And So This Christmas... (Op/Ed)

Well...it's almost over, Christmas 2006. Tomorrow is the day we celebrate (or are supposed to) the birth of Jesus the Christ. But other than a few nativity scenes and a movie you wouldn't know it.

By now we have all been Christmas caroled to death. We have, according to those in the know, spent almost $1,000 each on presents. Have been treated to a barrage of superficial commercials meant to get us to spend and have watched fools sit in the weather for hours (or days) to get a bargain, or to buy that one present your child simply MUST have or it won't be Christmas, and we have seen videos of the obligatory brawl over the last whatever.

So would someone please tell me once more what all this has to do with the birth of a little baby in a manager 2,000 years ago?

200 years ago Thomas Jefferson took a pair of scissors to the King James Bible and made his own, now known as the Jefferson Bible, and it is still, to this day, given out to new congressmen after they are sworn in. Jefferson had systematically removed all the supernatural and the miracles from the 4 gospels and grafted them together into one narrative and one exposition of Jesus' teachings. I still refer to it when i want to cut through all the bullhooey and find out what the man really taught.

What Jesus really taught was a harsh condemnation of the status quo, making the individual responsible for their own spiritual life. He reminds us clearly and in no uncertain terms that to follow the path, to walk the walk requires submission, humility and compassion with a deliberation and attentiveness to our every act. On this path there is no place for denial. And, he reminds us to stray from this narrow path into ego and desire leads straight into the the mouth of hell. No different really than the teachings of the Buddha, Zoroaster or Muhammad. The path to the divine is one and the same, the metaphors we use to describe that path are what changes. Indeed most spiritual teachings are best understood as metaphors for our approach to the ineffable.

Christmas 2006 finds slaughter in Darfur Sudan and unbelievable violence in Iraq... people are still starving and the environment continues to degrade thanks to profit driven policies.

The world is our responsiblity, we are our brothers keeper. Santa Claus and marketing has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus... compassion, mercy and justice do so tomorrow I help at the local homeless shelter serve meals. It is a small act but better than maxing out my credit card, and it makes the soul feel better as well.

Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.
Baha’u’llah

www.sealsandcrofts.com...

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am as a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love,
I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love,
it profiteth me nothing.
Love is patient and kind; Love is not jealous and boastful.
Love is not arrogant and rude. Love does not insist on having its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.
Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never fail: but as for prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; and as for knowledge, it shall vanish away. For knowledge is imperfect and prophesy is imperfect. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is not shall be pass away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I understand fully, even as I have been understood.
So now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Paul: 1 Corinthians 13

www.biblegateway.com...

Violence never again!
War never again!
Terrorism never again!
In God's name,
may all religions bring upon earth
justice and peace,
forgiveness, life and love!

His Holiness Pope John Paul II

www.vatican.va...

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

chinese philospher - Lao-Tse - 6th century bc

www.wagingpeace.org...&-war/start/peace-quotes/index.htm

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Jesus

www.ccel.org...

Our Father
which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever.
Amen.

Jesus

www.georgetown.edu...

1. There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save He.
2. There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads his followers towards the light.
3. There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.
4. There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfills the life's purpose of every soul.
5. There is one Law, the Law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6. There is one Brotherhood, the human brotherhood, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the fatherhood of God.
7. There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8. There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9. There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
10. There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.

Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

wahiduddin.net...

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[edit on 24-12-2006 by UM_Gazz]

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