Christmas was a time of worship, gift giving and family meals with turkey. Christmas Day was the day of celebration but Christmas Eve was important too. Even Boxing Day had meaning and was the secular celebration following the spiritual celebration of the birth of Christ.
When I was young I still believed in a linear reality and that time was fixed. Now I know the circular reality of time of the East and that Time is relative according to physics and spiritual insight. Today is all there is. Now is present. I am here and now. God is in this moment. There is no permanence but God and I am perception. My relationship with God is I and the other, creator, love, Jesus.
The birth of Christ and creation of all is happening now in my consciousness and memory and belief. It’s is the meaning of this relationship of the material and spiritual. God became man. Jesus the servant God, creator creation, spoke of the love and truth of the Father. The Kingdom of God was more than the material kingdom of earth. This dichotomy of mind spirit and body material is central to my perception but not necessarily reality. Reality is much more and much less. God is one. The mystery lies with me and the sense of being lost on the journey. God is not lost. He is within. Being born today in Bethlehem a mythical and real place I have visited and known Miracles in. Miracles are everywhere and every when. If you have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Joseph, Mary and Jesus are all within in the Biblical story with the evil dictator King Harrod who killed John the Baptist and the Judges and Rabbis who condemned Jesus and Pilate the Roman overseer that could have stopped the crucifixion. But that was all 30 years later in the life of Jesus.
Christmas we celebrate his birth. Immaculate conception. A miracle. A gift of God. Anything is possible with God. God is great. God is not small. I am small. I am limited. God is infinite. I am afraid and I scoff. I am a man of hard facts but I’m also a scientist so I’m never closed to possibility. I am humble as a scientist and open minded but not so open minded all the marbles fall out. The idea of a God becoming man is not new in the spiritual realm. History is replete with men becoming Gods. The myths are early history. The essence is they are now, here and now and each day I wake up and choose what I will do with what I’m woken too.
Celebration of the Baby Jesus is a good thing. Jesus talked of love and said ‘do not be afraid’. Believe. Have faith. Have hope.
One of my all time favourite songs is Monty Pythons ‘Look on the bright side of life “ sung by men being crucified”. The absurdity of life is too easily forgotten. The Harrods are without humor, sub human really, muscle bound, clever cretans living in fear like Pilate and all the others dependent on this world for joy. Yet Alexander asking the greatest philosopher of his day what he could do for him was told simply to step aside as he was blocking the sun. This wise man knew.
Today we hear the angels and shepherds sing. An event that changed history and raised the eyes of the world to heaven and inward to heart. A baby is born. A ruler to be. The Birth of Christ. Love wins.
It’s a great story with Harrod killing hundreds or thousands of babies and Joseph and Mary and Jesus, Jews, fleeing the Jews. Escaping to Egypt. The all time thriller and action movie of the era. Joseph the greatest hero, protecting his wife, adopted child and children from countless warriors, soldiers, police and those who would steal the child and sell him to death for profit.
There’s no story like Jesus. There’s only one Jesus story. Lots of similiar ones. But today is the harbinger of the day he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey facing censorship and obliteration by the terrified men with toys and women and drugs and lust. 30 years he survived till that day which is celebrated in a few months at Easter.
But time is millions of years and Christianity has survived only thousands. A drop in linear time. Perception. Today that time is far away and we celebrate his mother being told by an angel that she will give birth to the Messiah and now she is fleeing in labour to give birth in a manger because there is no room in the inn for a pregnant woman giving birth. Talk about people not getting up for old men and old women on a bus. Here is a middle class woman. Joseph was a carpenter. Here she is in the barn giving birth because no one would give the mother of God a bed with clean linen for her to have her baby. Wise men arrive. They follow the star. They don’t visit the inn keeper or the penthouse or palace but they come from afar to be there for the humble birth of Jesus., child of God. The coming of the King., Gifts of frankincense and Mirh.
It’s happening today. Right now. Here in our hearts. Jesus is being born and will escape to Egypt with his family because the authorities are afraid. And he will teach and heal one day and destiny will be served.
I’m just glad to have a coffee today and remember all the wonderful times with my mother, this Mother and Child day of Days. I will pray too. Thinking of Joseph as the great escape artist and manly man like my father who kept the kids safe and together long enough to reason on our own, It’s so easy to disbelieve. Aetheism is a fools realm. Angry adolescents and ‘no’ shouting toddlers. To believe. Now that is Shakespearean. Today I believe. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. Today I believe and look forward to singiubng songs of praise and thanksgiving Christmas Eve with others who celebrate motherhood and babies and escape from tyranny and stupidity. Christ lives. Christ is born today.
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