Away in a manger, no room at the shopping mall

Away in a manger, no room at the shopping mall
Christmas is an environmental holiday, as it should be. There is a very real need for togetherness and revelry as the nights grow long and cold. It was no place for tending sheep. Christ was born in spring, but celebrating then has too many overtones of reincarnation.

Popular piety is too somber. At least the mariachi have it right. Fireworks at the solstice would be a nice addition to the culture.  It is time to be loud and curse the night.

Christmas is also a harvest festival. A year end bonus, instead of a full pantry. There is excess flour, so it is time to turn the first fruits into cookies. Time together at play (and A.A.) rather than work is a very real need. Socks have holes. Ties have coffee stains. The humidor is empty. All need replacing. The old toys are no longer age appropriate. Buy now ones. Mom needs new lingerie. Only a fool gets her pajamas.

Adding Christ to Yule replaces the ritual fires as our source of light, although a trip to Stonehenge or Newgrange is not to be missed either if you can get tickets. Traveling to a Bowl game works too.

Bethlehem of Galilee had a Church if the Nativity closer to reality. It is mostly forgotten. A highway to Haifa runs through the location of the old Sanctuary. We have let ritual bypass reality.

The creche is a made up version of events. There was no cave. Families lived in compounds and the animals lived on the ground floor. Childbirth is ritually unclean and was always done in an unclean place, not a sanitary hospital. Thus was the status of women. (The way to honor Mary is to ordain them).

Christ is about love, not history. Loving is how encounter God, not as a goal but as the present reality. God has no sin. He cannot see it because it is foreign to him, but he can always see us. Calvary was about empathy, not punishment. We are called to the same empathy. It is how we feel the Pressence of God (including exchanging gifts). Giving and experiencing Love are how God is with us, so Merry Christmas!