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!