On Santa and Jesus
The problem with God is that God is so Everything. God is the Good and the Evil. Well, by “problem” I mean that, for whatever reason, our life is simply not structured, set up, with this, what, Orientation. Instead, for us, we are Everything. No wonder the Holy not only fascinates us but also frightens us, and no wonder that we get so religious, that is to say, creating a structure where God who is Everything is not that at all, but rather Something (or Someone) who can be used, not to say manipulated, for our own devices and our own benefit.
When God is Everything there is no room for religion. There is not time or space for religion. There is no religion. By definition of what Everything means, religion is not possible. There is nothing but Everything.
Imagine that. No religion. Yes, I’m remembering John Lennon’s remarkable song, but my definition of religion is not the same: For Lennon it’s a recognition of God but for me it’s rather a leveraging of God for our own agenda. When I say there is no room for religion I do not mean no recognition of the sacred (or even naming names of the sacred). Just the opposite. I mean so much recognition of the sacred that the sacred is the totality of what and where we live in such a way that the secular is not possibly distinct or separate from it.
All of the secular is sacred and all of the sacred is secular. This does not mean the secular is God, is Holy, is Everything. It means that because God is Everything there cannot be a secular. And this does not mean the sacred is God, is Holy, is Everything. It means that because God is Everything there cannot be a sacred.
Perhaps we can see then why Jesus is such a stumbling block, a difficult one, one we would rather avoid. Because our church confession is that Jesus is God (not like God, but is God), Jesus is Everything. He is the embodiment of Everything and so when we encounter him there is, by definition, no room any longer for us to be Anything, much less Everything. No room for us and for our world of religion where we can comfortably separate the sacred from the secular so that we can keep God in God’s place so that our place, our space, is not disturbed.
When God is Everything, Jesus is Everything, we can see how Demanding and Promising this is all at the same time. All of what God is I am completely subservient to, secondarily considered (well, no, unconsidered) because Everything pushes me out of existence. And, simultaneously, all of what God is I am completely elevated to, primarily considered, because Everything, again, by definition, includes and involves me. I am not Everything, but I am in Everything and Everything includes (and, shall we say, to connote the comfort here), embraces me. God demands me out of my existence: make room for your neighbor instead of hogging all the space. And, God promises me into God’s existence (suddenly, with no agency or assistance on my part, I have an eternal now and an eternal future).
When we see this it is no longer the church’s job to push the Creche to the front of the stage at Christmas time, trying hard to dethrone Santa. At the same time, it is not culture’s time to push Santa to the front of the stage in order to dethrone Jesus. I am just as suspicious of the sacred that eschews Santa as I am of the secular that ignores Jesus. Maybe the fact that Santa came from St. Nick who was 4th Century Church Bishop Nicholas of Myra who lived in and by Jesus Christ might throw some light on this relationship. Santa and Jesus are not the same but they are not distinct realities. The Secular and Sacred are one reality. And both Santa and Jesus, the secular and the sacred, can be and are used by us to keep God at a distance. Santa, when we are Everything rather than God being Everything, is somebody to leverage so we can get stuff. And so too Jesus.
But when Santa and Jesus use us, instead of us, them, the lights come on and the band plays because everybody gets what they need, not what they want.
When God is Everything and we are not, well, then, something new has actually happened and there is actually something to celebrate: Everyone has enough, has done enough, is enough. Let the party begin!
