A few words about Christmas
By Adam Rogers, Grinch
25 December 2013
So many of us miss the point, but it is not our fault. The whole modern narrative seems geared to make us do so, to divide us into camps, to distract us from seeing each other as brothers and sisters, and to focus -- not on each other -- but on the space that separates us.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, yet a week later we will party on to mark the beginning of the New Year -- 2014 years exactly, ano domini, since the birth of... Jesus. What is the week in between the two birthday observations, a merger of time and space à la E=Mc2 ? Since time and matter are both illusions anyway, perhaps it doesn't matter.
I know about the ancient pre-Christian holiday, and various adjustments to the Julien and Gregorian calendars, but doesn't that miss the point? Shouldn't "Christmas" have changed with the adjustments? Instead it gives us a contradiction, an extended holiday and two reasons to party.
Don't get me wrong - As my friends can testify, I love to party. I am just saying we should maybe invite the guy to his own birthday parties, or at least raise a toast in his memory, and perhaps cite a quote or two from his wisdom.
Second point, about the man himself. The guy who gave us this day off work, an excuse to party, to give presents, and to gather the family around a table for dinner (a rare occurrence in this day and age).
There has been a lot of controversy about Jesus - all of it caused by the various stories that sprang up to somehow legitimize the guy, so people would pay attention to what he was saying. Why? Because then as now nobody pays attention to anything you have to say unless you are are a Kennedy, have a boatload of money, or have a bunch of letters after your name (BullShit (BS) More of the Same (MS) Piled high and Deep (PhD) ). Or unless your message goes viral.
So, the dudes (yes, men - are there any books in the bible written by women?) either referenced or concocted a bucket of anecdotes to lend legitimacy to Jesus -- but with all good intention - hoping that people would pay attention to what he had to say. Unfortunately, the result in the short term worked to pull in a few ears- but over the years seems to have had the opposite effect.
Whether he was the Messiah (as supposedly written in the book Isaiah penned down in 7:14), whether he descended from King David, whether or not he walked on water or turned water into wine, whether or not he is the "Son of God" (why didn't "He" send a daughter? Maybe, then as now, many people will not listen to a woman) or even if the story is true that the SOG was killed but rose in the flesh before taking the Stairway to Heaven -- none of that even really matters, and even pales in comparison to what he had to say.
(But perhaps it did work, because we all know it pissed off a few of the locals, who promptly had him strung up on a cross - if that didn't happen his words would probably not have reached us 2014 years after his birth).
So, I ask all of my friends, Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic or even, and especially, Atheist, to set aside all the wine and wafer talk, the Messiah madness, and the inter-denominational tension and to just read the quotes - and in between the lines of those quotes. Even if they are not word for word unchanged as my Moslem brothers tell me the Koran is, The message, and the song, remains the same.
Before this turns into a Dostoyevsky diatribe, let me end my rant here with a simple request - a comment with your favourite message from the man who gave us a good excuse to take this day off work. Forget which version of the book, or even if you have it correct word for word, or even whether or not you believe he is who they say he is. What matters here is the spirit of the message, and how it turns on your porch light.
Mine is Luke 17:20–21
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
-- or, just "like" or repost so I know ... Is there anybody out there?
(And kudos to those who picked up on the two Led Zep and one Pink Floyd references)
By Adam Rogers, Grinch
25 December 2013
So many of us miss the point, but it is not our fault. The whole modern narrative seems geared to make us do so, to divide us into camps, to distract us from seeing each other as brothers and sisters, and to focus -- not on each other -- but on the space that separates us.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, yet a week later we will party on to mark the beginning of the New Year -- 2014 years exactly, ano domini, since the birth of... Jesus. What is the week in between the two birthday observations, a merger of time and space à la E=Mc2 ? Since time and matter are both illusions anyway, perhaps it doesn't matter.
I know about the ancient pre-Christian holiday, and various adjustments to the Julien and Gregorian calendars, but doesn't that miss the point? Shouldn't "Christmas" have changed with the adjustments? Instead it gives us a contradiction, an extended holiday and two reasons to party.
Don't get me wrong - As my friends can testify, I love to party. I am just saying we should maybe invite the guy to his own birthday parties, or at least raise a toast in his memory, and perhaps cite a quote or two from his wisdom.
Second point, about the man himself. The guy who gave us this day off work, an excuse to party, to give presents, and to gather the family around a table for dinner (a rare occurrence in this day and age).
There has been a lot of controversy about Jesus - all of it caused by the various stories that sprang up to somehow legitimize the guy, so people would pay attention to what he was saying. Why? Because then as now nobody pays attention to anything you have to say unless you are are a Kennedy, have a boatload of money, or have a bunch of letters after your name (BullShit (BS) More of the Same (MS) Piled high and Deep (PhD) ). Or unless your message goes viral.
So, the dudes (yes, men - are there any books in the bible written by women?) either referenced or concocted a bucket of anecdotes to lend legitimacy to Jesus -- but with all good intention - hoping that people would pay attention to what he had to say. Unfortunately, the result in the short term worked to pull in a few ears- but over the years seems to have had the opposite effect.
Whether he was the Messiah (as supposedly written in the book Isaiah penned down in 7:14), whether he descended from King David, whether or not he walked on water or turned water into wine, whether or not he is the "Son of God" (why didn't "He" send a daughter? Maybe, then as now, many people will not listen to a woman) or even if the story is true that the SOG was killed but rose in the flesh before taking the Stairway to Heaven -- none of that even really matters, and even pales in comparison to what he had to say.
(But perhaps it did work, because we all know it pissed off a few of the locals, who promptly had him strung up on a cross - if that didn't happen his words would probably not have reached us 2014 years after his birth).
So, I ask all of my friends, Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic or even, and especially, Atheist, to set aside all the wine and wafer talk, the Messiah madness, and the inter-denominational tension and to just read the quotes - and in between the lines of those quotes. Even if they are not word for word unchanged as my Moslem brothers tell me the Koran is, The message, and the song, remains the same.
Before this turns into a Dostoyevsky diatribe, let me end my rant here with a simple request - a comment with your favourite message from the man who gave us a good excuse to take this day off work. Forget which version of the book, or even if you have it correct word for word, or even whether or not you believe he is who they say he is. What matters here is the spirit of the message, and how it turns on your porch light.
Mine is Luke 17:20–21
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
-- or, just "like" or repost so I know ... Is there anybody out there?
(And kudos to those who picked up on the two Led Zep and one Pink Floyd references)
