Act of Gifting
By Rev Steven R
Mitchell
Mountain View
United Church, Aurora 12-22-2013
Based on Matt 2:11
and Legend of St Nicholas
For Children’s
Worship
Children
sing their 1st song, “Santa
Claus Is Coming to Town”.
Explore
with the children their understanding of what this song means to them.
This song was by
two men named John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie. Their publisher saw this song as strictly a
song for children and didn’t expect it to do much in sales. In November of 1934 singer Eddie Cantor made
this song an instant success and it has become one of the basic songs that we
sing during the Christmas Season. I
learned this song before I even started school with my grandmother Mitchell
singing it to me in the summer time as we would sing on the outdoor porch
swing.
Who is Santa Claus anyway?
Back in the early
days of Television, I use to watch everyday a program called Santa’s
Workshop. It was a special showing that
started on Dec 1st and it would end on Dec 24th with
Santa loading up his sleigh with all the toys that he was going to be
delivering that evening. Santa would
talk about all sorts of things on his show which came direct from his workshop
in the North Pole. He would talk about
how he had been reading all the letters that were sent to him by boys and girls
just like you. He would get interrupted
by his elves with problems that would be taking place out in the toy factory,
so he would show a cartoon while he would go and take care of those problems. But Santa spent a lot of time talking to us about
the true reasons for Christmas. Can you
tell me about the true meanings of Christmas?
I would like to
share with you a story that talks about a man who we have come to know as Santa
Claus. I beat you thinks I’m going to
talk about the baby Jesus as the person that we have come to know as Santa,
don’t you? Well, Jesus is the reason for
Santa Claus, but he is not Santa; they are two very different people.
About 300 years
after Jesus, there was a young man who lived in the country of what we now call
Turkey, in a town called Myra, and his name was Nicholas. Nicholas was from a very rich family who
happened to be Christians. Out of the
teachings about Jesus, Nicholas decided to become a minister and eventually
become a Bishop within the church. This
means that he was a very important person in the church.
Even though
Nicholas was very rich, he spent a lot of his time with those people in his
town who were very poor. Often he would
help them with what they needed without letting anyone know he was the one who
helped them out. It is said that he
became aware of a family who had lost all their money because the economy was
bad. This family had three daughters who
were grown up enough to get married, but couldn’t because there was no money
for their father to give to their future son-in-laws. It was customary in those days for the family
with a daughter to give a dowry to the future husband. But without a dowry, none of the girls could
marry and the family was too poor for them to stay at home.
So one night, while
they were all asleep, Nicholas walked by their window and through a bag of
money into the house. Because the girls
only had one pair of shoes and one pair of stockings, they would put them in
front of the fireplace at night so they would be dry the next morning. When Nicholas through that bag of money
through the window, the bag opened up and the money landed inside their shoes
and stockings! There was enough money that
all three of the girls were able to get married.
Eventually people
discovered that the gifts and help that they had been given had come from
Nicholas. Nicholas was especially fond
of children and they were the first people that Nick would give special gifts
to. Back in those early years when
Nicholas was a Bishop, he had to go to prison because of his faith in Jesus,
because being a Christian had not be seen as a good thing yet by the Roman
Empire. After a few years in prison the
new Empire Constantine became a Christian himself and made it okay for other
people to become Christians if they wanted to and freed Nicholas. In fact, Nicholas was one of the Bishops who
was at the Council of Nicene, where all the books of the New Testament were
decided on.
It was through St
Nicholas’ loving examples of giving to others that over time, people everywhere
started to give gifts on a particular day.
When the Dutch settlers first came to this country and settled on an
Island that we know as New York City, they developed how we think St Nicholas
would look like. This image has
developed in to the man we know as Santa Claus, dressed in bright red, with fur
trim, a rolly polly man with a long white beard. St Nicholas’ day was originally celebrated in
May, but by the early 1800’s had become merged with the celebration of Jesus’
birth.
(Children will sing
“Jingle Bells”)
It was during this
time that the song “Jingle Bells” was written.
The title was “One Horse Open Sleigh” and it was originally written for
to be sung at Thanksgiving time. But
once again, it seemed to capture the imagination of the nation and it very soon
became a standard to be sung during Advent and Christmas Tide. It was a common practice in those days to
adorn horses’ harnesses with straps bearing bells as a way to avoid collisions
at blind intersections as horse drawn sleighs in snow makes almost no
noise. The rhythm of the tune mimics
that of a trotting horse’s bells.
As we in America
become more accustom to blending St Nicholas with the birth of Jesus at Christmas,
the visual concept of t Santa Claus was born.
There was a Theology Profession at one of the Theological Seminaries in
New York City, who wrote a poem that has for ever set our image of Santa Claus. Dr Clement Moore wrote the poem “A Visit from
St. Nicholas” in 1812 for his children.
This poem soon became know, “The Night Before Christmas’.
The last song that
the children wish to sing for you became popular in the 16th
century. It’s origins tell about a
tradition of wealthy people of the community giving Christmas treats to the
carolers on Christmas Eve, such as figgy puddings. Because of the message of wishing good
tidings and happy spirits at Christmastime, it became tradition to sing “We
Wish You a Merry Christmas” at the end of their Caroling.
So, this is how we
have come to combine the birth of Jesus, God’s greatest gift of love to us and
the idea of giving a secret gift , from the acts of love and giving of the
Bishop of St Nicholas in to Santa Claus visiting children on the Eve of
Christmas. Amen
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