St Nicholas

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green

St Nicholas is a good saint to celebrate at this time of year. He reminds us, and helps us instruct children, that there’s a Christian basis to Christmas; and helps us ground all the lights and chocolates in the more definite virtues of generosity, godliness and the protection of innocence.

There are two main stories about St Nicholas, neither of which are suitable for children. The first tells of when, as a rich young man, he stepped in to save three girls. The girls didn’t have the financial backing for dowries, which narrowed their options to the worst of futures. It’s a medieval situation which persists in the world. St Nicholas is said to have ridden by as each came of age tossing in – probably not down a chimney – a bag of coins. The plight of girls and women in this world remains heart-breaking; it’s sadly only in Disney films that Santa makes sure every child receives a gift.

And like many of the saints’ tales St Nicholas stories are not without some child-inappropriate gory details. A favourite medieval tale is his resurrection of three boys who had been chopped up with an axe by a wicked shopkeeper and pickled in brine. Such stories do not lend themselves naturally to a show and tell, and I avoid suggesting to children we go down to the crypt to inspect the parish axe – (The classic fairy tales by Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson are of course worse in this regard.) But because of such stories, which over time pass into folklore and charming customs, St Nicholas became the patron Saint of children, and identified with that chief Christian virtue of generosity.

I’ve always struggled with saints. I’ve never had many heroes of my own – I think David Gower is the only human I idolized as a child; Ian Botham’s a more natural hero and I saw him play a number of times; There was an effortlessness to Gower and just a bit more charm and grace. But after two disastrous tours to the West Indies against that formidable 1980s line up, I had no more heroes.

As a culture now we seem to delight in celebrities’ fall from grace, and even the great heroes of our recent past, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Sir Cliff Richard — are quickly qualified with their various faults — Usually to the extent that public recognition given to anyone unleashes an outcry from some group of students.

The lives of saints, however, have been a traditional teaching tool, and despite our increased levels of literacy, I think this is still useful. Many of the stories of saints are quite obviously folklore and apocryphal, adding colour to some of the faded characters of history. We’re not the first to notice this and it’s important to remember that these stories were always also told for entertainment and taken with a pinch of salt. I will try to tell one of the stories to our children this morning in a PG format and I’m sure some new details will appear and others pass away, without losing the meaning. Because the stories do draw out Christian virtues and priorities, and act as illustrations of what we should take with utter seriousness. Today’s Gospel is nothing short of a command to include children in the work and ministry of the Church. For which St Nicholas should prove to us both a reminder and a helpful tool. There were about 70 children at playgroup last week and you can see that Christmas is getting people excited. We know that Christianity is becoming less embedded in our culture, which means we need to make the most of those parts of our culture that maintain a spark of Christian truth.

But even more, St Nicholas has become an embodiment of generosity that even the secular world understands, and through every Christmas movie, from A Christmas Carol to Miracle on 34th Street, an acknowledgement of the truth that godliness combines with contentment; that there is more happiness to be found in generosity than in the accumulation of wealth. In this way saints can be for us symbols of the priorities of the Christian life, and for us as a Christian community. `And happily St Nicholas is a rather jolly figure, not eaten by a dragon, or gruesomely tortured and murdered.

While many fear the pagan elements of our society, it’s the strength of disenchantment in our culture that presents the greatest threat to faith today. Children are naturally alive to wonder – They love stories – and have a certain resistance to the cynicism and materialism that later acts as an irresistible gravity to the imagination. One of the wonderful things about being a parent is seeing the return of that wonder through the eyes of your children.

So while St Nicholas will continue to remind us that it is to children that the kingdom of God belongs, and that the love of money is the root of all evil, he now also reminds us of that need for wonder. And that there’s more to life – more even to 2022 – than death and taxes.

Despite the lifting of lockdowns; The low-lying of trump; The fact that this year there’s been at least one prime minister you like, or you’ve got to say ‘so long’ to one you didn’t like; Despite that obsession of the British – the weather – being actually very good; I have not heard anyone say this has been a good year; And I think we are all hopeful for a better 2023. But perhaps in a return to a more normal Christmas, we can recall the joy of better times, and the hopes and dreams of all the years, in the stories that continue to keep children awake and full of wonder, and remind us that generosity is needed now more than ever.

St Nicholas should recall us to look on the world as children do, and believe that there is purpose and justice, to be not naughty but nice, And with the children, in this holy season of Advent, to again wait with expectation for the Holy night that is to come. Amen.