And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them,
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
Those are nice words Luke wrote. I particularly like the way Linus reads them in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" - childlike, heartfelt and simple.
I think Christianity gets a bad rap in some people's minds because it's trivialized or distorted, either by what they think they know, by what they see on television, a superficial look, bad experience from a particular church or minister, by what someone taught them, or by their observation of people professing to be "Christian" who are anything but "Christ-like".
The basic tenets of Christian thought - forgiveness, love and compassion - for others and oneself are universal and inclusive.
True (assuming I have any idea what that is) Christianity is radically different than a lot of mainstream church teachings or television evangelists preaching. The difficulty in talking about Christianity is that the word has no meaning outside of a specific context and individual worldview. If I say Christianity you might think asshole, bigot, hypocrite, holier than thou jerk...and you could be right on. So for this little sermon we will constrain Christianity to Father Thomas Keating's teaching (specifically the hour long talk linked to below).
Christianity, in the form of the New Testament, and as taught by compassionate and intelligent people is not a divisive tool to promote hate or violence. If you read and listen to the right people you will begin to find that Christianity is closely aligned with the infinite compassion of Buddha as taught by the Dali Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh and the non-violent beliefs and life of Gandhi.
If you are going to do only one religious thing this holiday season (and haven't decided what that might be) I'd recommend listening to Father Thomas Keating's hour long talk at Creighton University. Depending on where you are coming from you may find Christianity (in his case Catholic Contemplative Christianity) is much different than you may currently believe. It's much deeper, kinder, easier, harder, human - than may be obvious to the casual observer. He says it much much better than anyone I've ever heard.
It's a big file, if you don't have Apple Quicktime you can download the mp3 file and listen to the audio using another player.
May you find peace this Christmas that grows within you throughout the year, allowing you to forgive and love yourself and then others.
God bless you.
