I celebrate Christmas to celebrate the incarnation of God in every human child.
I celebrate Christmas because each of us is the Light that shines in darkness.
I celebrate Christmas because Mary’s child reminds me that there is no “original sin.” There is only original innocence.
I celebrate the Good News of the Gospel where Jesus not only said, “I am the light of the world” but “You are the light of the world;” where Jesus not only revealed God to us but revealed us
to us. Did he not say, “Ye are all Gods”? In the words of St.
Athanasius, who lived before the Council of Nicea forged chains of creed
and dogma: “God is humanity fully alive.”
Holy Spirit and Holy Matter get married. Christmas is the fruit of
their wedding. I am their only child. So are you. Let’s feast!
Not a particle of dust lacks the sparkle of God’s wine. God’s dough is
rising in each seed of Winter wheat. Your body is the blessed
sacrament. Each electron of you bathes in a photon-cloud whose energy
is literally infinite. That’s not religion: it’s physics. Each atom
contains the vastness of interstellar space. When I look at my hand, I
see the birth of galaxies. When I look at your face, I see God’s image
in the mirror of all-pervading consciousness. I celebrate Christmas
because earth itself is a miracle.
Christmas reminds me to discover the green God resurrected in a pine
needle, the blood of God’s body in a holly berry, the Mother of God in
the darkness of midnight, the manger of God in my heart.
I celebrate Christmas because all God’s children are born immaculate and
sinless, God feels no wrath, God’s plan includes no hell. (Some of us
use the infinite gift of freewill to invent hell for ourselves, but
that is none of God’s business. In fact, there is only one thing God
cannot do: conceive of hell.)
Divine Love enfolds the earth with healing wings. Christ Love anoints
each creature, infuses every heart with Grace, free for the taking,
like breath. I breathe God. This is why I celebrate. I can’t help it.
And when I meet a True Believer who tells me that I must get saved, I reply, “From what?”
The True Believer quotes Jesus: we must be born again, born of the
Spirit. I remind him that in the Bible, the word for Spirit is
precisely the same word as Breath: “ruach” in Hebrew, “pneuma” in Greek.
When I breathe in conscious gratitude, each breath is filled with the Holy Spirit.
If I am truly awake, just to breathe is worship, just to breathe is
baptism, just to breathe is to be born again, and again. Jesus was not
telling me to perform a ritual, but to become aware.
O miraculous birth of Christ in me, who is never one moment old!
This is a small representation of the high-quality writings you’ll find in every issue of TIFERET.
We receive no outside funding and rely on digital issues, workshop fees, and donations to publish. If you enjoy our journal’s verbal and visual offerings, we hope you’ll consider supporting us in one of these ways.
Click Here to Purchase Digital Issues
