SAINT NICHOLAS and the BIRTH of CHRIST (A Christmas Sunday Sermon)
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SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE BIRTH OF CHRIST (A Christmas Sunday sermon) John 1:1-18 Jolly old St. Nicholas Lean your ear this way Don't you tell a single soul What I'm going to say Christmas Eve is coming soon Now, you dear old man Whisper what you'll bring to me Tell me if you can… Such are the opening lines to that well-known song that originated as a civil war era poem written by Emily Huntington Miller. Interestingly the music to which the poem is connected was composed by John Pierson McCaskey, the former mayor of Lancaster after whom the J.P. McCaskey High School is named! Around the same time that Emily wrote her poem, Benjamin Hanby (in 1864) wrote "Up on the House Top" with its graphic words, Up on the housetop, reindeer pause, Out jumps good old Santa Claus. Down through the chimney with lots of toys All for the little ones, Christmas joys… But at this time of celebration of the birth of Jesus, how did we ever end up with this red- caped, white bearded, overweight man named St. Nicholas or Santa Claus who rides around in a sleigh driven by 8 – make that 9 if the visibility is bad – reindeer? The answer goes back a long, long, long ways. Hollywood recently came out with the quite good film about 19th century Charles Dickens and his writing of The Christmas Carol (the film quite badly entitled "The Man Who Invented Christmas"), but the traditions associated with "jolly old Saint Nicholas" go back much further than the 19th century. Indeed they go back to the 4th century. So bear with me for a few minutes as I set the stage historically… It is difficult, in America, to imagine a time when to merely BE a Christian would run a person the risk of physical harm or even death. It has been decades since Hollywood produced films like The Robe, or Demetrius and the Gladiators – films that portrayed the kind of persecution early Christians faced. But that kind of persecution has been very real and in some parts of the world continues even to this day. Following the death and resurrection of Christ, the early followers of Christ (beginning with Stephen, then followed by James, Peter and Paul), all faced tremendous persecution: first at the hands of the Jews, then later at the hands of the Romans. Because of its perceived threat to the throne, Christianity was singled out, almost from the beginning, for persecution. Nero blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome and subsequent emperors either likewise condemned the Christians or turned a blind eye to reports of Christians being persecuted. In the middle of the 3rd century, the emperor Decius issued a decree requiring public sacrifices to the pagan gods in an act meant to show allegiance to the emperor and the Roman state. Christians, by and large, refused to comply with this decree, and so a period of even greater persecution against Christians swept through the empire. Decius' successor to the throne, Valerian, took this persecution of the Christian church a step further, making certain that many of the church's leaders were arrested, imprisoned and then killed. This persecution continued on and off until the emperor Galerius issued the Edict of Toleration in 311. Soon after him Constantine, a successful military general (who had become a Christian in the midst of war) came into power and in 313 he legalized Christianity. Although Christianity had continued to survive as a persecuted entity up until that time, the church truly came into a new age with Constantine's legalization of Christianity. Gone now were the fears of persecution, extradition, abolishment and death. And so Christianity came to really thrive. Although the church had established ecclesiastical orders centuries earlier, now one could serve openly as a pastor, or a bishop. And this brings us up to the story of a man named Nicholas… Tradition has it that Nicholas was born on March 15, 270 – during the period of great persecution of the Christian church. He was born to Christian parents in Patara and later lived in Myra – both small Greek towns located in what is now known as the Antalya Province, on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Nicholas became a Christian at a young age and in time became a church leader. During the reign of Diocletian, in the late 3rd century, there was another wave of persecution of Christians as Diocletian immediately began to purge the Roman army of any Christians. By the time Nicholas was 33 a general persecution of Christians was underway. This resulted in Nicholas, who had recently become a bishop in the church, being imprisoned – an imprisonment that lasted until he was finally released after Constantine became emperor. The stories of Nicholas are ancient and therefore unverifiable. But an entire canon of traditions have come to surround the life of this man. This morning I would like to have us consider only the stories that are best substantiated and of the greatest importance to us in noting three points about Nicholas (and his bearing upon our celebrations of Christmas)… 1. Nicholas' generosity. In the best attested to of all the stories, Nicholas became aware of a poor family in which were three young adult age daughters. As the father, because of his poverty, had been unable to put together a dowry (a collection of money or objects offered to a suitable suitor) for his daughters it seemed inevitable that the daughters would face an impoverished single life, possibly being drawn into prostitution just to survive. Having himself grown up in a wealthy Christian home, Nicholas – and this is the traditional story – secretly dropped a bag of gold coins through the window of the three girl's home three nights in a row. So, three daughters, three bags of gold, over a three-night span. Supposedly, it was on the third night that the father of the three girls caught Nicholas in the act of dropping the gold coins through the open window. At this the father fell to his knees and thanked Nicholas. This secret act of kindness allowed the father to establish a dowry for each girl thus securing them (most likely) a suitor and freeing them from the prospects of poverty and prostitution. The tradition of Santa Claus secretly bringing gifts in the middle of the night to countless boys and girls around the world flows out of this single story about Nicholas. 2. Nicholas' character. As already noted bishop Nicholas came to face the persecution of Rome and tradition has it that he was imprisoned for some time. But later, once Christianity was legalized (and Nicholas was freed from prison) Nicholas became quite vocal in speaking out against injustice. In a fairly well corroborated account, Nicholas once saved three men from execution. Because Nicholas had become convinced of the men's innocence, just as the men were to be executed, Nicholas supposedly suddenly appeared, pushed his way forward to the executioner, and physically interrupted the execution, angrily accusing a juror with accepting a bribe. Nicholas' exposure of the corrupt juror resulted in the freeing of the accused men. Today Christmas is often viewed as a time to show special mercy or kindness to those who are in need. The Salvation Army's bell ringers pull at our heart-strings when they remind us of how good we have it…pleading with us to show mercy to those whose circumstances are far different than our own. 3. (Lastly this morning) Nicholas' great conviction that our Savior was God in the flesh. Following the Edict of Toleration and the subsequent coronation of Constantine, Christianity (by 313) became legalized. This newfound freedom allowed the church to operate and express itself freely and openly. But, and maybe this is no surprise, once Christianity was able to come out into the light, its internal disagreements also came to be known. And major among those disagreements was a disagreement regarding the person and nature of Jesus Christ. Everyone had always agreed that Jesus was no ordinary man. How he was born, the way in which he lived, and the things that were said by him and about him all supported the notion that Jesus was truly divine – God in the flesh. But how could that be? Christianity had been born in the era of Roman rule but Rome itself basked in the glory of Greece. And the Greeks had perfected the mythology of the gods – replete with stories about an interaction of the gods with men, though often in quite lascivious terms. Was the story of Jesus and his birth more a reflection of this Greek mythology than it was truth? And if so, was the perpetuation of the idea of a virgin birth just the mere continuation of a pagan tradition? Arius, a church leader from this early 4th century era, became the main proponent arguing against the idea that Jesus was both human and divine. He did so in an attempt to uphold a high view of God. But in doing so he had not only the early traditions of the church against him but scripture as well. In an attempt to bring unity to the Christian church – the very entity that Constantine had now come to embrace – Constantine called for a church council of the entire Roman empire to settle this question regarding the nature of Jesus Christ. This was the first of seven ecumenical councils that would take place over the next several hundred years.