Most people’s concept of Christmas is dominated by a jolly guy who gets his red & white suits (I don’t think he supports North Adelaide Roosters in the SANFL) from a menswear store for the bigger sized gentleman. He allegedly has a couple of lists & everyone’s name appears on one or the other. One is headed Naughty while the other is titled Nice. Make the Nice list & you get good stuff; fall over into the Naughty list & you get nothing, or even worse…
How often do we transfer this picture of Father Christmas across to our heavenly Father? Sure, we talk grace but when it comes down to it I know too many Christians who beat up on themselves because they don’t think they deserve good things from God, or else are trying really hard to be ‘good’ people in a whole range of ways to try to make his Nice list.
I’m so eternally thankful that my heavenly Father is not Father Christmas & works in a totally different way.
You see, Jesus shows us that God’s standard to make the Nice list & avoid the Naughty list is loving him with all our heart, mind & soul (in other words, making God my #1 priority in life with everything else revolving around him) and loving others as ourselves (treating others as we want them to treat us, or living in giving relationships instead of just what we can get from the people around us) – see Matthew 22:34-40. If we were to take that seriously in our lives, where would we end up – on the Nice or the Naughty list?
Seriously – think about that for a minute…
I don’t say this to make people feel bad about themselves or to lay a guilt trip. Christmas only makes sense when we realise that on our own, if we live only under God’s expectations on us, we end up in a place where we don’t want to be.
But that’s when the gift of the Son of God becomes all the more amazing & miraculous. God isn’t Father Christmas. He doesn’t give us what we deserve.
He gives us what we need.
The Jewish people of Jesus day believed there were 2 types of people – God’s chosen people who were able to live in relationship with him because they had the right family line, the right rules to live by, the right way to worship, and then there was everybody else. They called them Gentiles & they had no right to any sort of access to God. They were outsiders, excluded from any sort of good thing from God because they didn’t deserve it.
But then Paul writes these words to conclude his letter to the church of Rome:
Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith – to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27 NIV)
It’s one of those times when Paul’s words come tumbling out of his mouth in a big confusing jumble. What he’s basically saying is that in Jesus God reveals a mystery that the Old Testament prophets foretold – God doesn’t give people what they deserve; he gives us what we need. To show that, he gives this grace those very people whom the Jews had excluded from God’s good gifts – the Gentiles.
In other words, God shows that he’s about giving people what they need & not what they deserve by giving good things to those who were considered the least deserving – all non-Jewish people. That means us!
It all points to the same idea: this Christmas, we celebrate God’s greatest gift to people – his own presence with us in the person of his Son. He doesn’t give that to people who think they deserve it; he gives it to people who need it.
He gives it to people like you & me…
In the Advent Conspiracy material they talked a lot about Loving All being about social justice & giving to anyone who is in need. I’ve wanted to bring it back a step because, when it comes down to it, we’re all in need. When we confess that & recognise the gift God gives to us of his Son, then it changes the way we see the people around us. We’re all in need. In Christ, God gives us all our hearts, minds & souls need. When we find that for ourselves, we’ve got something good to give. God wants us to give that gift of love, grace & compassion indiscriminately – not just to those who we think deserve it, but to everyone who needs it.
Because, in the end, that’s all of us…
God’s peace be with you this Christmas season.
If you don’t make Santa’s nice list, at least you get coal in your stocking. At least the price of coal isn’t too bad – It could be worse – he could give you Euro’s instead.