Have you ever written a letter to Santa?
Each year, the U.S. Postal Service receives hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to Santa. And of course, they do their best to get those letters to Santa.
According to the Operation Santa website, “It began over a hundred years ago, in 1912, when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local Postmasters to allow postal employees and citizens to respond to the letters...
“In the 1940s, mail volume for Santa increased so much that the Postal Service invited charitable organizations and corporations to participate by providing written responses and small gifts.
“Through the years, the program grew and took on a life of its own. Today, customers can go online to browse through the letters and if one touches them, they can adopt it and help the child have a magical holiday.”
This year’s letters have just been posted, but last week I read through some of the letters from last year…
Milena, age 11: “Dear Santa Claus, I’ve been a pretty good kid this year. All I want for Christmas is 3 things. The first thing that I want is a Cube. The second thing that I want is for me to get into Highly Accelerated Math this year. The last thing that I want is for my sister, Erika, to heal. P.S. I just wish that I will get into highly accelerated math before my Birthday.”
Eli: “Dear Santa, I know I have not been very good this year. So I am fine with coal in my stocking. Has anybody told you that you are the best?”
Amir: “Dear Santa, I am writing to you to see if I can get help with Christmas for my family. My mom passed from cervical cancer. Since then my heart and family hearts been crushed. I have two sisters. Even though I’m a boy and was always told not to cry it still is hard not having my mommy around.”
Julian: “Dear Santa, I am 10 years old. My wish is money for my parents, $100 would help us a lot. They are having a rough time with the bills. We also need Internet so I can study…”
Vicky: “Dear Santa, I want one thing. I been a good girl. And I want to ask if you please get me a new power wheelchair. My wheelchair is very old and it does not want to work… Also, If you can bring my service dog some healthy treats.”
Will: “Dear Santa, Do you support the lgbtq community and if you can speak to God can you tell him I love him, and if he loves me for being gay.”
I don’t know about you, but for me, some of these really touch my heart. Some of them break my heart. Not just because some of these kids are having a rough time, but because their path to healing and wholeness has been blocked by the obstacles that we as a society have placed before them.
For example: why have we as a society told Amir that it’s not OK for boys to cry? Why do we tell boys that? Crying is healing. It’s OK to cry. It’s OK to be sad, and to express that sadness. Telling boys it’s not OK to cry puts before them a roadblock on the path to healing.
And why haven’t we as a society figured out a way to provide Julian with internet access? Kids without reliable internet access are placed at a tremendous disadvantage in this day and age. To grow up without internet access is to have a giant obstacle placed before you on the path to success.
And why haven’t we provided Vicky with a reliable wheelchair? I mean… come on! Why haven’t we figured out a way to have everyone’s healthcare needs met, the way every other developed nation has?
And why, why do we keep telling kids like Will that God won’t love them if they are gay? Whoever told Will that God doesn’t love kids who are gay has placed a giant obstacle on the path between Will and God. Fortunately it sounds like Will is still trying to find a way around that obstacle, that he’s still trying to make a connection with the God who created him and loves him just as he is.
But if we keep putting obstacles on his path, how much longer will Will keep trying? If we keep telling Will that God hates gays, if we try to get Will to become something other than who he is by sending him to conversion therapy, if we say ridiculous things to Will like, “I love the sinner but hate the sin,” how long will it be until Will gives up on God? How long will it be until Will decides that the obstacles we have placed between him and God are just too much to overcome?
It seems to me that one of the absolute worst things we as Christians can do is put obstacles and roadblocks on the path to God. Yet we do it so often.
Jesus didn’t do a whole lot of condemning. The Bible says that Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.
But Jesus did have some harsh words for those who placed obstacles in front of people who were trying to find their way to God.
“Do not do as the scribes and Pharisees do,” Jesus once said. “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others.” In other words, they make it harder for people to find their way to God... “but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them! They do all their deeds to be seen by others. They love to be thought of as important, holier than others.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites! You lock people out of the kingdom of heaven! When they try to go in, you stop them. You snakes! You brood of vipers!” [Matthew 23]
Jesus had no patience for those who placed obstacles and roadblocks on the pathway to God. Jesus especially had no patience for religious leaders who placed obstacles and roadblocks on the pathway to God.
And the more I try to follow Jesus, the more I find that I, too, have no patience for those who place obstacles and roadblocks on the pathway to God.
This week, I was startled by the hypocrisy of Georgia congressman Doug Collins, who, in addition to being a member of Congress, is also a military chaplain with a Master of Divinity - the same degree I have. The other day, Congressman Collins complained about Reverend Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church, and candidate for one of Georgia’s seats in the U.S. Senate.
Congressman Collins said of Reverend Warnock that “there is no such thing as a pro-choice pastor. What you have is a lie from the bed of hell.” Then he went on about how important it is that Christians be pro-life.
I have great respect for people who are pro-life - if, in fact, they actually are pro-life, and don’t just say they are to win political points. But when he was talking about the importance of being pro-life, Congressman Collins was speaking to a crowd of people, all gathered in close to one another, none of them wearing masks, despite the fact that we are in the middle of a devastating, deadly pandemic...and the location he chose for this little speech was at a gun range.
Woe to you, Congressman Collins, you hypocrite, you snake; for you have locked people out of the kingdom of heaven.
That’s the kind of hypocrisy that places obstacles and roadblocks on the pathway of those who seek God. We’re talking obstacles the size of the Grand Canyon. We’re talking roadblocks the size of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
There are no roads over the highest part of the Sierras. There are no roads across the Grand Canyon. There is no way to get from one side to the other.
This week, the presidents of six Southern Baptist seminaries issued a formal statement in which they not only deny that systemic racism exists, but they also state that the study of systemic racism is incompatible with Southern Baptist beliefs.
In other words, they believe that racism is an individual issue, but never an issue of organizations or society; which conveniently lets them off the hook for examining the racism within their own institutions and within their denomination.
Woe to you, you hypocrites, you snakes; for you have locked people out of the kingdom of heaven. You have placed roadblocks and insurmountable obstacles on the pathway that connects people to God.
When it comes to the things some religious leaders preach and say, there seems to be a whole lot of fire and thunder and hot air...but, to paraphrase First Kings, the Lord is not in the fire, and the Lord is not in the thunder, and the Lord is definitely not in all the hot air that comes out of their mouths. Not when the words they speak keep people from finding God. Not when the words they speak are nothing but roadblocks and obstacles and great mountain ranges and deep canyons separating people from God.
True religion, by definition, connects people to God, but they are keeping people separated from God. They are making God inaccessible.
What the world needs and what God needs is not a voice that makes that pathway between the people and God more difficult and harder to travel.
What the world needs and what God needs is a voice that says, “In the wilderness - in the difficult and dangerous places - prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
What the world needs and what God needs is a voice that says, “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”
What the world needs and what God needs is a voice that will speak tenderly to those who have suffered; speak tenderly to those who have been shut out of the house of God; speak tenderly to those who have been victimized; speak tenderly to all the Amirs, Julians, Vickys, and Wills of this world, to let them know that though people may place obstacles in their path, God’s desire is to remove those obstacles, so that the path is smooth and level.
God’s desire is to catch those tears of Amir, and to catch the tears of every boy who has the courage to cry;
...and God’s desire is to give kids like Julian the resources they need so they can learn and grow in knowledge and wisdom;
...and God’s desire is to provide care and healing for Vicky and for every child with special physical or mental needs;
...and God’s desire is to let Will and every other LGBTQ kid know that they are loved and affirmed in all their beautiful, holy queerness.
That’s how to prepare the way of the Lord. That’s how every valley is lifted up, and every mountain made low. That’s how to make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
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