‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’
2 Corinthians 4:4
***
I entered the large shopping complex and there He was, front, centre and large, enthroned in his palace. There He was, ‘the Reason for the Season’. The One who is always encouraging the children to come to him, and woe betide anyone who wants to stop them. They know (for they have been taught) that this smiling face is the source of goodness, of blessing and joy.
So, it’s that time again. Arguably the major religious festival of the year, the crowds are gathering, many planning to be at home to spend this ‘worship’ time with family. Indeed, it is common to hear it said that “spending time with family, particularly the children, is what it is all about really isn’t it”.
As I reflected on this scene, the lines of children coming to Him eyes wide open and full of expectation as His welcoming smile beamed down on them, into my mind came another scene. This was not one of unadulterated bliss but of a woman’s grief, pain and loss, a woman who cried out “they have stolen Him away and we don’t know where they’ve put Him”. In my reflection, I was tempted to apply that cry of loss to this current great religious festival, this worship of the beaming figure in the shopping centre who has society in bondage.
Santa Clause, Father Christmas, Santa are the names he goes by, but whatever, he and his attractional spirits, the Un-Holy Trinity of Materialist, Consumerist and Hedonist (good time-ist) has society in thrall at this special religious time of Santa-Mass.
Oh yes we might, many do, say, but it’s harmless really, just a time for a break at the end of a hard year, and the opportunity to have a good time together, to catch up with family and friends, and so what if we spoil the children a little and go a bit overboard with the presents? These, under the smiling gaze of Santa, are the ‘Reason for the season’ aren’t they? This is certainly the impression that a tour of the shopping mall gives, but that is because ‘They have stolen Him away and we don’t know where they have put Him’.
What has been stolen we might ask? The answer to that question can be found in the name. The name of this time is still ‘Christ-mass’, although that most cunning of all creatures, the serpent who poisened Paradise’s peace and harmony, is working hard to get it renamed, and slowly succeeding! However, in that name is the word, the title, of Christ. It is He who has been stolen, indeed ‘They have stolen Him away’. Walking around the shopping mall gives little hint of why Christmas is called that, for he is stolen and it’s not harmless.
Those lines of children, aided and abetted by their parents, are being taught to engage in a ‘worship’ experience, the focus of that ‘worship’ being themselves. It is being reinforced that life is all about them, for them to have, choose, enjoy only what they want. They are being raised to join what is increasingly the ‘Selfie-stick’ society in which it is ‘all about me’.
Parents will say it’s harmless because they will grow out of it, they will learn that Santa is not real. Yes they will, but they will become older children, adolescents, adults who continue with the ‘Santa’ religion, ‘Santianity’, where life is symbolized by the selfie-stick, that is it is ‘all about me’; about getting what I want not giving, being served not serving; about being free to cherry-pick what I want to consume; about having a life that has to be entertaining and struggle-free. Whereas the One stolen from the Shopping Mall gives no such view of life but in fact the opposite, that is why the stealing of Christmas is not harmless.
The cult of Santa is now very large, insidiously obliterating, from home to the workplace to the shopping mall, the Christ whose title is still in the name of the season. That obliteration is the cause of the ongoing degradation of society, and so it is most definitely not harmless!
Christmas is perhaps the greatest annual symbol that society has now descended into a thoroughly pagan culture which is why those who still serve the ‘Stolen One’ must urgently learn how, because we simply don’t know how, to do ‘pagan mission’.
The real ‘reason for the season’ has been stolen from the shopping mall, the home and society in general. The result is, as described by a former British Prime Minister, the ‘slow motion moral collapse of society’. That is why the Santa cult is not harmless but, with its ‘Un-Holy Trinity’ of Materialism, Consumerism and Hedonism, is a powerful and growing symbol of that ‘collapse’.
Standing in the shopping mall, those tomb-side words on that chill first Easter morning came to me, “They have stolen Him away and we don’t know where they have put Him”, words true for most contemporary Australians. But worse, society’s degraded state of spiritual desiccation is now so far advanced that most don’t even know there has been a theft!
The only possible antidote to this is the return of the Stolen One to western culture, and the only possible agent for that is the ‘Church’. This is not the church that we mostly see but the one portrayed in the New Testament, a Spirit-powered dynamic body (indeed the body of the Stolen One) that conquers the spirits of the age, Santa’s little helpers, the ‘gods’ of the culture.
For that to happen Christians must wake up and the church must be set free (unbound) from its own ‘gods’ of form, style, tradition and doing it ‘my way’, which translates for many church members into the way I like it! A shocking resemblance here to the ‘it’s all about me’ mindset of society.
Perhaps one way an individual can do this is to insert Christian content into those Christmas lunch or BBQ-type conversations many of us will have, maybe by politely suggesting that the name Christmas might have some beneficial relevance to our lives and to what is happening in society. Particularly in relation to many of the concerns most people will agree with, particularly when they think about what sort of society their children and grandchildren will grow up in. This might just plant some ‘Gospel seeds’ that can grow in the person’s life. What better Christmas present than that could we possibly give!
On our expeditions to the shops, we will see “The One who reigns supreme in the shopping mall, always encouraging the children to come to him” for they “know (for they have been taught) that this smiling face is the source of goodness, of blessing, of joy”.
Except he is not, he is a lie! (What is that anagram of Santa again?) The real ‘Reason for the Season’ is the only true source of goodness, of blessing, of joy and hope in an age when so many, especially the young, lack any hope. But sadly-
He is stolen and it is not harmless!
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