The Bungee Cord. 12-16-24

Hello,

“You better watch out. You better not cry. Better watch out I’m telling you why. Santa Claus in coming to town. He’s making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town.”

You, like I, may have learned this song as a child. Truthfully, I don’t remember when I learned it, but my guess is that it was being etched into my ears as I cooed and gurgled in my crib on my first Christmas. I remember singing it in elementary school Christmas programs, watching a TV show made about it, and hearing it as we walked through the Sears department store in Oakbrook on our shopping adventures. When I looked up the history of this song on Google, the computer told me, “The famous lines "You better watch out, better not cry / You better not pout, I'm telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town" are credited with popularizing the idea of Santa's "naughty or nice" list”.

All sorts of people have recorded this song, from Bing Crosby, Maria Carey, Frank Sinatra, to Bruce Springsteen, and millions and millions of records have been sold. I suppose that its popularity comes from its catchy toon and how fun it is to sing. But more than that, I believe that its message catches us. We do live in a world where we applaud fairness, “you get what you deserve, and you deserve what you get”. Think about it; we rail against the boss who gives a worker a raise even though that person didn’t work very hard, while you, who worked your tail off got a pay cut. We throw up our arms in protest when someone on food stamps buys a thick sirloin steak. We cheer when someone who has done something terrible is thrown into prison and the key is thrown away. “You better watch out…”, it is a song that rhymes so well with the ethos of our world that it might someday replace every country’s national anthem.

As much as this song has been the glove to fit the Christmas hand of our world, it does not at all fit the hand of the one by whom Santa Claus of lore was driven to live, Jesus the Christ. Quite to the contrary of the world’s principles, God’s operational principle is this: “You don’t get what you deserve, and you could never deserve what you get.” The Christian message, the message of Jesus Christ, is that God gives us his love even though we continuously spit in God’s face and spread pain around the world that is God’s prize handiwork. And who among us could ever be so important in the universe that God, himself, would come to save us forever from our self-inflicted doom? We deserve the vengeance of God, but God gives us his mercy. God owes us no reward, but God gives us himself.

The Christmas that the world has fashioned sings “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. The Christmas that God has fashioned sings, “‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,* the Lord.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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