3[rd] Sunday in Advent:  Hollowell.  16 December 2013
[ Letter from Virginia O'Hanlon to New York Sun newspaper ] 
 Christmas without Santa Claus is unthinkable.  He forms an integral part of the story and he links, or so it seems to me, the account of Jesus's birth in the Bible, with our own childhood and our memories of Christmas. 
St Nicholas in the 4[th] century.  Putting coins in children's shoes. 
Mixed up with legends of all kinds.  6[th] December St. Nicholas Day. 
The patron saint of a motley collection of people:  sailors/ merchants/ archers, thieves, children and pawnbrokers. 
The portly man we know today owes much to an American poem written in 1823.  Clement Clarke Moore  -  "A Visit from St. Nicholas" 
Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,
1993.   Grave found on a Greek island believed to be that of St. Nicholas; Turks want him back. 
A season shrouded in story and legend.  As I peered into the manager in the Basilica of the Nativity.  Who were the wise men?  What was that star in the East ?  
Did the Shepherds really see angels ?  
Does not matter.  Because what comes out of the whole is a much bigger thing:  the  teachings  of Jesus and his message of hope and Salvation for all. 
The message of loving one's neighbour. Translated into the buckets outside Waitrose. 
And into that mix goes Charles Dickens underlining, though he is never explicit as I understand it,  the message of Jesus's compassion for the poor. 
"At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, said the gentleman taking up the pen,   " it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer greatly at the present time....." 
" Are there no prisons? And the union workhouses?  The treadmill and the poor law are in full vigour ? 
" A few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink and means of warmth  We choose this time above all others because it is a time when want is keenly felt and Abundance rejoices.  What can we put you down for ? " 
The need remains today. 
All of this began in that manager in Bethlehem. 
We are left with loving our neighbour. 
So to adapt that letter from  Virginia to the Editor of the New York Sun: 
 Dear Editor:
Some of my friends say there is no God.  Please tell me the truth....
And the Editor replies: 
No God ? He lives he lives for ever !  A thousand years from now Virginia , nay ten thousand years from now on, he will continue to make glad the heart of humanity, through the life  and teaching of Jesus Christ.


 

 




 
