Light Bringers~What time of the year is it anyway?

[Guest guest]

Light BringersBy: Reverend Beal If

you remember those times when you've been outdoors at night, when there

is no moon and the clouds obscure the stars ... when there is no

ambient light from nearby cities, highways, or airports or even

neighboring houses, then you will not wonder at the desperate eagerness

our ancestors awaited the solstice with its promise of a renewing of

the light of the sun and the rebirth of nature's growth because of it. The

orbit of the earth and the tilt of its axis are not mysteries to us

anymore, and neither is the reason we who live in the temperate zones

are equally welcoming when the days case to grow shorter and begin to

lengthen again. For the return of the light means the cold

will retreat, and though we are no longer victims of the bleak

midwinter, save for perhaps some seasonal affective disorder, most of

us prefer warmth more than its absence.Not only has our

knowledge of the seasons increased, but so too have our choices as to

how we will choose to their changing. We are freer of the earth and on

the earth than once we were. We do not seem, however, to be

much freer of human fears just because our increase in knowledge has

made the causes of them so much fewer. We tend to still be afraid of those who are not like or believe differently than ourselves.Of

people whose culture and ways of thinking are strange to us and

therefore make us uncomfortable, whose lips are thicker, or whose eyes

appear more slanted, or whose skin is browner or redder, or paler. And

we do not tend to react much differently than we once used to , even

though our outward words and actions toward strangers have been very

much modified over the past two generations. Yet greater

knowledge of those who seem unlike ourselves could, with some education

and self- effort, lead us, as greater knowledge of the causes of our

seasons has, first understanding and then less fear.This

time of year especially, when we are called to peace and justice and

freedom, and celebrate the call we receive through the symbols and

stories of greater light to come, utilize these holidays for a far

greater time than perhaps we are able during the rest of the year, to

not only celebrate the calls we receive but to draw them in and make

them a greater and more influential part of ourselves. Some

churches, and I've already seen the banners going up on their exterior

walls, ask us to keep Christ - which simply means "the anointed one" -

in Christmas. It seems to me that this is not a bad request to make. It's simply insufficient. It's not specific enough. "Christ"

means far too many things to different people, and little to nothing to

others, to make that a useful slogan. And Christmas is but a brief

season. Far better it seems to me to keep peace in your heart

the whole year round. Or to make love a part of how you act and react

to people all your life long. To feel that there is not but a season to

help make the world a juster, fairer, less conflicted place, to the

extent we can, each and every day if only in a very modest fashion. Good is cumulative when we move to make things better. Certainly

the season is ripe to consider alternative ways of living and ordering

our lives ... which is the reason the Christian Christ figure occurs

now ... for no other time of year is so commercialized, so attuned to

the material, so ultimately selfish and self-centered, or as obviously

dominated by the very opposite of the values people of almost every

religion would like to have inspire their lives than this season which

once began at the beginning of Advent but now immediately follows

Halloween. I know there are people who say they love this season. They have worked to have money to spend and they enjoy spending it. Shopping

is more satisfying than contemplation, partly because it's much easier

to do. Complicated and expensive gifts are more fulfilling than simple

gifts, partly because they are available everywhere and partly because

it conveys status and an aura of wealth. But how many people,

if they actually stopped their headlong rush into their own or their

country's debt and took the time to examine their lives find much

comfort in what they discover about themselves. How many actually espouse the values they tend to operate with. How many are truly satisfied. How many feel trapped in who and what they have become. And

how many would not change their lives and relationships if they could

see a way to do so without what they think of as to great a sacrifice

of friends, and family, and even children. Who will love them any more? Who will go with them to the consignment shop? Or a really big splurge at Target? Who will see them buying pot roast at the supermarket? And what will they think? "What will they think" may prevent more people from saving their own souls and feeding their own spirit than many of us suspect. But the rewards of doing so should be obvious. Every single one of these holidays of light illuminate what is of true worth and meaning. Not one calls us to burden our lives and relationships with superfluities. Every one calls us to examine our lives for what we truly value and to then act accordingly. Every

religion there is offers alternative ways of being and acting than what

we have stumbled into with insufficient conscious choice and an alert

responsiveness to the murmur of the heart. Only the most fortunate of us live the life we were born to as responsible human beings. And

everyone of us still has an opportunity to lighten the load we carry

and be freer, happier, and better individuals than we are now. The opportunities we have are what this ending-of-the-darkness re-beginning-of-the-light is what this season is about. Whatever

the myth, whatever the story, whatever the writings that reveal them,

this is a season to welcome the light and let it illumine what matters

most to the persons we would be. This is what can make the season merry. This is what can make the holidays happyLove~All~Ways*~Karma*