Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Emerald Coast
“Peace on Earth, to All Good Will”
Rev. Rod Debs
December 20, 2009
Story for All Ages: Since it’s almost Christmas, I would like to know whether you know the stories of Jesus’ birth. What are some of those stories?
Mary and Joseph—parents
Mary had a dream like the voice of an angel telling her she would have a baby
Joseph had a dream that an angel told him Mary would have a baby too
Jesus was born in a stable or a cave because there was no room in Bethlehem inn
shepherds watching their sheep saw a whole bunch of angels declaring Jesus’ birth
“Peace on Earth, to all goodwill!”
three wisemen with presents followed a star that shone above the stable
(set the stage for the story) The angels said: “Peace on Earth, to all Goodwill!”
Why do people want to talk about Jesus’ birth? Many people think that what Jesus taught and lived when he was an adult brought peace to whoever followed him, whoever lived like Jesus did.
Jesus taught that everyone should be respected, especially children, poor people, sick people, rich people too, and even bad people should be respected. He said to visit people in jail, to give clothes to people who need clothes, food to the hungry, whatever people need, to give it to them. He even said to love your enemies!
So one of the stories they told was that angels said that Jesus would bring “Peace on Earth, to all goodwill!” Do you think if we all practiced loving-kindness to everybody, especially to those who are worst off, that maybe there would be “Peace on Earth” and goodwill to all?
This is the real story behind Christmas! Let’s sing “Silent Night, Holy Night.”
Message: This morning I am mindful that there are many winter holidays celebrated around the world. In Kyrgyzstan, children go to school on December 25; they celebrate New Years with feasting and presents and Orthodox Christmas in January. There are people who celebrate secular Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, and Santa Lucia. Truth be told, I think we celebrate a mix of many holiday traditions. Holiday traditions teach something, they transmit values from one generation to another.
What values taught by winter holiday traditions around the world?
The Winter Solstice has been celebrated in many ways since ancient days, always a celebration of hope as for the return of the sun’s life-giving warmth. Those traditions that light candles, burn the yule log, roll flaming hoops down a hill, hang lights on evergreens, frame buildings with shining ice-cicles, fill public places with strings of multi-colored twinkling light—all these celebrations of light are celebrations of hope as for the sun’s return of life-giving light.
First century Roman soldiers celebrated Mithra’s birth on December 25th, centuries before Christians adopted the same date as Jesus’ birthday. Mithra was said to be born of the Sun-god with a human mother. Mithra’s birth was witnessed by shepherds and by Magi who brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave in the Rock—long before Jesus’ birth stories were written. Mithra performed miracles: raised the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, and he cast out devils—typical stories written to prove ancient heroes were worthy of worship. Mithra’s ascension to heaven was celebrated at the Spring Equinox—now celebrated as Christian Easter—when the sun rises to its greatest height. Well before Christianity, Mithraism’s “Birth of the Unconquerable Sun,” Winter Solstice, was a celebration of the rebirth of hope.
Hanukkah is also known as the Festival of Lights. The story goes that when the Jews re-conquered Jerusalem from Syria’s Seleucid Empire in 165 BCE, priests needed eight days of olive oil for the rededication of the Temple, but only one days-worth of consecrated oil could be found. Miraculously, that oil burned for eight days. The eight candles of the Menorah are lighted, one for each of the eight days of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a celebration of hope for liberation despite brutal oppression. The Festival of Lights is the silent celebration of that hope no matter how dark the circumstances.
Saint Lucy’s Day is celebrated among Scandinavian peoples on December 13. The candle-light services we are familiar with reflect Santa Lucia celebration—when a young girl with lighted candles crowning her head leads a procession of singing children, each with a candle, celebrating the victory of light over darkness.
Kwanzaa, a modern African American celebration involves the lighting of seven days of candles. But Kwanazaa’s focus is not on light conquering darkness. Rather, seven values of community are celebrated with the lighting of each day’s candle. The first candle is lit for the collective Purpose of building community; the next six candles are lit for Creativity, Faith, Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsilty, and the final candle is lit for Cooperative Economics. A focus on the values of community.
Not all winter holidays are celebrations of light. Two weeks ago we celebrated Hanging of the Greenery, the evergreen, with life-force that retains its color despite winter’s darkness and cold. The evergreen is a symbol of hope for human survival at a time when many living things recede into winter dormancy or death. Kwanzaa goes so far as to name values of community-building as very concrete practices that give hands to our hope.
“The lights of Kwanzaa now proclaim that when we share our inner flame, and nurture root and branch with pride, we’ll harvest peace both far and wide.” (Singing the Living Tradition, #147)
When I reflect on the function of holy days, of holidays, both ancient and present-day, they seem almost always to be feasts. Animal sacrifices were actually big barbecues: lambs, fowl, bullocks, pig-roasts. Priests and the entire population feasted on what they brought to sacrifice.
The Jesus tradition of “the common table” was in one key sense different from the established holy day feasts, and at the same time, more traditional: Jesus excluded noone. The followers of Jesus were taught to bring their goods to “the common table” where everyone was welcome without discrimination.
During the Roman occupation of Palestine, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, its burning, the enslavement and killing of much of the Jewish population around the year 70CE, the Jesus tradition of inviting everyone, without distinction, to share “the common table,” abandoned the purity exclusions of Temple Judaism. Jesus welcomed the poor and diseased, women and slaves, tax-collectors and prostitutes, children and half-Jews and even Roman pagans to share “the common table.”
In the bleak midwinter, when harvest stores of food or fuel might seem insufficient, the community brings what they have to the feast. They eat and drink, sing and dance. They listen to the wisdom of elders and praise the innocent exuberance of youth. They sing and tell stories, exaggerate the tales so that they will be memorable. They break the rules of everyday frugality—and yes, some populations freely violated patriarchal mating privileges during the feasting and wild celebration. The people share feasts. The so-called “Followers of the Way” of Jesus, shared with whoever wished to partake at “the common table.” Many found hope in Jesus’ radical generosity
In the Gospel of Luke, the writer spins a story of Jesus declaring his mission on an early visit to his home town of Nazareth. According to the story, Jesus reads these words from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4.18-19, RSV)
People wrote birth stories about Jesus, the teacher of radical generosity, the one who taught “sell all you have and give to the poor.” “Insofar as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.” They wrote stories about the one who preached radical solidarity, “Love your enemies. Bless and do not curse.”
First Jesus taught and lived his vision of the Beloved Community, then stories were told and songs written: “… from angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold: `Peace on the earth, to all goodwill, from heaven the news we bring.’ The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing.” (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear)
Hearing the Sermon on the Mount, then actually experiencing loving-kindness in Jesus, radical generosity of Jesus, and universal acceptance (grace) of Jesus, Jesus’ followers knew his teaching of “goodwill to all” to be the divine message that would bring “Peace on Earth.” So they wrote stories celebrating him as the Prince of Peace.
We could see this holiday season as teaching our children competitive gift-giving, and selfish consumerism. Yet behind it all, whether from secular or religious feast day tradition, there is one teaching that children of all ages need to hear: universal kindness and generosity.
“`Peace on the earth, to all goodwill, from heaven the news we bring’ The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing.”