Using Christmas

Perhaps he was the original "Bad Santa."  We know he was bad enough to be lynched by an angry mob, perhaps the last man in Texas history to meet such an end.  His name was Marshall Ratliff.  He borrowed a Santa Claus suit from his landlady and set out from Wichita Falls in a stolen car with three other men to rob the First National Bank in Cisco, Texas.

On December 23, 1927, Ratliff dressed in his Santa suit and armed with a gun, walked into the bank and announced it was a hold up.  He did not count on several children dragging their parents into the bank right behind him because they had just seen Santa walk through the streets of Cisco, Texas.  They walked into the lobby behind Ratliff, saw Ratliff's friends who had now entered from the back of the bank with guns drawn and one little girl began to cry, "They're gonna shoot Santa!"

Things turned violent very quickly.  There was a gun battle in the bank, a high speed car chase (for 1927 standards), a car jacking, a group of armed citizens joining the pursuit and finally a capture of the bank robbers.  In all, six people were killed and eight wounded. Ratliff later escaped from jail and was captured by a mob of angry citizens who lynched him.  Using Christmas backfired on Ratliff and his bank robber friends big time.

People still try to use Christmas for their own selfish reasons.  A man called the church the other day, telling a tale of woe.  He had just begun to attend our church, he said -  we had no record of him coming.  He was now calling "his pastor" to see if "his church" could help him by putting money onto his prepaid VISA card.  There was no other possible way he could be helped and it need to happen immediately he said.  I told him I was sorry I could not send money that way, but we would pray. We later saw he had been on our website fifteen minutes before he called and left his name and email address.

We can grow cynical and bitter about "the way people use Christmas," but maybe a better way to approach this season is to ask ourselves, "Are we letting Christmas use us?"  In all the commercialism of Christmas, the conflict about Christmas and the chaos of the world at Christmas are doing anything positive?  Are we being messengers of something different?  Witnesses of God's love in sending his son?  Examples of a better way to honor and celebrate the season?

I must confess, I am not as creative in letting Christmas (and of course God) use me as others are creative in using Christmas, but maybe it is not about my creativity.  Perhaps it is more about responding to what God is doing in the world rather than what the world is doing in Christmas.  Where is God at work this Christmas around you?  How are you going to respond?  Maybe that is a request I really need to respond to this week.

for the journey...

Tim