Tar-baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en brer Fox, he lay low.

"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove. Matthew 10:16 (The Message)

Joel Chandler Harris' Song of the South was part of the literature I grew up with. His amazing world of Brer. Rabbit, Brer. Fox, Uncle Remus and the gang was almost required reading for a boy growing up in Middle Georgia. Just up the road from where I lived was the museum that enshrined Harris' work. The Disney film came along, and put the words Harris wrote to music. "Zip-a-dee-do-dah, zip-a-dee-ya, my oh my what a wonderful day..." is now swirling around in your head and you'll have trouble the rest of the day shaking it. The quote above comes from a scene when Brer. Bear got mad, and everyone scattered rather than face his wrath.

But Harris' story was written in an earlier time, and today it doesn't get mentioned much in literature classes at all. His use of the dialect of the slaves on Georgia plantations in his work is seen as insensitive and out of step with today's culture. So rather than have to face the protests, most teachers simply bypass Harris' work. Too many landmines.

I stepped on one of those this weekend, when I answered the phone and got an earful of criticism and wrath.

Why?

Santa Claus.

Handed the phone by a member right before Sunday School started, I was treated to the most one-sided conversation I've had in a long time. It seems that sometime late last year, Santa Claus came up in one of our children's groups. Most church leaders will tell you that with children under 12, the whole "Is Santa real?" question is quite the hot potato. No one really wants to get into it, and most try to deflect or avoid with responses like "What does your family say?" or the ever popular "what do you think?" We're trying to help families come to know Jesus and so we try to stay focused on that. Sometimes though, you get pinned down. It's happened to me.

So apparently, the question was asked and the truth was given to a 9 year old. So his irate mother called to let me know she wanted an apology from everyone involved. Nothing I said helped - in fact whatever I said in apology or otherwise just made it worse. It ended when she told me she'd tell everyone about how horrible we were, called me some names, and hung up.

It's bothered me ever since.

Friends, at New Hope we love people. Our goal is to reach out in love to all people, no matter what. And somehow, unknowingly, we've had a door into the lives of an unchurched family slammed in our face. That breaks my heart. I've been praying off and on ever since Sunday that God would keep reaching into the lives of that family, if not through us, then through some other church.

It's not that what was said wasn't true - it was. And I'm on record as hoping to keep the church focused on the Incarnation around Christmas time. But the world hasn't caught onto how Santa Claus' gifts pale in comparison to the gift of a Savior yet. In fact the mom told me that "we had ruined a sacred holiday for her family." We might know that isn't a very high view of what's sacred. But we don't need to go tap-dancing through every minefield we see.

I want to encourage you today, to focus on living the Jesus-life among the wolves by concentrating your efforts on what really matters - building bridges for the unchurched to walk across to meet Jesus. Don't get distracted and lose an opportunity to share the way home. And pray that a mom and her child find Jesus someday to be far better than Santa ever dreamed of.

If that ever happens to me again, I'm going to make like Brer. Fox. "...he lay low."

Grace!

David Wilson


A Glimpse of New Hope is my attempt to share the hope I have found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Should you no longer wish to receive it, or find that you have received it in error, please write me at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I will immediately remove you. Past "Glimpses" are archived at www.newhopevalp.org Thanks and God bless, David Wilson