Is Church Like Santa?

Remember when you were a child and your parents told you about Santa Claus? A wonderful picture would have been built in your mind about this kind, jolly, generous man and what his coming at Christmas meant. Little hearts were filled with hope as we waited in delightful anticipation of his coming, and imaginations were fuelled with the thrill of undiscovered mystery – every child held captive between desperately wanting to know what gifts they would receive and not wanting the mystery to end.

Our behaviour would be our best to ensure being on the ‘nice’ list and not the ‘naughty’ list. And we probably noticed that the ‘spirit of Christmas’ accompanying the Christmas season seemed to bring out a warmer, more benevolent disposition in adults as well as embodying the ideals of peace on earth and goodwill to all men.

As children we believed in Santa because the people we trusted told us about him. Because Santa is a widely accepted idea culturally, there’s also pretty much no one likely to contradict what we had been told. We had no reason to question his existence or to believe he did not exist, and seeing his image splashed across the media and in all the shops, together with the presents left on Christmas day, would easily have persuaded us that he must be true.

As a kid you believe what your parents tell you, so we will continue to believe in Santa as long as they continue to sustain that false belief. Their deception is not intended to harm, but rather to offer hope and joy as we anticipate the pleasure of getting presents. They sustain the falsehood until it can no longer reasonably be denied, but even then, out of care and concern for others, the child that has just discovered the falsehood is then asked to perpetuate that lie for those that still believe. Because it’s a cultural thing, even adults we’ve never met before will cooperate with the lie, as though it’s an unspoken agreement that we will all pretend something is real when we know it isn’t. None of us want to be the one that breaks a child’s heart by telling them Santa is not real.

As we grew and matured, however, and our thinking abilities developed and refined, we probably began to ask probing questions about how Santa could get into the house when we didn’t have a chimney, or how it was that children we knew to have been very naughty still seemed to get presents? How much longer after this kind of questioning began in earnest did our parents persist with the fabrication? And how much longer might we as children have been willing to accept it? Perhaps the explanations given might temporarily satisfy an aroused curiosity, but it would only be for a time. Eventually we can draw no other conclusion than the truth that Santa is not real, and once revealed, we cease to believe any more. Thus illuminated to the truth, we then became free to appreciate our parents as the true source of the gifts instead of giving credit to a fictitious old fat guy in a red suit.

Discovering the truth about Santa was a process. It’s not like we went to bed one night fully believing, and woke up the next morning not believing at all. It was gradual process that involved accruing factual information over a period of time. There was also a gradual emotional preparation to enable us to accept what was true without being crushed by it. If you think about it, our parents took the time to plant and establish the concept of Santa and Christmas within us, and most places we went and people we dealt with co-operated with and confirmed the concept. Inadvertent slips by our parents and other adults over time, together with gossip heard in the schoolyard and our own observations would have gradually prepared us emotionally for the final confirmation of what we had begun to accept or feared to believe, that in all actuality Santa was no more than a fabrication.

In that same context, let us now begin to consider what we believe about Church. Is it a bit like our belief about Santa? How much of what you know, understand and believe about Church, or even being a Christian, is what has been learned through church, or that has been passed down as a cultural tradition? And having had nothing to contradict what you have been told, and little to no evidence to the contrary, have you ever had cause to question what you were taught?

I believe we have reached a point in time where as children of God and believers in Jesus Christ we must be like the child who is asking probing questions of our parents about Santa. We, however, must be willing to examine what we have understood of ‘Church’ in all it’s meanings; its purpose, the teachings it promulgates, the implicit attitudes it contains and the systems under which it functions. As we receive more revelation of the truth we will be freer to live more in the liberty of the Spirit and to appreciate our true Source.

And before you go getting upset with me for even suggesting such a thing, I’d like you to think about Martin Luther. These days we regard him as a hero of the faith and herald him as a pioneer reformer.  We admire his search for truth, and the boldness and tenacity it took to challenge the practices and beliefs of the church of his day.

For their part, the church of his day hated Luther. They were furious that his desire for truth, transparency and accountability threatened their comfort, their income and their spurious authority. They labelled him a heretic, excommunicated him and tried to kill him multiple times.

I am no Martin Luther, but I too am driven by a desire for truth, transparency and accountability. I am passionate about seeing people live an abundant, godly life in the freedom that Jesus gained for us – freedom in their hearts and minds from pain and fear and the burdens those things bring; freedom in their bodies from sickness and infirmity; and freedom spiritually to be complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God – without limitation.

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