The Reason for the Season

This morning as I was enjoying my coffee and paging through Facebook, I came upon a frequent Christmastime post - “Jesus is the reason for the season.” I was triggered. It stimulated within me feelings of frustration and even anger.

So, I sat with my anger and invited awareness, asking “What thoughts are associated with this anger?” And, “What am I valuing that I am telling myself is not being honored?”

When I hear or read “Jesus is the reason for the season” I assume that the one expressing the idea holds to traditional Christian theology, and believes that Jesus was born for one purpose only - to die in order to save humanity from eternal damnation, therefore his birth is worthy of celebration.

This helped me realize I felt anger because I had judgement about the one who posted it. My evaluation of him is that he has a distorted idea of what it means to be a Christian, as well as of Jesus’ teaching, and of the true “reason for the season.” He would probably say the same about me.

I fully accept that I do not know what this person believes. I was projecting all of this onto him. I am aware that in truth, it is all about me and my “stuff.” And, I celebrate that. I love that a Facebook post can stimulate an internal process that brings all of this up for me to explore. I am grateful for the synchronicity of it all. I love it when I get to explore my “hot buttons.” I want to share with you the totality of what came up for me.

In Unity, we do not believe the sole dogma that Jesus was the one and only son of God sent to redeem the world. So, how can we then say that we are Christian? And, why in the world do we celebrate Christmas anyway?

We celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. But our celebration is not because he was sent as God’s sacrificial lamb to be slain as atonement for the sins of humanity. In Unity, we teach that Jesus was a man who embodied the ultimate Christ potential, and he instructed his followers how to do the same. Additionally, we teach and believe that Jesus taught the Christ is not one unique person, but the spiritual essence of every person. Jesus awakened to this Ultimate Reality and lived it. He realized his Oneness with God, and lived and taught completely from that consciousness – the Christ consciousness.

We consider ourselves Christian, not because we subscribe to the doctrine that professing a belief in Jesus Christ as the one and only son of God sent to be the savior of the world defines one as a Christian. A Christian, by our definition, is one who is a practitioner of the Christ consciousness. The suffix “ian” in the English language is an agentive ending – a linguistic form indicating an agent or doer.  When “ian” is added to the end of a word it is meant to be a descriptive of one who does or practices the thing it describes, for example, a librarian is one who practices library science and a magician is one who does magic.  It would follow then that a Christian is one who practices Christ.  Even though the term “Christian” was not used until after Jesus’ death to refer to his followers – those who created a religion about him – Jesus was the Christian. His followers desired to epitomize his example.

We celebrate Jesus as a master, the ultimate wayshower. He was able to perform what others saw as miracles, demonstrating over the elements through mastery of the spiritual and universal laws. He was acting as Spirit upon spirit and substance in order to shape and control matter. That is how he was able to affect healing in the bodies of others. That is how he was able to multiply the loaves and fishes. That is how he was able to walk on water. That is how he was able to resurrect the body and appear to his followers after having been crucified and in the tomb for three days. They were not miracles in the sense that they occurred outside of spiritual and universal laws, they were the results of masterful application of spiritual and universal laws.

Jesus never sought to start a religion. He never asked to be worshipped. He did not claim to have any special powers or dispensation from God that was not also available to everyone. Time and again, He said things such as, “It is not I but the Father within that does the work” (John 14:10). He also gave us the assurance that those who follow his example and embody the Christ “will do even greater works” than he did. (John 14:12)

We honor Jesus as a teacher, a rabbi, who was doing his best to instruct those who followed him (especially the twelve) how to have a personal and profound relationship with the Creator, God, Father, whom he called “Abba.”

One of my favorite Bible stories of Jesus’ teaching is from Luke 10:38-42. Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha, sisters of his friend, Lazarus. While Mary sits at Jesus’ feet listening to him talk and teach, and absorbing his countenance, Martha is busy in the kitchen preparing the meal. When Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her, Jesus lovingly replies that Mary has chosen the better path. Metaphysically, Martha represents “doing” while Mary represents the heart that is open and receptive to the transmission of the energy that Jesus is attempting to share. The teaching does not mean that Mary was at a higher standing because she literally was worshipping Jesus or sitting at his feet. Metaphorically, it teaches us the value of stopping the busyness of our activities, and spending time in quiet contemplation, reflection and meditation upon the Christ¹ ideal. Mary, probably more than any of the twelve disciples, was open to receive and truly hear what Jesus was here to impart because it is in the heart, which she signifies, that true knowing occurs.

We revere Jesus as a teacher of Oneness. Jesus did not teach separation, but rather inclusion. He did not stand for judgment or hate, but acceptance, forgiveness and love. Yes, he criticized the practices of the Sadducees, Pharisees and Temple Priest of his Jewish faith. He did so because he was distressed as he witnessed a religion and a society that was no longer serving God by helping people to have a transcendent experience of the Divine through worship and ceremony, but instead were serving themselves and the hierocracy of the religious stratum. Based on how he lived and what he taught, I have to think that Jesus would be dismayed by the religion that was created in his name. I can imagine him in this desperation “turning over the tables in the temples” once again to call attention to the hypocrisy of many who consider themselves his followers and call themselves “Christian.”

We celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus – a teacher, a light of truth and grace who was here to impart wisdom, and who desired to initiate his followers in the way of what we have come to know as the ‘Christ.’ We aspire to learn his teachings and follow his example.

Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season. His birth is reason to celebrate because of the consciousness he embodied, the truth he taught, and the life he exampled.

Join us Sunday as we begin our series entitled, A Season of Wonder. We will open ourselves to the wonder of the Christmas season as we explore it from mystical and metaphysical perspectives.

¹ Metaphysical Bible Dictionary - Christ