To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

That your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless

Happy St Nicholas Day! S’pradznikom! The joy of the feast to you!

There are many stories of this saint, how he rescued children from prostitution, how he feed the poor, how he guided the lost. Of course his generousity and joy are the pattern from which we draw the charicature that is “Santa Claus”. And even in the cheesiest mall-centre Santa there is a connection with this saint if, as in Miracle on 34th St, there is “kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.” But in the midst of all this fluff, there is this curious story:

No less was Nicholas known for his zeal for the truth. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council of the 318 Fathers at Nicaea in 325; upon hearing the blasphemies that Arius brazenly uttered against the Son of God, Saint Nicholas struck him on the face. Since the canons of the Church forbid the clergy to strike any man at all, his fellow bishops were in perplexity what disciplinary action was to be taken against this hierarch whom all revered. In the night our Lord Jesus Christ and our Lady Theotokos appeared to certain of the bishops, informing them that no action was to be taken against him, since he had acted not out of passion, but extreme love and piety.

That story gets a lot of play, today, although it does not come from any sources contemporary with the Saint. It’s comes up rather late in the mythology and is usually discounted. It’s the “gets lot of play today” that troubles me.

Why do I discount that story? Because St Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, was too deeply engrossed in the teachings of Jesus, the man who went to his death offering no defense, the man who said “turn the other cheek. Only later – when the church got taken over and corrupted by the Byzantine crown (and the Russian crown, and the British crown, and the American presidency – everywhere the Church conforms to secular rulers in order to get more secular power for herself) – only later do we need to imagine a Bishop punching a heretic in the face and Mary and Jesus blessing him for it.

Merry Christmas, Infidel!

And a lot of folks want to imagine our bishops or clergy or laity should be doing this now: punching infidels in the face.

How does this contrast to Jesus?

I learned recently that it takes a LOT of words to be right. It takes no words at all to be in relationship to the Truth. When we are right (and everyone else is wrong) we spend our days making them right, too. But when we are in relationship to truth (that is, Jesus) we want to draw others into that relationship. Truth is: we can’t make that relationship happen by punching others in the face, by beating them up in arguments, by forcing them in to the corner with laws, by hitting them over the head with a Bible or an icon.

“Let your good deeds shine before others,” says Jesus. “That they may praise your Father in heaven.” “They will know you are my disciples,” he says. “By your love.”

We like the story of St Nicholas’ fist fight with Arius because it lets us pull the same tricks on the infidels around us: on the internet, on the street corner.

Today is a day to give gifts in many traditions. This, in America, gets transferred over to December 25th and totally secularised into the day I like to call “Consumptionmass”. How would Jesus react if we told him we celebrate his birthday by spending hundred and sometimes thousands of dollars on junk? That we feel slighted if we do not get enough junk from our friends or, conversely, that we feel slighted if they do not make as big a deal as we would like over the junk we gave them?

In this light, let’s take a look at the “War on Christmas – because quite a few of us Christians are getting freaking uppity and pushy about it. As if it is our right to be comforted whilst shopping by a very thin veneer of cultural religion. This will stand before the throne of God on judgement day and say, “They knew I was your disciple because I made shop girls say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me after I purchased $500 of toys and blue jeans in the Mall”. We are confusing our faith with their shopping. And we want them to comfort us for caving in to the world.

Personally, I’m happier the further “Merry Christmas” gets from Wal*Mart, the Mall and Amazon.com.

I know Jesus is not the reason I’m shopping. I don’t need to pretend otherwise. Where is the “tender mercy” from on high? Where is love that will “over flow”? Not in my wallet. Not in my bank or my credit cards.

Let’s be like Jesus – instead of our mythological boxer. Let’s be like the *real* St Nicholas. Let them have their consumption. Let’s give our stuff away. Let’s let the world kill us over and over. Let’s love them further, stronger, deeper than they’ve ever been loved before.

Then, we’ll be Christians.