In place of reading or a story, there were scenes from "Charlie Brown Christmas" you missed the CUUC players, but you can read the script below or watch these scenes from the orignial Charles Schultz cartoon on you tube. (sermon will follow afterward.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icB7_Lh_M-w&feature=related(CB) I think there is something wrong with me Linus. Christmas is coming, but I am not happy. I don't feel the way I am supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and sending xmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I am still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.
(Linus) Charlie Brown you are the only person I know who could take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy is right "of all the Charlie Browns in the world you are the Charlie Browniest."
Narrator: CB looking into the empty mailbox...
CB: Rats! nobody sent me a Christmas card today. I almost wish that we didn't have a holiday season. I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it.
(Lucy) I know how you feel about all this Christmas business- getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or something like that. What is it you want?
Real estate.
(narrator) Charlie Brown sees Snoopy putting a LOT of xmas lights on his dog house.
What's going on here?
(Narrator) Snoopy hands Charlie Brown a newspaper.
Find the true meaning of xmas. Win money, money, money. Spectacular, super collosal, neighborhood Christmas lights and display contest. Lights and display contest?! Oh no. My own dog gone commercial. I can't stand it.
Sally: I've been looking for you big brother. Will you please write a letter to Santa Claus for me?
CB: Well I don't have much time. I am supposed to get down to the school auditorium and direct a xmas play.
Sally: You write it, and I will tell you what I want to say
CB: Okay shoot.
Sally: Dear Santa claus, How have you been? Did you have a nice summer? How is your wife? I have been extra good this year So I have a long list of presents that I want.
(CB) Oh brother!
Sally: Please note the size and color of each item. And send as many as possible If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself. Just send money. How about 10's and 20s ?
CB: 10's and 20's?! Oh, even my baby sister!
Sally: All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
CB: Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?
Linus: Sure Charlie Brown I can tell you what Christmas is all about.
Lights please
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields , keeping watch over their flocks by night. 9An lo the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone around about them, and they were sore afraid. and the angel said unto to them, "Fear not. For behold I bring you tidings of great joy which will be to all the people. 11For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ[a] the Lord. 12 and This will 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,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ...
That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.
Today I hope to help us seize the magic of the season. These days we use the term "holiday season" because we value inclusion. There is magic and power that is experienced by so many of us, not just Christians. The magic of the season is so powerful that it extends far beyond the boundaries of belief systems.
However, the phrase "Christmas season" is what we used most of our lives. It reverberates with childhood memories, and therefore has historical meaning. So even though the term holiday season is more politically correct and more inclusive, I will at times use the phrase Christmas season. I invite you to think beyond a particular belief system and allow yourself to receive what meaning you can in it. For example, I bet that even those of us who don't believe or don't even care to hear about the Jesus story or about Christianity, can still recall a memory of something that expresses the magic of the Christmas season. You can recall a memory of something that speaks to you of the magic of the holiday season.
Would you do that now? Will you think back, scan your memory and your brain will hand you something expressive of the magic and wonderful power of the Christmas season. (pause). Your memory may be recent or go all the way back to early childhood. Hey, I don't know, but maybe if you are a member of the Theosophical Society, (Jean) or a Buddhist, or if you are metaphysically inclined, your memory might go back several lifetimes. Or if you would rather to play a different game than remembering, feel free to be creative and make up your own image.
Even if you are a skeptic or don't like to be told what to do, I promise you that your brain is going to hand you something to work with. It may be something you are tempted to call trivial, such as a memory of a pumpkin pie, but it will be the vehicle for a useful gift. Once you have an image or memory, just sit with it for a few moments. Take a few breaths. This can be easy. What sights or smells come with this image? If you are patient, your mind is very likely to offer you some more details. Whatever comes up will be all right. Just let it be. Allow it to flow.
Now ask yourself, "what about this memory expresses something of the magic of the season? What value or what beautiful treasure does it carry?
Notice how it feels to recognize this value. How has this quality you've identified contributed to your life. (pause). You may have gratitude for receiving this piece of the ... magic of this season. (pause) In just a moment I am going to ask you to shift your focus from inside yourself back out here. During the congregational response, some of you may wish to share your memory or the value you gleaned.
How do we seize the magic of the holiday season? What is the magic of the season? What is magic? There are 3 basic definitions of magic
It is this third definition with which I am most concerned today. There is present in this season extraordinary qualities that have the power to awaken us from sleepfulness into an awareness of the mystery of the interconnections of life and how it unfolds.
You may like your definition better. You may like what you remembered, or imagined, and/or the gift that your brain, and/or God and/or the collective conscious gave to you this morning. Perhaps we each have a somewhat different sense of that extraordinary quality and power. Perhaps we would deny that there is anything extraordinary or even special about Christmas or the holiday season.
It is not my goal to nail this down, to assert one thing as the most valuable aspect of the holidays. It is my goal to invite you to open your hearts that you what is most important for you to receive this year. I wish for each of us that we will receive the blessings of this season.
Sometimes when I begin to struggle to craft the best sermon I can for you, I remember that I can't, and fortunately don't have to give specific or detailed directions of where you need to go. But if I shine a light upon one of our common values, and if you choose to put it in your sites, then you will likely get there by and by.
So many of my sermons begin with this same premise or same caveat. It is my the #1 spiritual principle that I remember every day of my life. What am I talking about Mark? What did I tell you was the thing I remember each day?
It can be said many different ways. "Beware of all or nothing thinking." "There is very seldom black or white, but mainly shades of Grey." "Just because you can't do something perfectly, doesn't mean that its not worth doing."
I don't expect us to be able to "Seize the Magic" perfectly. Seizing the magic of the holiday season doesn't have to become something else to do in order to be okay. You already are okay. Even if you tell yourself that you can't do it; that you are a Grinch, that its stupid, not worth doing, and you don't believe in hokus pokus anyway, that there are still blessings for you this Christmas, and I want you to have them.
And you will discover what you'll discover. It's just not helpful to compare ourselves to anyone else. Our society so often asks us to look at what somebody else gets, compare ourselves and seek to improve our position. Sometimes it blatantly says "why aren't you like so and so? Why don't you get more, do more, be more? It's as if its our civic duty as part of this consumer society to want to acquire all we can possibly acquire. At an early age we see what other people get for Christmas and maybe we judge ourselves based on this.
You are a unique miracle and mystery of existence just like everybody else. You are the best expert on what you want to do with your life. You are where you are, and can't learn somebody else lessons. You have exactly what you need for this life. And you have everything going for you.
We can learn everything we need to learn, and we will learn much quicker and more easily when we can accept where we are rather than tell ourselves we should be somewhere else.
So this isn't about what you are "supposed to feel, think or do during the holidays. You are free to do as you wish.
As for me, I wish never to let the holiday season go by without getting into the spirit. Holiday spirit is not about Christmas decorations. For me, it's not about presents, and its definitely not about the crowds at shopping centers. I don't get too excited about the days starting to get longer again, although pagan rituals rock. Sitting outside with a fire on a clear winter night is bound to offer a religious experience. And no I don't use chemical enhancements to get there. It's not about Kwanzaa, although I am willing to let new traditions enrich me.
It's not too much about Hanukkah for me. Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday. In America, Jewish parents have made Hanukkah more important, so that their children would not be maladjusted. Hanukkah never was a favorite. It glorifies militarism, and armed revolution. There are mystical traditions that make the holiday more meaningful, and I do enjoy saying blessings while lighting Hanukkah candles- when I make a point to do it. I would take latkes, potato pancakes over tables full of holiday sweets any day.
If Hanukkah had been a bigger celebration in my childhood home, if I was perhaps better grounded in Jewish community I might feel differently. Frankly I see the magic of the season coming more from Christmas than anything else.
That may surprise you to hear that from me. In other times you may hear me preach several sermons on the beauty of the synchronicity of the many festivals of light that occur in the darkest days of the year. I do love America's growing sense of pluralism. We are recognizing that all people regardless of their religion or belief can participate in a time of giving, sharing, of knowing and acknowledging the awesome mystery and miracle that we are alive, and the beauty that occurs when we recognize our connection and common humanity.
I am delighted by the way we UU's honor the truth that there are many ways to celebrate the sacred and divine. I cherish our valuing of diversity and inclusion. I am happy to make room for new ways to celebrate.
Still, for me I see the beauty, magic or trans formative power as emanating from Christmas. I don't care if Joseph and Mary had sex. I certainly don't care for the doctrine of Christ as atonement. However, Christmas seems to me to be the one time of the year that the essence of the teachings of Jesus get demonstrated and seen in the world.
Love God with all your heart mind and soul, love your neighbor as yourself. Find treasure in opportunities to be of loving service. Find the kingdom of heaven within you and then live it into in this world. Value love more than fear. Develop your ability to see and acknowledge the divine in the connection of our humanity.
These are what bring about the surge of caring and human kindness that occur as winter begins. It was the better aspects of the culture of Christmas that helped me to find treasure in Christianity and especially in Jesus.
Jesus does arrive this time of year. I see him in the presence of Salvation Army bell ringers. I hear him in the lyrics of Christmas songs, in the sentiment that is encourage at this time of year, the slew of Christmas programs that raise the vibrations, the intentions, the consciousness of human kind, if only for a short time.
I make very few requirements upon myself for the holidays. First I must view and preferably attend at least one holiday program. Usually I catch several. Nutcracker Suite, holiday concerts, midnight mass at San Fernando Cathedral, these are all great. Truthfully, I won't call it complete until some g -rated show gets me to cry. Dicken's Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th St., Prancer, there is no shortage of these. It doesn't even have to be great art. It just has to touch my heart, and help me to remember what's in there.
Last but certainly not least is that I push myself to let people know that I appreciate them. Why do it at this time of year? Why not? I tend to go grocery shopping on the same night each week. I do my yoga at the same time each day. Why not use the platform of the holidays to call ourselves to a new spiritual plateau?
I do believe that this is the most important aspect of the holidays, but I will be honest with you. It is not always the most enjoyable for me. It is definitely the part that has taken the most courage.
There are all these stories and pictures of happy reunions, and friends and family sharing love. It's easy to think that we are "suppose to feel happy. It is also easy to compare ourselves and think "where is my happily ever after? Charlie Brown is definitely not the only person who takes a wonderful season and experiences it as a problem. He is not the only one who experiences all the celebration as a humiliating reminder of failures, rejections and loneliness. There are millions of us who do. I suspect all of us do at some time. I am someone who has absolutely cherished the holidays, and yet I have also felt the pain.
And not all the pain is from needless comparisons. The most important pain comes in feeling the gap between what is and what our hearts know could be.
A world without Christmas would be something ghoulish. It would be a horrible loss indeed. Christmas brings great joy and sorrow because it reminds us of what is most dear to us.
With beautiful reminders everywhere of the love our hearts yearn for, how can we avoid needing to grieve?
The magic of the holidays is not that it can keep us from pain, but that it can heal us. It can restore us to wholeness as we remember all that really is true inside of us. Some times this will be sweet, easy and fulfilling. However, for me there is gratitude for having given some skill in going. The magic of the holidays is that it can remind us why we are here.
To seize the magic of the season, we may need to grieve the pain of what we have left behind, and what we have been unable to create. We may need to get away from comparisons and give thanks for the love and the lessons right in front of us.
My final requirement is for time alone with God, quiet moments of connection to the mystery and miracle of life. I said that pushing myself to give and receive love, to appreciate the people is the most important part of the holidays. I don't know if I could do that hard work if I didn't also have quiet moments of communion with the divine. Church can provide some, but I am even more likely to get them outdoors where big snow flakes are falling down. The earth never seems so still and quiet as then. And in the hustle and bustle and challenge and even the beauty of human celebrations, I carry moments of quiet knowing, of quiet acceptance of the big picture, of something that I can never explain, not even to myself.
The magic doesn't come from naming or explaining that experience. It doesn't come from convincing others to believe the same way we do. It certainly doesn't come from trying to measure up to an outside standard. It comes from gaining something of eternal perspective. It comes from hearing the decree peace on earth goodwill to all, and finding that these beautiful words have always existed inside us. It comes from knowing the words to be true.