A Clatter on the Roof

Trinity Episcopal Church (Advent I – Year A)

Sunday, December 1^st  AD 2019

“You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.”  (Romans 13:11)

 I remember my mom waking me up in the dead of night on one late-December Evening when I was about four years old.

“Shane.” She whispered, as if she were afraid she might be overheard. “I heard a clatter on the roof.” Clatter, I had recently learned from a Christmas movie featuring Tim Allen, was a word that meant big noise.

And suddenly, there arose such a clatter.

I suddenly became wide-awake with anticipation, and my mom said that she thought she heard someone on the roof of the house. So we crawled over to my bedroom window to see if we could see anything outside.

Now our house was shaped a bit like the letter “L.” The bedroom where I was sleeping was on one end of the L with a window facing inward (so one could see the other end of the house where my mom and dad’s bedroom was). If mom had heard a noise on the roof of her and dad’s room, then that’s where it would have come from.

At first we didn’t see anything… but then then there was a shadow on the roof – moving (someone was definitely up there).

Then we saw him.

A tall man in a large red coat with white fur trim and a matching hat was walking on top of my roof. When he turned I saw that he had a magnificent beard the color of the purest snow. There was no doubt in my mind as to who this might be.

Now if I had been paying closer attention, I might have noticed that the man in red was a bit skinnier than he was in his pictures. And to this day I’m a bit bummed that my dad (for some unknown reason) wasn’t in the room with us to witness this magical event.

But all that aside, Santa Clause had come to town.

Now it may seem a bit odd to talk about Santa Clause on the first Sunday of Advent. I mean, Advent is not Christmas.

For Christians, Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s Coming and lasts for (at least) Twelve Days beginning on December 25^th. Advent is all about Anticipation – Expectation – Longing for the Coming of Christ.

But in today’s Gospel Lesson Jesus talks about breaking and entering houses; and if there were ever a world- famous house-breaker whom we might look to this time of year, it would definitely be Jolly Saint Nick. Besides, the actual Feast Day for the real Saint Nicholas (one of the many inspirations for the gift-giving figure we now call Santa Clause) is December 6^th (this coming Friday). 

So if any other Church-folk give you guff for watching Christmas movies during the first week of Advent, say that you are simply celebrating the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas (and therefore only watching Santa-specific Holiday films until the actual feast of the Nativity of our Lord). At least, that’s what I do.

Nicholas himself lived in the 300’s (AD) and was Bishop in the City of Myra (in what we know call Turkey). He served in a time when all of the great controversies of the Early Church were being worked out the same period which produced the first draft of our own Nicene Creed. Nicholas would eventually become known as a patron saint of Children- not because he brought them gifts in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, but because he actually protected them from suffering in the world and is even said to have taken children who were abused, hurt, or neglected and restored to life and health.

The Tradition of Saint Nicholas being the “Giver of Gifts” comes from a different legend involving the Saint, where he also establishes his reputation for trespassing and entering people’s homes without their knowledge.

(I will say that St. Nick also spent some time in prison – but that was for something else entirely. Regardless, Santa’s got some street cred.)

But back to the story.

There once lived a nobleman who had three daughters.

The man and his daughters had fallen on hard times and lost all of their wealth.

This meant that the man would not be able to provide dowries for his daughters and find good husbands for them. This part of the ancient world was not kind to women unattached to husbands or their fathers, and their father was a very old man.

It was likely that the three daughters would end up having to sell themselves in order to make ends meet.

But a young Nicholas somehow heard about this and he himself had inherited a large sum of wealth from his parents. So he snuck over to the poor man’s house one night, soundlessly tossed a bag of gold coins through an open window, and disappeared into the night.

The next morning the man found the coins and began weeping for joy. It was just enough to provide a dowry and a good life for his eldest daughter. She, at least, would be safe.

That night Nicholas again made his way to the man’s house and tossed a bag of coins into the window: the Second daughter was safe.

And on the third night Nicholas returned again with another bag of coins. He tossed the bag of coins into the window, but this time they landed in one of the daughter’s stockings, which had been “hung by the fireplace to dry.”

The old man was awakened, and pursued Nicholas crying: “Stop. Stop! Please let me meet you! Let me thank you!”

Nicholas did stop and the old man began kissing his feet, but Nicholas raised the man’s head and asked that he never reveal his benefactor’s identity until after his death. This act of anonymous generosity resulted in the tradition of St. Nicholas leaving gifts in stockings and shoes (usually for children). It’s also why St. Nicholas is the patron saint for the protection destitute women and of sex-workers.

But today Saint Nicholas is primarily known as the Winter Gift- Giver who appears from nowhere and disappears as quickly as he came.

The one who breaks in – not to steal something, but to give something.

In the Case of the Real St. Nick, he breaks in to give something that was needed, something that will bring hope and wholeness.

He breaks in to save those who are on the inside.

Now, there aren’t many things that my father had the chance to teach me; but one of the things that he did teach me (at 4 years old) was how to properly break into a house.

It was our house, but we regularly broke in all the same…

You see, my dad had a habit of forgetting his keys, as such, when he would pick me up from pre-school, we would often find ourselves locked out.

Rather than sit on the porch and wait for my mother to get home from her job, dad used me as his key instead.

There was always a window that someone would forget to lock.

Now sometimes there was the issue of removing the screen from the window first, but as long as we could get just enough room for (me)  his tiny agent to squeeze through, I would be able to get into the house and then go unlock the front door for my dad.

Who needs a key when you have a little version of yourself that can just slip inside and unlock the door?

My Dad has been gone for a number of years now; but my uncle Scotty still has a large cedar chest that belonged to my father and now belongs to me. Inside this chest are a number of precious items which would be meaningless to anyone else. One of the things found in this chest is a large red coat with white fur trim and a matching hat and pants….

Santa’s successors (those who have put on Saint Nicholas by putting on the red coat) are windows into the life and the spirit of Generosity embodied by St. Nicholas.

But Nicholas himself was only acting as a window through which Christ might be seen and known in the world, for Nicholas himself had put on Christ.

With folks like Nicholas and all the other saints who make Christ known in the World, it’s like there is still a bit of screen in the window. Christ (the Word) can be seen and heard and known to us from the outside.

But Mary was the Window which posed no barrier - the Window through which the Eternal Son of God (the Son of Mary) slipped into our world so that he could open all of the doors which separate us from God.

Advent is not just about looking towards the birth of Christ among humankind (it is about that… but it’s not just about that).

We’re not pretending that Jesus hasn’t already been born.

The Window has been opened and Christ has already unlocked the doors for us.

Advent also looks ahead to the arrival of Christ in the Full Glory of of His Father. When God fully arrives and makes a home in the house that God has built.

When that might be? If it worked out liturgically and ended up being on Christmas that would be nice.

But as Jesus himself said: “about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

There is a tapping at the window though - you can hear it if you listen.

         

O come, Thou Key of David, come

And open wide our heav'nly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high,

And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel - Shall come to thee, O Israel