Tonight is St. Nicholas Night; tomorrow is the Feast of St. Nicholas. I won’t pretend that the existence of a real St. Nicholas in the fourth Century is news to any of you, or that his sneaking gold into a house to save girls from being sold into slavery seems to have been the inspiration behind our Christmas gift-giving.
In my home, we have followed the Germanic tradition with the kids for the night, which imagines the Saint checking up on how they are doing (in our practice, Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus let Nick do the checkup alone). For the times they were good, they are rewarded with sweets (usually chocolate), and to remind them they weren’t always good they get sticks (and chocolates made to look like coal).
It is curious to me that this figure from history who has become so commonplace today is actually someone we know so little about. Almost everything we know about him comes from records a century or more after his own lifetime. Teasing out what is fictional legend and what is historical fact is nearly impossible.
But what is remarkable to me is that for as little as we know about St. Nicholas, we seem to know one thing for certain, because it is a factor in every legend and every miracle he is said to have done — and that is his extravagant compassion and generosity. Whether he is using gold from the church coffers to secretly provide dowries to young women to keep them from being sold into slavery, stilling a storm to save sailors, saving innocent men from execution, or resurrecting children who have been pickled to be sold as ham, Nicholas seems to have been guided by compassion for others and a generous spirit.
When the details of our lives have been lost to the sands of time, what will still be remembered of us? I can think of no better legacy than that earned by Nicholas, and I can think of no more important qualities to live into the world right now than those he espoused most fiercely: compassion and generosity.
Peace+
Pastor Michael