12/14/14 Rev. David McArthur
The Christmas Awakening
This year my granddaughter explained our nativity scene to me. It was made in Montana with figures based on ranchers, native Americans and oilmen. I learned that they wore heavy clothing because the baby Jesus was born at the North Pole! Christmas is a little different each year as our awareness grows. As a child it’s the first time there is something beyond our parents we could ask directly and it would respond to us. What a wonderful beginning of the God thought for a child!
11 year old Susie’s letter to Santa spoke of her younger siblings and that her father had died that year and how her mother was sick. But all she asked was could Santa bring a blanket for her mother who was very cold at night. It was not what you’d expect. A member here told how she had moved to a new town and didn’t know anyone. She had 2 daughters but no money for Christmas or even for food. No one to go to. Nobody even knew her plight. Yet there was a knock on the door. A big box had come. There was food. There were toys, and clothes. Whenever you think no one knows, there is always an awareness. A change of awareness is all it’s about. An awakening of consciousness.
The Christmas story in the gospel of John speaks of the light of each one of us, the very life in us, which brings forth the consciousness in each one of us. In our 3-D state we have to grow in awareness. John speaks of belief, but it is not “I think so” or “I’m convinced” belief. It is the embodiment of what you are, the reality you live. And “name” here isn’t what you are called, it is the nature of your being. So “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. It is the awakening to the awareness that we are children of God. It is not a religious thing, it is our nature.
As a Jewish boy, Jay Frankston, didn’t get to do Christmas. But when he had kids of his own, he did it big! One day he watched a mother help her little girl mail a letter to Santa. He wondered where those letters went. At the central post office he was given many, most of which were just lists of toys wanted. But he found Susie’s! And 7 others like hers from children who were afraid, or lonely, or felt forgotten. On Christmas Day he dressed as Santa and took Susie’s mom a blanket, and toys for Susie and her brothers and sister. He went to each of the 8 homes with presents for all. How the Santa experience changes when you become a parent! The next year he went to 20 homes, the year after that it was 120 homes. He did this for 12 years, the embodiment of love. It wasn’t religious.
It’s what it’s all about and it is not difficult. It is who we are. It is our nature. We’re the embodiment of love. I invite you to love the season and to give love this season. The gifts are just an excuse to give love. Give love without gifts. To people you don’t know give love. This special week the whole world is in the consciousness of love. I give love this Christmas. Say it again, I give love this Christmas. I give love this Christmas. And stop and be aware of all the love given you. Bless you!