Beyond The Christmas Story
Billions of people around the globe know at least the basics of the Christmas Story; The Greatest Story Ever Told, as it is often called. We sing about, read about and hear sermons about the birth of Jesus. We enjoy the Nativity Scenes displayed with the babe in the manger, the "three wise men" with their expensive gifts, the sheep, the cows, the shepherds and, of course, Joseph and Mary. There are school pageants where this story in reenacted by the children all dressed up in what we suppose 4 BCE folks wore in Judea and other kids dressed as cows, sheep and donkeys.
What fun! We all love this story and it helps us to remember that this holiday is really more than just an excuse to buy gifts for those we love and to shop till we drop. Is the story of the birth of Jesus the real meaning of Christmas? Are the circumstances of the birth of Jesus the real point of the story? I think not.
I believe that while Christmas is the celebration of the entry into the world of a Great Soul, a Master Teacher, a true messenger of Light and Love, a man sent from God to bring the Light of God's Truth to a world ignorant of the reality of the Most High God and the Indwelling God, which are one and the same; that the message is so much bigger than most of us realize. Perhaps we make Christmas too small by focusing on the biography of The Master and often ignoring the message. Consider this, if you will.
Have you ever wondered how a Jewish baby who in the eyes of his neighbors was born out of wedlock into one of the poorest towns in Judea (He was born in Nazareth not Bethlehem, that was Luke's invention) became the man touched by God and given the task of inaugurating a new age of human history into being? This man we call Jesus was born of the humblest of origins in the poorest province in the entire Roman World and yet He so touched the hearts, minds and souls of those who heard him (probably not more than 10,000 people) that His message spread far and wide and changed the entire course of world history. What other man's life and message was so transformative that the entire world counts time from the estimated year of his birth?
The real message of the birth of the Christ Child is the dawning of the concept of a God of love, a forgiving God who loves us unconditionally. Every civilization and culture before the birth of Jesus had a God or Gods who demanded sacrifice, propitiation, and the worship of their idol in a temple dedicated specifically to them. These concepts of God had all the faults and foibles of humanity - they were capricious, unreliable, angry, played favorites, seldom forgave anything and were quick to take offense. They even took sides in human conflicts and often switched sides where it suited them. One could not depend on them at all; you made your sacrifice and hoped to stay out of their bad graces for a while.
Even the God of the Old Testament was a tribal god, the god of the Jews. Talk about playing favorites! This God had his own chosen people and protected them at the expense of everyone else - even the highly civilized and peaceful Canaanites. The Old Testament concept of God is almost totally at odds with the concept of Jesus' idea of the loving and all encompassing Father who loves all humanity.
For this reason, the early Church fathers advocated the exclusion of the Old Testament in the developing Christian Scripture we now call the Bible. After all, did not God send Jesus to bring us a New Covenant - a new contract between God and His creations? Why then do we study the old covenant which has been supplanted by the new? The inclusion of the Old Testament and its angry, parochial concept of God has produced much of the conflict, negativity, misunderstanding and spiritual duality of Christianity.
Jesus taught love - not a weak flabby love but a robust, rather tough love. Jesus would tell us that God loves you, empowers you but it is your job to make a life for yourself and your family. The outcome of your life is your responsibility. It is your job to love God and your fellow human. You reap the harvest, good or bad and God cannot and will not keep you from the bitter harvest any more than He will send the unearned abundant harvest. Your birthright is the abundant joyful life but its manifestation is in your hands. God has given you all the tools you need to build a palace. If you live in a shack, that is largely of your making.
Your Word, your thoughts and the content of your heart is what opens the Kingdom of Heaven - not doves or sheep or praying to a golden idol. God is not a thing or an animal, He is a Spirit that is everywhere present all at the same time. God is with us in our waking, our sleeping, our going and coming, our working and playing, our praying, our loving and our weeping. There is no place where God is not, except in the denying heart of the unbeliever and even so, God knocks at the door of this hardened heart constantly asking admittance but never forcing the door.
Jesus' God was universal, not the God of the Jews as Yahweh was or the God of the Greeks as Zeus was, or Ra of the Egyptians. The idea of one God for all that exists was revolutionary and greeted with great ridicule by the "pagan" world of the Roman Empire. The Romans used to joke that the Jews had one God because they were too poor to afford more than one.
What made Jesus' teachings so different, so memorable and so lasting? Jesus taught for the first time from a feminine point of view, by that I mean that he taught about a loving and nurturing, supportive God, not a God of punishment or wrath. Jesus taught mankind to meet an adversary with love not a sword or a fist. He knew the great lesson of life that love disarms the opponent and leaves him without moral authority. He knew that to resist with violence validates the opponent and makes him feel justified.
There is an old Taoist saying that what you resist persists and even though that flies in the face of Western thought; it is true nonetheless. Push against anything and it pushes back. Bend and the storm moves on. Jesus would never approve of the Old Testament formula of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". That is the recipe for a dog eat dog world of never ending offense and retribution and is a total repudiation of everything Jesus taught, but still we hear Christians teaching this in church and even teaching their children to live this way. Too often we honor the Master and ignore His teaching.
What a revolutionary idea this poor Jewish boy had! Meeting force with love was a totally weird idea in 31 CE when Jesus preached His new Gospel of Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men. Perhaps the most revolutionary teaching of Jesus was His insistence on the Universality of Humankind. He clearly stated time and time again that all humanity was One with God, that God was the God of the Universe and all that was in it. Jesus' God was a God for the Jews, the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians - all men and women - now one God and one humanity.
In just 18 months (the estimated total time of Jesus' ministry in Judea) this humble man we call Jesus made such an impression on a few thousand poor Jews and a scattering of Roman soldiers, Greeks and others, that His name is today honored by billions all over the world. Even the Muslim world considers Him a prophet of God second only to Muhammad and Muslims must say the blessing "May Peace Be Upon Him" when speaking His name. It must be said that Christians do not return the courtesy, which is not to our credit.
The Christmas Story is a grand story that teaches of a great Soul, The Christ, entering our world and beginning the transformation of our way of thinking, speaking and living. It is a story of revolutionary change, the kind that comes only once every two thousand years or so. It reminds us that God is very much alive and active in our world and our lives - to the extent that we recognize Him and allow Him in.
As we ponder the meaning of Christmas let's remember that every day should be like Christmas Eve when strangers embrace and say, "Hello" and wish each other Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Every stranger we meet is our brother or sister and their welfare is our welfare for we are bound together in the great fraternity of God's Creation. We are all One in Christ and one in God. Let's act as if this is so, because my friends it truly is. There is not one human on this planet, or one being on any other, who is not the child of God. If we ever really all believe this, Paradise here on Earth will surely come to pass. What we imagine, we can create. Join me and imagine us all brothers and sisters all over the globe - one family.
May you make every day of 2010 your Christmas Day where Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward Mankind is manifested in your life. May you be a Christ in training and live the teaching. That is the key, to live the teaching - The circumstances of His life wasn't the point, where He went and what He did was not the point. Even the sacrifice of His death was not the real point of the Greatest Story. It is how He taught us to love, to care about each other, to bless even those who will not bless us - that is the True Christmas Story.
May each of you experience the Blessing of God each day of 2010, may you walk with the Father in all that you do and may your Christmas, your Holiday time be the merriest ever.
AND SO IT IS!
Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian
What fun! We all love this story and it helps us to remember that this holiday is really more than just an excuse to buy gifts for those we love and to shop till we drop. Is the story of the birth of Jesus the real meaning of Christmas? Are the circumstances of the birth of Jesus the real point of the story? I think not.
I believe that while Christmas is the celebration of the entry into the world of a Great Soul, a Master Teacher, a true messenger of Light and Love, a man sent from God to bring the Light of God's Truth to a world ignorant of the reality of the Most High God and the Indwelling God, which are one and the same; that the message is so much bigger than most of us realize. Perhaps we make Christmas too small by focusing on the biography of The Master and often ignoring the message. Consider this, if you will.
Have you ever wondered how a Jewish baby who in the eyes of his neighbors was born out of wedlock into one of the poorest towns in Judea (He was born in Nazareth not Bethlehem, that was Luke's invention) became the man touched by God and given the task of inaugurating a new age of human history into being? This man we call Jesus was born of the humblest of origins in the poorest province in the entire Roman World and yet He so touched the hearts, minds and souls of those who heard him (probably not more than 10,000 people) that His message spread far and wide and changed the entire course of world history. What other man's life and message was so transformative that the entire world counts time from the estimated year of his birth?
The real message of the birth of the Christ Child is the dawning of the concept of a God of love, a forgiving God who loves us unconditionally. Every civilization and culture before the birth of Jesus had a God or Gods who demanded sacrifice, propitiation, and the worship of their idol in a temple dedicated specifically to them. These concepts of God had all the faults and foibles of humanity - they were capricious, unreliable, angry, played favorites, seldom forgave anything and were quick to take offense. They even took sides in human conflicts and often switched sides where it suited them. One could not depend on them at all; you made your sacrifice and hoped to stay out of their bad graces for a while.
Even the God of the Old Testament was a tribal god, the god of the Jews. Talk about playing favorites! This God had his own chosen people and protected them at the expense of everyone else - even the highly civilized and peaceful Canaanites. The Old Testament concept of God is almost totally at odds with the concept of Jesus' idea of the loving and all encompassing Father who loves all humanity.
For this reason, the early Church fathers advocated the exclusion of the Old Testament in the developing Christian Scripture we now call the Bible. After all, did not God send Jesus to bring us a New Covenant - a new contract between God and His creations? Why then do we study the old covenant which has been supplanted by the new? The inclusion of the Old Testament and its angry, parochial concept of God has produced much of the conflict, negativity, misunderstanding and spiritual duality of Christianity.
Jesus taught love - not a weak flabby love but a robust, rather tough love. Jesus would tell us that God loves you, empowers you but it is your job to make a life for yourself and your family. The outcome of your life is your responsibility. It is your job to love God and your fellow human. You reap the harvest, good or bad and God cannot and will not keep you from the bitter harvest any more than He will send the unearned abundant harvest. Your birthright is the abundant joyful life but its manifestation is in your hands. God has given you all the tools you need to build a palace. If you live in a shack, that is largely of your making.
Your Word, your thoughts and the content of your heart is what opens the Kingdom of Heaven - not doves or sheep or praying to a golden idol. God is not a thing or an animal, He is a Spirit that is everywhere present all at the same time. God is with us in our waking, our sleeping, our going and coming, our working and playing, our praying, our loving and our weeping. There is no place where God is not, except in the denying heart of the unbeliever and even so, God knocks at the door of this hardened heart constantly asking admittance but never forcing the door.
Jesus' God was universal, not the God of the Jews as Yahweh was or the God of the Greeks as Zeus was, or Ra of the Egyptians. The idea of one God for all that exists was revolutionary and greeted with great ridicule by the "pagan" world of the Roman Empire. The Romans used to joke that the Jews had one God because they were too poor to afford more than one.
What made Jesus' teachings so different, so memorable and so lasting? Jesus taught for the first time from a feminine point of view, by that I mean that he taught about a loving and nurturing, supportive God, not a God of punishment or wrath. Jesus taught mankind to meet an adversary with love not a sword or a fist. He knew the great lesson of life that love disarms the opponent and leaves him without moral authority. He knew that to resist with violence validates the opponent and makes him feel justified.
There is an old Taoist saying that what you resist persists and even though that flies in the face of Western thought; it is true nonetheless. Push against anything and it pushes back. Bend and the storm moves on. Jesus would never approve of the Old Testament formula of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". That is the recipe for a dog eat dog world of never ending offense and retribution and is a total repudiation of everything Jesus taught, but still we hear Christians teaching this in church and even teaching their children to live this way. Too often we honor the Master and ignore His teaching.
What a revolutionary idea this poor Jewish boy had! Meeting force with love was a totally weird idea in 31 CE when Jesus preached His new Gospel of Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men. Perhaps the most revolutionary teaching of Jesus was His insistence on the Universality of Humankind. He clearly stated time and time again that all humanity was One with God, that God was the God of the Universe and all that was in it. Jesus' God was a God for the Jews, the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians - all men and women - now one God and one humanity.
In just 18 months (the estimated total time of Jesus' ministry in Judea) this humble man we call Jesus made such an impression on a few thousand poor Jews and a scattering of Roman soldiers, Greeks and others, that His name is today honored by billions all over the world. Even the Muslim world considers Him a prophet of God second only to Muhammad and Muslims must say the blessing "May Peace Be Upon Him" when speaking His name. It must be said that Christians do not return the courtesy, which is not to our credit.
The Christmas Story is a grand story that teaches of a great Soul, The Christ, entering our world and beginning the transformation of our way of thinking, speaking and living. It is a story of revolutionary change, the kind that comes only once every two thousand years or so. It reminds us that God is very much alive and active in our world and our lives - to the extent that we recognize Him and allow Him in.
As we ponder the meaning of Christmas let's remember that every day should be like Christmas Eve when strangers embrace and say, "Hello" and wish each other Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Every stranger we meet is our brother or sister and their welfare is our welfare for we are bound together in the great fraternity of God's Creation. We are all One in Christ and one in God. Let's act as if this is so, because my friends it truly is. There is not one human on this planet, or one being on any other, who is not the child of God. If we ever really all believe this, Paradise here on Earth will surely come to pass. What we imagine, we can create. Join me and imagine us all brothers and sisters all over the globe - one family.
May you make every day of 2010 your Christmas Day where Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward Mankind is manifested in your life. May you be a Christ in training and live the teaching. That is the key, to live the teaching - The circumstances of His life wasn't the point, where He went and what He did was not the point. Even the sacrifice of His death was not the real point of the Greatest Story. It is how He taught us to love, to care about each other, to bless even those who will not bless us - that is the True Christmas Story.
May each of you experience the Blessing of God each day of 2010, may you walk with the Father in all that you do and may your Christmas, your Holiday time be the merriest ever.
AND SO IT IS!
Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian
posted by Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian at
4:32 PM
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