Dear Santa:
This year I want a nice
story about a Christmas Baby from a distinguished family; a comforting report
about a child whose actual father is not a debatable issue; a report of an
infant well clothed, born in a stately home or splendid hospital suite. I long
for a tasteful announcement of his Nativity sent to a selected list of family
and friends, with a communique exclusively to the Times. I expect a
refined Messiah who will measure up to our standards of dress and
behavior, including a suitable marriage with an appropriate number of children.
Furthermore, Santa, I hope for an elegant, understated conclusion to his
earthly ministry, neither unsightly nor spectacular.
I also want a Church that
guarantees for its members an inner glow of serene holiness accompanied by
worldly successes; a Church which provides instant and worthwhile associations
- and perhaps - though optional, some genuine friendships. I prefer a Church
that provides simple, infallible teachings in all matters. I dream of a Church
with Services as inspiring as the movies E.T. and The Ten
Commandments - with clergy and laypeople above criticism. I yearn for a
Church that will never change and will be available to me whenever I require -
comparable to the Florida Light and Power Company or to a hospital
emergency room.
A further word about
clergy: kindly provide some priests like the lovely cleric played by Bing
Crosby in The Bells of Saint Mary's - and if we must, like the
saintly nun played by Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette.
Moreover, Santa, you might inform the clergy that if they want to be
successful [you know, substantial membership with a lavish budget], they must
imitate the current virtues of fast and cheap; they must become a
McChurch of sorts!
Finally, Santa, I really
pine for some changes on God's part! I favor a more easily understood deity
with a tasteful degree of majesty, a God who will dictate some new,
intelligible, and unambiguous Scriptures. I long for a Creator who will
refashion the universe without hurricanes, illness, and human cruelty. I prefer
a God who will always reward us good people with victories and who will not
permit bad things to happen to good people. I can fully endorse a God who will
meet my very reasonable expectations.
In other words, Santa, all
I want for Christmas is a Christ, a Church, and a God designed to my
specifications. That's all!
Love, Richard
Memo to: Richard
From: John the Baptist
Your letter to Santa, who
is known here as Nicholas of Myra (a former bishop), has been referred to me
for a reply.
At the outset I want to
make it clear that my vocation as a prophet does not include putting a damper
on the coming holiday season. I'm not even going to suggest "putting Christ
back into Christmas," because that exhortation has become one of the stock
clichés of these weeks. Instead, as a prophet, I am called to cite the
discrepancies between God's purposes and the loyalties and actions of most
people. My job description includes a charge to all human beings to reflect
upon their corporate and individual lives, to reconsider and reorder some of
their priorities and allegiances. In theological language, I call upon all
women and men to "repent," to make an about-face on some aspects of their
lives, to alter their ways of looking at life, to take on God's viewpoint, to
feel genuine regret for some of what they have done and left undone, and, to
align their hearts and minds with God's intentions.
In that context, I must
inform you that your Christmas wishes fall very short of God's purpose
for Christmastide. You might recall that when I was in prison and heard about
the ministry of my cousin Jesus, known to us as "Joshua," my own disciples went
to determine whether he was the Messiah. It was not clear one way or the other,
because he was not promoting a new, peaceful, political order expected of the
Messiah. Yet his ministry went deeper; through Him, lives are changed for the
better, even made whole. A few realized that if people would truly accept him
as God's Word, we would be saved from the false promises of pretenders, and
that a new political order would emerge naturally from hearts and minds aligned
with God's Word.
Richard, I mention all of
this, because we won't rewrite history. Jesus was born neither under the
circumstances you'd prefer nor to the family you'd select. (Not all that is
good comes from the British Isles.) Moreover, the less-than-elegant conclusion
to his earthly ministry, both unsightly and spectacular, has had a lasting
impact upon history. Be grateful that his Crucifixion, Resurrection, and
Ascension mean, at the very least, that your life can be transfigured
over and over again to a greater alignment with the Creator's intent.
Furthermore, shame on you
for your self-serving notions of the Church. The Church is the assembly of
God's ordinary and imperfect people, all of whom - including you - are on a
pilgrimage, a journey of becoming closer and more faithful in love to God and
each other. You seem to want a Church of perfected puppets somehow oozing a
sappy religiosity. That's just plain shallow!
Regarding a more exact
Bible, we here are convinced that the one you have incorporates the Word of God
within its words. Part of the human journey includes efforts to interpret its
meanings for each age.
Richard, how dare you
request changes in God's Ways to meet your requirements! Read again the "Who do
you think you are?" chapters in the Book of Job! Review the passages where God
reprimands Job; those passages also speak to your request. To jog your memory
here is a paraphrased sampling of God's rebuke: "Who are you to give advice
without knowledge? ... I'll ask the questions, and you'll answer.
... Where were you when I created the universe? You give me
answers, when and if ever you have the understanding to do so."
A Blessed Advent to you,
Richard, and may you grow in love and wisdom as you await Christmas Day. And,
by the way, Nicholas sends his love, too.
My fellow parishioners, is the
New Testament Jesus of Nazareth, heralded by John the Baptist, the One you and
I eagerly affirm as God's Messiah? Or, would we prefer a Christ more palatable
to our individual wants? Is the coming Feast of the Incarnation merely a
holiday of sentimental piety? Or, is the Nativity of Christ a celebration of
God's gift of His Word? Are we invited to fit sentimentally contrived
Bethlehems into our lives? Or are we invited to fit our lives gracefully within
the real Bethlehem's borders? Advent challenges us to rethink and answer
honestly these questions - and perhaps others about our expectations of God and
the Church. We have two weeks remaining to face up to the gaps between the
Creator's Ways and our own, and perhaps to make a revitalized commitment to
God's Truth "that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer." Amen.