the earth (hence what we call technology and medicine, which has been better guarded from error than supposedly pure science, because it actually had to deliver something).
Rather than go all Amish (unless you really find God moving you to do that), reflect on “What hath God wrought?” It is a lot.
The problem isn’t what’s around us. It witnesses louder and louder every day. The problem is us! We ignore it with hearts colder than Frosty the Snowman.
I have never separated Santa Claus from the spirit. I don’t see the need to do that. Christ owns Christmas, all of it.
Santa is a nice parable. The classic story isn’t quite up to gospel, because Jesus came to help us, not beat us down, when we were, well, naughty. Some other countries’ Santa-like traditions have an evil figure doling out the punishment, which is closer to the gospel spirit. America, living on the idea of its own merit, came up with the naughty/nice Santa Claus.
I watched the ‘Santa Clause’ movie again the other day...the one with Tim whasisname. It was another effort to get emotion out of people. In many ways it was wholesome because it promoted respect for parents and caring for others.
However, as the movie ended, I thought to myself, “the little kids who are led into this will have their ‘believe-o-meters’ injured. They’ll have difficulty believing later in the unseen.
But then another thought occurred to me. “Maybe we don’t want them to believe easy...easy believism. Maybe we want them to be discriminating. Maybe it’s good for a college student to get sold a set of encyclopedias or a lemon car. Maybe it will make them careful the next time.”
I don’t mind careful. I want discriminating faith. As Josh McDowell wrote, I want to the seek “Evidence that demands a verdict.”
‘...the one with Tim whasisname.’
Yes, I know the one you mean. He seems to make pretty wholesome movies.
It’s a little off-topic, but I loved Galaxy Quest.
Santa Claus is a fictional character who is based partially on a real life person, St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a Catholic bishop who did have a white beard and loved children during a time when few other people did. The Roman Catholic Church has named him the patron saint of children.
Very nice. Merry Christmas to you and yours
Thank you. I’ve never thought the real story of Jesus and the fictional story of Santa were opposed to each other.
His day is December 6
Yes, only he went with the flow at Nicaea. There was nothing especially courageous about siding with the Athanasians.
I didn’t know that. I’m not Catholic myself, as you’ve probably figured out.
Nice info!
A positive post - good job!
Merry Christmas to you all!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year my friend.
Leaving for your trip?
And to all of you and yours as well.
Indeed... Merry Christmas, and “may God Bless us, every one of us.”
To a better year than this one past... I’ll tip a glass of bourbon back for each of you.
“To a better year than this one past...”
Yeah? Well that won’t be hard to pull off.
LOL!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
