So begins a serendipitous series on Jesus, during the celebratory season of his birth.
While not “born again” by what I perceive many would consider that term to mean, Jesus has forever been at the center of my consciousness. From the Jesus of my little childhood church nestled in those mystical mountains of Eastern Kentucky, to the Jesus of the Bedside Storybooks, the ones with the colored illustrations showing Jesus with the flowing brown locks and blazingly blue eyes. He was “the little lord Jesus, who laid down his sweet head”…the Jesus who “loved the little children, red and yellow, black and white, (because) all are precious in His sight.” Yes, that Jesus was all good and all loving.
When the death of my little 3-year-old brother, Willie, crushed my poor parents, it was Jesus who was our rock and sanctuary. I recall one Sunday, me and mom going to a different mountain church one Sunday—just me and her—and I looked up at her beautiful, but now so forlorn face and saw a tear streak down from her left eye.
At that precise moment I knew what faith was. All the years, all the books and sermons and televangelists and little courses in this or that were all summed up in that one tear on mom’s otherwise serene face. It was a tear of unfathomable grief, but of immeasurable faith as well. We needed no words on our way back home as that tear spoke volumes about mom’s total trust in and total reliance on God.
The next fall, when I was 6, we moved to Lexington and my idyllic Mayberry mountain childhood was over. Church shopping, we started at the Greek Orthodox, as all my grandparents were Orthodox in the “old country” (Syria and Lebanon). But the services were in Greek and lasted about three hours! I remember following dad as he got up and walked around, in out and around the church, until the closing prayer.
We eventually settled on Good Shepard Episcopal Church, and it was in and through this church that God has revealed and is revealing still the nature of His most enlightened of sons, Jesus. This ideal nature is at its core familiar to ALL humanity for it is the essence of humanity’s highest nature. Yet, the traditions of MAN have obscured it, layering manmade conventions and supposed truths on top of the Jesus’ true nature.
Too often these dogmas contradict Jesus, making him a flashpoint for division and conflict instead of unity and harmony. Subsequent writings will explore this in more detail, but just for today consider Christmas and how the whole world, Christians and non-Christians alike, celebrate the anniversary of Jesus’ birth.
My Jewish vendor-friend was on his way to buy a “secret Santa” gift for an office party. Another was going to visit his mother for “Christmas.” He explained their observance similarly to many non-Christians with whom I have spoken: they celebrate Christmas as a time of HOPE AND HAPPINESS and Jesus as that message’s prime author.
They, like me, do not consider Jesus as God, for as even Jesus himself said, there is only one God, and he is father of us all. But Jesus said that God sent Jesus as our Rabbi, our teacher, to show us a higher truth and a higher way to live that was truly revolutionary for his times.
Fact is, it gives me great hope to see my spiritual brethren, be they Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, agnostic or not who celebrate the season for they grasp the essential core of what Jesus was all about and why this is imminently worthy of our celebration and especially of our emulation.
Indeed, if Jesus would even want a celebration in his name, this recognition of hope, happiness and a desire to live life as he taught—did he sacrifice his very life to so teach—would be his ideal reason.
Merry Happy Holly Jolly to you all!
Rfd 12/8/05
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