Pray for one another
as we celebrate and share Christ’s love
to our communities
in this prolonged season of COVID
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:16)
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God, Santa and Christmas Love
If you were to picture what God would look like (an interesting question as God is a Spirit – though Christ said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”), what image comes to mind? Does He appear angry, or might He appear to be a kindly, older man – perhaps a little like “Santa?” Has God “mellowed with age?”
This is an important question. Christian author and pastor A.W. Tozer writes:
For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God…”
Pondering the above in preparing my message for Sunday, I “Googled” “God and Santa.” To my surprise, this opened up awareness of what has been quite an ongoing discussion.
From strange photos…
to rather strange thoughts…
I found that a great deal has been written and shared on this topic, and I don’t recommend such reading. Santa has been referred to as “God with training wheels,” and it is observed that just as believing in Santa can be a motivation to be “good” in order to receive gifts, so believing in God can motivate one to be “good” in order to receive eternal rewards. See: confusing-santa-claus-god
While such a characterization of God is both ignorant and unfair, perhaps it reflects a common misunderstanding of the Christian Faith as a system of works and man-made efforts to win God’s favour. It is more of a characterization of dead religion than of true Christian Faith.
The Good News of our Faith is that God who is Holy, has come to rescue people like us, created in His Image, yet hopelessly separated from Him by our sin. We neither sought Him nor earned His love. You might say that we were on his “naughty list.” Rather than being delivered a “lump of coal,” God has become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, has dwelt among us, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, risen from the dead and now intercedes to the Father on our behalf. As Paul describes it:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8).
Discipleship Journal published an excellent article titled, Santa Claus & The Message of the Gospel by Gretchen Passantino. Telling the story of the historical Saint Nicholas, a martyr for the Christian Faith, she contrasts him from what his namesake has become today:
When our oldest daughter was not quite I three, we told her about a special Christian who lived a long time ago: “His name was Nicholas, and we call him St. Nicholas because saint means someone who belongs to God, just like we do. In St. Nicholas’ town there were many poor children. They didn’t have enough food, clothes, or toys. St. Nicholas used his money to buy food, clothes, and toys for the poor children. He didn’t want them to be embarrassed by his gifts, so he gave secretly.
“St. Nicholas also told everyone about Jesus and how much God loved them. Many people became Christians because of what St. Nicholas said. Then some mean people who hated Jesus put St. Nicholas in jail to keep him from telling people about Jesus and from helping people. St. Nicholas kept on telling people about Jesus until the mean people finally had him killed.
“Because of how much St. Nicholas loved Jesus, and because of the many gifts he gave the poor children of his town, we still remember St. Nicholas at Christmas time. All of the gifts he gave, and all of the Christmas presents we give, are to remind us of the very best gift anyone ever gave: when God the Father gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to us for our salvation.
”Today there are many people who don’t know the truth about St. Nicholas. They call him ‘Santa Claus,’ and they tell children pretend stories about him living at the North Pole and having elves and reindeer. But we know the truth, and when we see a department store Santa Claus or a picture of Santa Claus in a magazine, we remember the real Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, who loved Jesus so much and whose life and death remind us about God’s gift of Jesus Christ to us.”
Here is a link to the whole article: santa-claus-the-message-of-the-gospel/
This weekend, as we come to the third Sunday of Advent, our theme is “Love.” The love of our Heavenly Father to us, shown so perfectly through the gift of His Son. As we have been so loved by Him, so we are called to love one another. As John writes,
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18).
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COVID UPDATE
On Nov 30th, 2021 Dr. Bonnie Henry announced a change to the Mask and Gathering and Event orders, due to the new Variance of Concern, Omicron.
While the inconsistent contents of various orders can lead to some confusion and disagreement among people, please encourage your congregations to keep eyes focused on Christ and to put the interests of others ahead of their own. The welfare of others is more important that one’s personal freedom. (Philippians 2:1-11). May we be positive witnesses to those we seek to reach with the Good News of great joy.
Here is what we do know regarding Worship Service Policies:
Mask Mandate: Masks are required for all indoor settings including faith services. The mask is required for everyone 5 years of age and older, and includes choirs. Masks can be removed to speak or pray up front if social distancing is maintained, or for communion.
Gathering and Events: Faith Services must now limit capacity to 50% of seating capacity unless the church decides to require everyone in attendance to provide proof of vaccine. In calculating seating capacity it would be wise to use the load occupancy of the facility in which the service will be held. (This number is the seating capacity, as determined by the Fire Marshal, and posted in your church). This number will in most cases be higher than the number of seats you have set up in your church.
Here is the information from the BC Centre for Disease Control: bccdc.ca/health-info/faith-based-spiritual-and-worship-practices
Here is a link to the Provincial Health Orders on Masks, as updated on Monday, December 6: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/covid-19/info/restrictions#masks
Please check our LPD Website to keep up to date with the latest regulations and protocols: https://www.lpd-efcc.ca/covid-19/
For personal assistance regarding COVID Policy and the Canadian Recovery Hiring Program (CHRP) and COVID Protocols, please contact Josephine at our district office.
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Upcoming LPD Events:
LPD Annual Conference
March 4,5 2022
– at Mill Lake Church in Abbotsford
please mark your calendars – details will follow
