A Voice Crying from the Wilderness of the North Pole

Miracle on 34th Street may be an ironic story in our culture as Santa Claus becomes the champion against the commercialization of Christmas. Kris Kringle works to re-kindle the faith and magic of the Christmas season as the WAY of dreaming for a better world than one where people think Christmas, and the value of humanity itself, can just be bought and sold at a department store. Yet as Kris fights to help people believe in something more, he finds himself in court defending his apparent crazy ways and to determine if he is the real Santa Claus.

I liken Kris in this story to John the Baptist. Like the prophet, Kris' ways stand out as nonsense in the civilized world that thinks it has outgrown the wild imagination of its prophets. You must be a crazy person to suggest such a radically different way of life over going along with the established business as usual mentality of our world. The question though comes as this voice actually begins to tap into our hopes and rekindle our dreams, is he the one?

Celebrating the second week of Advent, tonight we will be using clips from the original "Miracle on 34th Street" to talk about how going against the grain in a consumerist society can make us seem like crazy people from the wilderness of the North Pole who think they are Santa Claus. Can we give up our cynicism of the world long enough to imagine a better world and listen to that wild dream of hope the cries out to us from outside of society's boarders of the status quo?

Santa Clause may not be the reason for the season, but at least in this story, this man from the wild wilderness of the North Pole may be pointing to the One who's Christmas stockings he is unworthy to fill.