What Christmas Means for You | Rev. John Riley

Noel. Come and see what God has done. Noel, the story of amazing love. Noel means Christmas, Christmas Day, the first Christmas.

As Casey read in the Daily Word, the first Christmas was presented to the shepherds. You know the Christmas story? Anybody familiar with it? Well, let me tell you the real story.

The Real Christmas Story

The story of Jesus’ birth is told in two of the three synoptic gospels, the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke. And they’re both very different because the gospel of Matthew was written for the Jewish community. It was written to speak to the Jewish community. And so the beginning of the gospel of Matthew was all about Jesus’ lineage because that was very important, to establish his lineage in that time.

So, it’s a little dry, it’s a little more formal. And I think what we’re really excited about, or what we remember from our childhood or our kids’ experiences is, the gospel that starts and the gospel of Luke when they start to talk about Joseph and Mary riding into Bethlehem. And they’re riding into Bethlehem because they’re there for the census. I think it was the first census ever. And they had to travel all that way and all we have to do is fill out a little piece of paper these days.

So, they were travelling to Bethlehem and it’s time for Mary to give birth. And Mary gives birth and then she wraps the baby in cloth and lays the baby in a manger. And we all remember that story, right? That’s the story that we grew up with and we probably — maybe you played, you were in a play with that story at your church, wherever you grew up. Anybody in a play! Yeah, I was too. I was in it.

And so, that’s where we like to start because it’s all romantic. And that’s the end of the story in the Bible. But, of course, we’ve got people dressed up, kids dressed up as lambs and lions and all kinds of different outfits. And then once the angel comes to the shepherds — the shepherds are on the hill tending their flock — and then the Angel of the Lord comes and surprises them and they’re a little bit concerned because this is out of the ordinary. The angel says, “No, no, don’t worry. I’m here to tell you a great story that the Lord your saviour has been born in Bethlehem” and go see them.

And so that was really the first Noel, the first awakening to this idea. And then the shepherds all went to Bethlehem to the stables, to the manger to see the baby.

The Wise Men

And then we jump back to Matthew, because in Matthew that’s where the five wise men come from. Everyone’s nodding yes. Five wise men. Anybody remember the five wise men? Three! That was a test to see if anybody was awake. You all fail!

In reality, it was a trick question because they didn’t tell you how many wise men there were. But there were three gifts, so it made sense to get three wise men because that way you can cast three wise men in the play. I was one of the three wise men. Talk about miscasting! No, just kidding.

And then the question was, who had to carry the myrrh? That poor person. I was new. I got to carry the gold, so that was cool. And, in the story of Matthew, the wise men who are astrologers or astronomers, see the star in the east and that has some meaning to them and so they go tell King Herod and King Herod says, “go find this baby and whittilize him”. Of course, we don’t put that in the play. That would make kind of a bad children’s play. But that’s what happened in the story, was that King Herod wants them to go and kill the baby because the baby is here to change his life. Sorry, parents — I’m ruining it for your kids.

Of course, the wise men get there and they know better. They understand what this meaning is and so they don’t kill the baby. Instead, they bring gifts. They bring gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And it’s a beautiful story. It’s a wonderful story commemorating this idea, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, as he was known back then. The birth of this person, this baby, who would grow up to fully realize that Christ consciousness within him, to fully realize that Christ consciousness and then to teach others.

The Christ Consciousness

And so, in Unity, that’s why we look at him as a master teacher because he was there to teach us how to live into that idea of the Christ consciousness, that consciousness that is within every person. For as he said in John chapter 14 —gotta get my notes; no, I left them in there — chapter 14, verse 12, for all of these things that I have done, you will do too, even greater things you will do. Because he’s saying that I am a human being and I’ve realized this idea of the Christ consciousness and I’m practicing it and I’m going to teach you how to do it, and all of these things you will do.

It’s reminded us, in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, in the first chapter where he says the hope of glory, the Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Christ in you.

And so, in Unity we look at that as that idea of that Christ consciousness that’s within us. And that word may not jibe with you, and that’s okay. You may like the idea of that divine spark within you or that higher consciousness, that higher self, that part of you that knows better, that knows the right thing. And that’s the idea that we can lean into. And that’s the goal, is for us to start to live into that potential that is within us, for that idea, that Christ consciousness is within each one of us. That spark, that light that shines is always there. It’s always there, and that’s what Jesus was teaching.

His teaching was a teaching of oneness with God. God is that short term for what we call — you might call it isness or divine mind or divine love or the universe. You may call it consciousness, the allness of life is what I like to call it, allness, because it’s everywhere present. It’s within all people, it’s part of all of us.

And this idea of Christ transcends religion, it transcends race, it transcends gender identification, it transcends whatever bucket we want to put ourselves in for everyone has this within us, this light that we’re here to shine. Isn’t that exciting? I think it’s pretty exciting. We may not always feel it, we may not always express it. There may be times in our lives when my shadow twin, Skippy, comes out and it’s not my “Christ John”; it’s “shadow John” coming out. We all get into those moods every once in a while but that spark is still there, and all we need to do is uncover it.

The Gifts of Spiritual Practice

Now, if you look at that story metaphysically, it’s a great way of explaining how this happens to us as human beings. This idea, metaphysically, when you think about the angels, angels metaphysically, of the messages from God, the messages from that center within you, that place within you that is pure, that is untouched. It can never be touched, it’s just pure essence, pure life, pure God, pure isness.

And from that essence comes these messages, these ideas. And the shepherds are our higher thoughts that look after us that tell us, “That’s not what you want to do”, come away from that ledge that we all go towards, all of those bad ideas. Do you ever have that shepherd in you that says, “You know, this may not be the right thing to do”, and you either listen or you don’t. And sometimes we don’t listen and we find ourselves in a little bit of challenge in life. Anybody besides me experience that in life? Yeah.

Sometimes we don’t listen to those good shepherds who are here to guide us, that inner consciousness, that inner realm, the stars that awakening, awakening to that inner essence within us, that inner beauty. And when we see that star within us, that light is like “aahhh”. It may be a little scary just like the shepherds were a little scared, but whoa, wait a minute. But then that message says, “No, don’t worry. It’s all going to be fine. It’s for your good, it’s for your salvation, it’s for your highest good.”

The three wise men represent our willingness to move forward, our willingness to step into this idea, to start practicing as Casey was talking about, to start putting it into practice.

And the gold represents the infinite source of substance in your life. It’s prosperity consciousness, the abundance consciousness, the principle that’s always there that there is enough.

The frankincense represents the love that’s within you — nope, that’s the myrrh. What was frankincense? I’ll need that later. Transformation. I don’t know if I’m getting marked down on points now because I have my notes — the frankincense represents that spiritual transformation that happens when we start to live into that presence within us. And the myrrh represents that essence, that divine love that flows from us.

Those are the gifts that this spiritual practice brings to us. This idea of the Christ consciousness brings those gifts to our daily lives.

Now, it’s not always easy and I think that’s the problem, is sometimes we look at it and say, “Now, wait a minute. You know, Jesus the Christ, you’re comparing me to that? How can I live up to that idea?” The world doesn’t need another Jesus; the world needs you just to simply shine your light a little bit more, just a little bit more.

During his tenure as, I’ll call him messiah or minister when he was travelling around speaking and teaching. He had his group of disciples with him. And guess what they did on the road. They practiced. It wasn’t magic. They weren’t anointed, all of a sudden one night, all of a sudden they’re holy. No, they had to practice it. And each day as they moved through this idea came new thoughts and new ideas and a new realm, a new layer, a new level of understanding.

Shine Your Light

In his teaching the sermon on the mount, Jesus talked about that light that’s within you, that light that shines so brightly. And a light sat on a hill is there to shine for everyone to see. It’s there as a guidepost as we travel through life. It’s there to lead us into comfort. But we have to shine that light.

And he says no-one would light a lamp and put it under a bushel, put it under a blanket. You light a lamp and — unless you’re reading or you broke into your stocking at four in the morning and you’re trying to look at all these, the loot without your parents noticing. Sorry, Mom. Then you might put it under a blanket while you — okay, anyway, I digress. Maybe that was just me.

The bummer was when I got batteries in my stocking. It was kind of like, “Well, that’s exciting. I know that there’s going to be something later that I’m going to open that requires batteries, but I wanted some instant gratification. Anybody else like that? No, just me. Okay. Back to my notes.

So, we look at this Christmas story both from a standpoint of celebrating this individual, this master teacher that has all of these great lessons for us. And we look at this lesson metaphysically because we can look at ourselves in the story and see ourselves in every aspect of the Bible, if you look hard enough. So, it’s sometimes we might show up as the shepherd.

Sometimes we might show up as King Herod. King Herod, by the way, represents our ego and there’s nothing ego wants more than to push out — ego, e-g-o-, edge out God or edge God out — I can spell. Nothing ego wants more to do than be in control. And ego’s not bad. Ego’s our personality, ego’s the part of us that shows up in life. It’s just ego shouldn’t be able to drive the bus. Let that Christ consciousness, let your shepherds drive the bus, and the ego can just go along for the ride.

And so, our task is not to think “Okay, I’ve got to be Christ-like”. Our task is just to pull back the blanket just a little bit so we can shine just a little bit more in our lives, so we can look at life a little bit more clearly, so we can experience life a little bit more fully, so we can shine our light so that other people can see and say, “I want to get me some of that. There’s something there. What is it that’s there? How can I have some of that?” because it’s that yearning within us, that spiritual impulse that’s drawing us forward, that’s pulling us towards our highest good.

Something More in Life

Anybody out there ever once in a while have this idea, “You know, there’s something more in life for me. I could do more, I could be more. There’s something more.” That’s that divine impulse pulling us forward. That’s that angel whispering in our ear saying, “You can be more. You can step into it a little bit more.”

And that’s the gift that this season has for us. It’s the rebirth, it’s the birth of that consciousness within us. That’s what it represents. And every day we have the opportunity to step into that energy and step into that rebirthing, to allow that consciousness to well up within us. It’s not magic. It doesn’t mean everything’s going to be great and hunky-dory. There may still be challenges in life. But we’re able to face those challenges anchored in this presence, in this power, and our ability to move through it with ease and grace, and our ability to stay grounded even when all of those around us are going cuckoo. That’s a spiritual term. And this is really the heart of Christmas and the heart of Jesus’ teachings.

The Most Important Commandments

His fundamental teaching was about love. When asked, what are the most important commandments, he said love your God with all your heart, your mind, your body, your soul. Love God.

Now, it’s not God out there, it’s not that being out in the sky, but love that presence, that infinite presence, the allness of life, the God that’s in you, the God that’s in me, the God that’s all around us, for we are never separate from it. Jesus’ great teaching was a teaching of oneness, of knowing our oneness with that infinite presence, knowing our oneness with that infinite substance and allowing it to just simply flow in, through, and as us.

As we move through life, we become the legs of God, we become the arms and the voice of God, and the ears of God, for when we see through that lens of that Christ consciousness, we see the world differently. When we allow that idea to bubble up within us and to guide us, life is different, even amongst the challenges, even amongst the sirens. Everybody have any sirens in their life, besides this right now? Sometimes it happens. But when you’re grounded in that presence, you’re able to move through it with more ease and more grace.

Now, part of the song, and what many people talk about, is this idea that God is saviour — I’m sorry, that Jesus is saviour. And Unity loves that idea but we talk about it more from the perspective of Christ is saviour, the Christ in you is your hope of glory.

The personality, the ego, the person, Jesus can’t change who you are, can’t your thoughts, can’t change your actions, can’t change your words, but you can. You have the power to listen to those better angels. You have the power within you to allow that energy to guide you, to open up to divine wisdom and be guided, to open up to divine inspiration, and to create, to open up to divine love and have a deeper harmonizing relationship with life. Anybody like that idea? And, boy, wouldn’t that feel like salvation to you, if you had that power and that idea, that Christ idea?

At the heart of Jesus’ teaching is love. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now, implied there is that you need to love yourself. And I think that’s one of our biggest challenges. Forget about my neighbor; I’ve got to deal with me and my shadow twin, Skippy. If we can’t find that balance within us, how are we going to find the balance in a relationship or outside of us, in our career, in our job? It all has to start from within. Everything begins from within, in consciousness and thought.

And so, when we start to love ourselves for who we are, for our authenticity, for our skills, for our talents, for our gifts in the world, we begin to love ourselves with that. Then we can love other people in the same way. We can love our neighbor as ourselves. We may not agree with them. They may be on different ends of some spectrum that we have of ideas, of beliefs, but we can still honor that idea, that Christ idea in them. And we can still be in harmony with them even if we don’t like them very much.

Giving

The other aspect of Jesus’ teachings and the heart of Christmas is giving. Now, we feel that, as Casey was talking about, Christmas day when we exchange gifts, when we give to one another.

Christmas isn’t about the physical gifts that we’re giving. Really, those are representations of what you mean to me so I’m going to give you a gift that hopefully you like, hopefully you love. But the real meaning is the love that’s within that gift, the compassion that’s within that gift.

Perhaps also is the idea of giving of your own talent, of your own spiritual treasures. Perhaps in your career, perhaps in your relationships, perhaps walking down the street a gift could be a smile. A gift could be your authentic self, your giggle, your giggle. A gift could be that lightness that you have. A gift could be that great set of advice that you give to somebody and the time that you shut your mouth and don’t say anything. That’s a bigger gift usually because we all need to go through life and learn through life. And while you may have a great set of wisdom for me, it’s still up to me to walk the past because, just like Jesus can’t change my belief system, neither can you. Coming from a minister. Dang! “Life would be a lot easier if you’d just agree with me.”

And so the second key to Christmas and to this Christ idea is giving, giving of your love, giving of your talent, giving of your skills, and being in community with one another, being here for one another, being compassionate with one another.

Sometimes, the most compassionate thing you could do is to not give, to not do something, and to let somebody learn. So, really it’s coming from your heart. It’s deciding on a moment-by-moment basis, a case-by-case basis, “What’s the greatest gift that I can give in this situation? How can I give to life in this situation? How can I make life more exciting and enthusiastic, more joyful? How can I create more joy in the world by simply giving of my gift?”

And I believe that as we begin to live in this fashion, what’s been true for me is that when I take one step, just pull the curtain back just a little bit, let my light shine just a little bit more, I feel dramatically better. It’s kind of an exponential thing. I give you two times my light and I’m squared, the experience that I have is squared. It’s cool to be square. Is that how the song goes? Maybe that’s where it came from.

But the more I give, the more I receive. And it’s something that you just have to be open to. And be willing to look at it so that you can see it in your life. Where can you see that good in your life right now? Think about where you can be grateful in your life. What part of your life is really beginning to expand? Where in your life do you see your good? What are you grateful for; I mean truly grateful for? Start thinking of a few things because gratitude puts you into that experience instantly. It’s one of the most powerful practices that we have.

In Unity we have lots of practices and the practice of denial and affirmation, the practice of forgiveness, and there’s multiple worksheets that you can do to help you along the way, the practice of non-resistance, of allowing life to happen without forcing it away, without trying to block it, the practice of getting rid of our stories, rewriting our stories, those beliefs, those automatic habits that come into our lives. There are so many ways in which we can do it, and the thing that you have to do is just do it, to try it and to practice it, and to do it over and over again.

Experiencing God

Jesus’ method was very simple; it was simply go into your inner chamber, close the door. In consciousness, go within because within is where you experience God. Within is where you know your oneness with the allness of life. Within is where you connect with that part of you that is untouched, that is pure, that is love. And so, take a moment to practice every day. It doesn’t take long. Many people have said “Well, I just don’t have time to do a 20-minute meditation”. That’s okay. Make it 19 minutes. “I can’t do it”. Okay, 18 minutes.

There’s one colleague of mine who said yes, he went to this retreat and the person who was leading the meditation practice eventually gave them — I’m going to paraphrase — JFST. That was the acronym, JFST; Just F(bleep) Sit There. Not sure what that second letter was for. Just sit there. If you can’t get into the meditation it’s okay.

Sometimes when we get into meditation and prayer, we have this great experience in life. Aaaaah, it feels so good. We say, “I did it well, I did it right. That was the best meditation ever. I can retire now. No more meditation for me.” And then when it doesn’t happen, we feel we did it wrong. The reality is there’s no such thing as wrong. Just sit there. Just be present. You’ll see your thoughts go swirling by. Instead of getting wrapped up in them, just observe them. “Oh, there’s a thought”. Bless it on its way. “Oh, there’s a feeling”. Just allow it to be.

Practice mindfulness, focus on your breath, just focus on your breath as it goes in and out. As you pause on the inhale and as you pause on the exhale, notice the stillness. These simple practices are what he taught for us to get in tune with the allness of life, love, and wisdom. So, let’s practice it tonight.

The Heart of Christmas

A poem, The Heart of Christmas, by Joyce Riley:

The heart of Christmas is love;
The hand of Christmas is giving;
Let your heart and hands embrace
All with gratitude and grace.
And start each day with Christmas in your heart.

And as you do so, you will be filled with joy.

Love you all. Blessings.