Letter to Church Family 4Q 2011

David Fresch Dec 11, 2011

This letter was originally in the NSBC Newsletter published 4Q of 2011.

 

Church Family,

I want to tell you a slightly different story about Old Saint Nick.

Hundreds of years ago, the Church was spreading across the Roman Empire.  There were hundreds of bishops and thousands of pastors.  The bishops were over the pastors in their respective areas, but no one was over the bishops, so often teachings would rise up in one area that were in conflict with another area, then the bishops would have to discuss differences and try to bring unity to the Church’s beliefs. 

Many of the differences of belief that arose were minute, while others were over crucial doctrines.  Around 300 AD a bishop named Arius began to teach that while Jesus was a good man, He was not born divine.  The teaching became known as Arianism, and a number of bishops began to follow his teaching.  Others reacted so strongly against this heresy, that a huge divide was created in the Church, leading Emperor Constantine to call for the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. 

Arius was required to appear and make his case to the council, then the council could discuss and decide once and for all what the Church’s belief about the nature of Christ was (that He was divine would of course be agreed upon).

While Arius was speaking, a certain Bishop Nicholas, who would later be sainted and thus called Saint Nicholas, was in the audience listening according to church tradition.  At one point, Arius’ heresy made him so angry, that Saint Nicholas got up and punched Arius in the nose!  - a very different view of Saint Nick than we usually have!

The point is, this Christmas as you enjoy the many festivities, and as you see Santa Claus everywhere from front yards to Coke cans, remember the real Saint Nick was concerned about standing up for truth.  He wanted to make sure that Jesus birth in that manger was meaningful, because God had taken on flesh and dwelt among us.

So this Christmas may the story of Saint Nick inspire us to remember that truth does exist, that Christ’s birth is not just a nice story to tickle our imaginations, and that standing up for the Truth in a world full of heresy is important. 

God Bless,

Pastor David