Growing In Christ

Presumably, we have sung the carols, lit the candles, opened the presents, attended the parties, and eaten the Christmas dinner. Now what? Do we forget about Christmas until next year when we, once again, begin to think about decorating, shopping and planning our activities? Has Christmas become routine for us; or, have we come to allow its true meaning to come alive in our hearts and minds? Is Christmas solely a celebration of the birth of our way-shower, Jesus; or, have we come to understand that it is our story as well? Have we accepted the truth that the Christ is the only begotten idea in the Mind of God for all humanity, and that includes each of us; or, are we still holding to the idea that that cannot possibly be our truth? Have we opened to allow the birth of the Christ within our own consciousness?

If we have allowed the Christ consciousness to be born within us, will we continue to engage in the endless cycles of awakening and drifting back to sleep; or, will we choose to nurture the Christ that has been born in our conscious awareness and give it the time and attention it needs to grow and mature? Will we, this year, choose to keep the Christ alive in our consciousness and begin to embody and live from it?

Each of us must answer for ourselves. I encourage us, if we have not already done so, to allow this Christmas to be a momentous one for us. Let us make the conscious decision to awaken to the Truth that we are God expressing in the world as the Christ. Let us make this Christmas a celebration, not just of the birth of Jesus, our teacher and guide, but also a celebration of the birth of Christ as us. And, invite our own personal revelation of what that means for us.

Metaphorically, Jesus’ life represents our own. Just as Jesus grew and matured in his awareness and embodiment of his Christ nature, so must we. Just as we are born into these physical forms and grow and mature into adults, so must we grow and mature in our spiritual incarnations as the Christ. It is time for us to not only awaken to the truth of our Christ nature, but to actively engage in our own conscious evolution from babies to mature adults in Christ, and there is no time like the present to begin.

Let us, this year, choose to not just observe Christmas as an annual celebration, but to open ourselves to the realization of what it means for us to be the Christ in the world. I encourage us to keep Christmas alive in our hearts and minds as we move through a new calendar year. When December 25 comes around again in 2020, may we honor, not only the birth of the Christ, but also our new level of maturity as one who is growing in Christ awareness.

Why Christmas?

For many years after beginning my journey with Unity and Religious Science, I questioned why we celebrate Christmas. It made no sense to me since we do not subscribe to the doctrine of salvation through the blood sacrifice of Jesus, which is a primary tenant of traditional Christianity and the predominant reason for its celebrating Christmas as evidenced by the often repeated phrase “Jesus is the reason for the season.” It took many years of reading, study and personal contemplation for me to become comfortable with all the hoopla around this holy day.

I am pleased to say that I now have greater appreciation for the observance of Christmas as a celebration of the Christ, which I now understand as the activity of God in manifest form – all form – as well as the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who realized this Truth. We honor Jesus as one who demonstrated the power of the Christ consciousness in human form and as one who taught that we all have the potential to realize it for ourselves. He left behind a legacy of Truth teaching, through those who followed him and continued to share his message, which we can use to live this Truth.

While we in Unity do not adhere to the doctrine of salvation through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, we do honor the possibility of our individual and collective “salvation,” “redemption,” or “enlightenment” through our willingness to awaken to, embrace and embody the consciousness of the Christ as ourselves, others, and all creation, as exampled by the one whose birth we celebrate on Christmas. 

In the recently published book, The Stations of the Cosmic Christ, author and mystic Matthew Fox says,

“Christmas is a remembrance of Jesus’ birth, but it is also a celebration of the birth of the Cosmic Christ, the birth of all of us as the Cosmic Christ. Christmas therefore is your birthday and mine and every other person’s as the Cosmic Christ, the Son or Daughter of God, the Living Wisdom, the Son of Man, the eternal presence of the Holy One.”

We celebrate Christmas in honor of the Christ – the Universal Life that instills all creation. We celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus, a fully realized human incarnation of the Christ. We celebrate Christmas as the birth of the Christ as each of us.

This year, more than ever, I look forward to celebrating Christmas as a reminder of our unity in God, with each other and all creation as expressions of the Christ. I also see Christmas, not as the culmination of Advent, a period of preparation; not as a place to which we have arrived, but as a place to begin.

In an article entitled, A Metaphysical Christmas, from 1911, Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore said,

In this matter of celebrating Christmas, what should be the message to get at the real Christmas? Shouldn't it be that celebration of the angels, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men?" That is, glorify God in the highest on the earth, and peace on the earth, and good will to men.

If we would all take that as a text for the next year and live by it, we would raise I believe the whole standard of thought in the world. If you could only get people to think about what it means. Of course now we just chatter it off, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men," but we don't mean anything. You have to get that down in your subconscious and express it. Glorify God and you will have peace and you must have good will.

If we could apply that and take that as a text for the next year what wonderful results we would get. Let us do it. That is better than preaching a Christmas sermon, that is better than doing anything that has not in it that Spirit of devotion, that spirit that goes out with the word.

Let us join in celebrating Christmas this year as the birth of Jesus, the birth of the Christ as each of us and as all creation, and as a renewed commitment to live the true message of the Christ that Jesus came to impart.

Merry Christmas!

The Gift of Time

I recall as a child hearing adults frequently say, “Time goes by faster the older you get.”  At the time it seemed such a ridiculous idea. I thought, “How could time speed up as you get older?”  After all time is time and it is not dependent on one’s age, right?  However, as I have gotten older, I have begun to understand. I am sure I have even uttered those words myself a time or two, God forbid.

Really, how could it possibly be Christmas already and a New Year right around the corner?  Didn’t we just take down the Christmas tree and put all the decorations back in storage? Maybe time does speed up as we get older.

Of course, I realize that time does not speed up. Instead, I think it is that we speed up in order to keep pace with our lives. We are constantly racing around trying to beat the clock, but it often seems that the clock wins. We fill our days and weeks with so many things to do that there seems to not be enough time to get it all done.

 At no time of year is that more true than during the holidays. There are parties to attend, shopping to do, packages to wrap, food to cook, cards to send, church activities to join, and the list goes on and on. There is so much to do that we seldom take time to just be present with ourselves or with each other.

As we go about our holiday activities, I would like to suggest that we remember that the most meaningful gift we can give to another, or to ourselves, is the gift of time – the present of presence. We can give ourselves permission to stop the activities and set aside a few minutes to connect with the beautiful, unique and wondrous expression of the Divine that each of us is. The Christmas story tells us that the wise men and the shepherds came to honor the infant Jesus. You, too, are worthy of that kind of honor and appreciation.

Likewise, you are the best gift that you can give another. A gift of your time is more valuable than anything you can possibly purchase. It is a gift more precious than frankincense, gold or myrrh. The gift of your presence is timeless and priceless.

We can’t stop time. We can’t even make it slow down. However, we can see it as a gift that we can give away. Perhaps then rather than saying, “Time goes by faster as you get older,” we will choose to say, “Time is more precious to me as I get older, and I choose to joyously receive and share the gift of every moment.”

Happy Holy Days!

Called To Be

In last week’s post, Angels Among Us, I shared about angels and how they are messengers of God. In my lesson at Unity Spiritual Center Denver this past Sunday (listen here), I talked about the angels’ messages in the biblical Christmas story. Their messages are: do not fear, have faith, believe, trust and follow.

Author, teacher and mystic, Matthew Fox said,

Angels are cosmic beings, beings of light that travel at the speed of light. When they are present, the Cosmic Christ is being alluded to. – The Coming of the Cosmic Christ

As messengers of God’s Light and Love, they are always guiding us to the unfolding and expression of our highest potential – the Christ.

The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary defines ‘Christ’ as,

Christ is the only begotten Son of God, or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind.

This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual. Each of us has within him the Christ, just as Jesus had, and we must look within to recognize and realize our sonship, our divine origin and birth, even as He did. By continually unifying ourselves with the Highest by our thoughts and words, we too shall become sons of God, manifest. (Excerpts)

Angels, as witnessed in the Christmas story, are always calling us to bring forth our Christ nature.

After further contemplating the messages of the angels in the story, I became keenly aware that they are also calling us to go and grow beyond the known, to stretch the boundaries of who we have believed ourselves to be and what we have previously believed is possible.

They called the Virgin Mary to step out in faith and accept that she, a teenage Jewish girl, was to give birth to Jesus. This required her to renounce the social norms and mores of her culture as they concerned a pregnancy outside of marriage.

They called Joseph to accept that his betrothed was to have a baby even though they had not yet “known” each other in the biblical sense. He was called to believe in the possibility that Mary was to give birth to a child conceived by the Holy Spirit, and to raise the child as his own.

Further, they were both called to leave their village of Nazareth and make the arduous journey to Bethlehem where Jesus was to be born.

The angels also called the shepherds to leave the safety and security of their field and to follow the star to where Jesus was lying in a manger.

The wise men from the Far East followed the same star from their homes to travel across rugged terrain to pay homage to the baby Jesus.

Later, the angels guided Joseph to, once again, leave home and travel to Egypt to protect Jesus’ life.

While the angels’ messages of Love and Light always lead us to our highest unfolding, they may also ask us to embrace things that are beyond our known world and to go beyond our comfort zones.

When we set a clear intention to be the Light of the World as Jesus said we are, we are called to share our Christ Light with the world and be in service to the greater vision of peace on Earth and goodwill to all people. In doing so, we may be called to people, places and situations beyond our imagining.

Our choice is whether to say ‘Yes!’ to the call.

We hear the call not with our ears, but with our hearts. In fact, the call is usually more felt than heard. Our hearts then transmit the knowing to the mind which interprets it and helps us along the journey. If we are clear in our intention to be the Christ in the world, there will be no argument or resistance. We will say ‘Yes!’ as did Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men.

Sometimes, in fact quite often, we are called to step into the unknown on our journey to be the Christ in the world. We can know and trust that no matter where we are led, we are provided all that we need when we say ‘Yes!’ and follow the guidance we receive.

This Christmas season, I encourage us to set a clear intention to give birth to the Christ through our thoughts, word and actions. Take time to be still and listen to the call of the angels. Breathe deeply into the heart space, feel into the energy of the messages of Light and Love. Follow the guidance received.

The angels may lead us beyond what we have yet known. They may well lead us beyond our wildest dreams or expectations. They will most assuredly lead us to the next step on our journey to give life to the Christ in the world.

As you travel this journey, always keep in mind the primary messages of the angels: Do Not Fear, Have Faith, Believe, Trust, and Follow.