Santa Jesus

The very scary thing about religion, is that people actually believe God is who they think He is. I mean they think that they have Him all figured out, mapped out, that God is all about formulas and can be conceived in his entirety, that they think that they can force God to do something if they just act a certain way or pray a certain prayer. That I could just figure out the exact formula to figure out how to get God to act on my behalf, doing what I want….

There’s a bunch of Catholics in Rome who think Jesus is this way, (fits into their formula)

There’s a bunch of Baptists in Texas who think another, (fits into their formula)

And the list goes on and on.

Genesis talks about God making us in His image, but I wonder with all this kind of talk if we haven’t made God into ours instead.

It doesn’t stop at religion either. We make a God who agrees with our political ideas, so that must make us right and everyone else wrong.

In Matthew and Luke, Jesus takes people’s opinions of who God is and sends them through the grinder. He repeats one phrase over and over 13 times. ‘You have heard… But I tell you’

Anger

Murder

Divorce

Adultery

Promises

Enemies

For someone who thought that they knew who God was, He would have been completely annoying.

So is our Jesus an invention of our imagination, someone who more or less justifies our opinions? Who is Jesus to you? Maybe He is a Santa Clause…

I never believed in Santa Clause, my mom and dad never did that whole thing to me. So I never had to go through the agony that accompanies the loss of the idea or thinking that my mom and dad were liars. But still the idea of Santa is pretty fascinating, the benefits are amazing.

1. you didn’t have to interact with Santa, he simply slipped into the house and left presents, eats half a cookie then hit the neighbors.
2. Santa theology is very black and white; you either made the list or you didn’t. If you didn’t it was because you were bad.
3. He brought presents based on behavior. If you were good you got a lot of bank. There was a very clear reward system. Good = hot wheels, big wheels, legos. There didn’t have to get into the spirit of anything, everyone knew it was about the toys: cold hard toys.
4. Kids who were bad got presents anyway

Perfect!!!

But soon realism sets in and like a fungus, truth eats at the story in your brain and though you try to resist reality, there is no getting away from the truth.

A lot of people don’t believe in God because they can’t reconcile their idea of Him with the idea presented on TV. By that I mean televangelists who are for show, who swindle people out of money, who make a mockery of our Savior telling us that today is our day, today God is going to make us rich. Conservative talking heads that confuse politics and spirituality…the list goes on.

I don’t dismiss God because of people like this or shows like these, in fact it makes me love Jesus more, because Jesus had the least patience with the people who said they represented God but didn’t.

Watching televangelists makes me feel dirty and then angry and then sorry for them. But really what different am I then them? I have never used God to get money, but I have probably used Him to support my political opinions, and I have probably used Him to make some girl think I was godly because church girls like that sort of thing ….

If I weren’t a Christian and I kept seeing Christian leaders on TV more concerned with money, fame, and power than with grace, love and social justice, I wouldn’t want to believe in God at all. The whole thing would make me want to walk away from religion altogether because, like I was saying about Santa Claus, their god must be an idiot to see the world in such a one sided way. The god who cares so much about being rich must not have treasures in heaven, the god so concerned with getting even must not have very much patience, and the god who cares so much about the West must really hate the rest of the world, and that doesn’t sound like a very good god to me. The televangelists can have him for all I care.

So we have begun to celebrate Jesus birth.

But who are we celebrating? Are we celebrating a Jesus who gives us what we want? Maybe a Jesus who would guarantee our safety? A Jesus who will make us sleep well at night? A Jesus who will give us a good day at school? A Jesus who will make us physically comfortable, safe from harm? A small Jesus, a formula Jesus, an easy Jesus?

A Jesus who if we can figure out exactly what to say or do or be will come through just the way we want him to? If I do a+b=c? If I am a good boy, I will get presents. And if I am a bad boy, well I am supposed to get presents anyway….

I grew up hearing about God, hearing that He had created the universe, some animals, the Grand Canyon, that we weren’t supposed to have sex or drink whiskey or go to dance clubs, that sort of thing. You know… He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, He’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice….

Most of my friends who I have grown up with don’t believe in God anymore. They don’t believe in God because He didn’t explain anything. He was too simple and so He was a myth, a teddy bear, a Santa Clause. My friends and I had been taught a simple God of simple answers to simple questions, the God of keep your mouth shut and think what I tell you to think.

But we all began to have deeper questions, not the surface level questions, that people would read out of books, deep emotional questions. Questions that began to destroy the formula that we had been taught of this simple God with simple answers to simple questions. And since the formula stopped working, many people said that God didn’t exist.

We believed in a Santa Clause Jesus, who was supposed to give us what we wanted when we asked for it.

None of us believe in Santa anymore because we saw through the story. A story for little kids, to keep them in bed at night and acting nice for the last 2 months of the year. But it’s not real…

Maybe you believe in a Jesus who you have invented to be the way you want him to be, or a simple Jesus taught to you by well meaning, but mislead people.

Which Jesus do you serve?

A Santa Jesus who you try to be nice for so that you get presents… what ever those might be?

Or a Jesus who came to this earth to change the way you and I see God?