Christmas Time op-ed piece - for publication.
Forwarded to all 4 Toronto dailies - all rejected it.
Towards a More Meaningful Christmas
Putting the momentous event of the Incarnation back into the celebration of Christmas
12/2007
There has been a concerted effort of late to undermine the Christ event by dismissing it as a myth, as witnessed by the publication of "The Pagan Christ" by Tom Harpur and the like. As a consequence the relevance of Christmas has become increasingly trivialized and shorn of its religious significance.
For most nominal/secular Christians the significance of the Incarnation and its implications for the illumination of humanity is largely lost on them. There is also a notable absence of anything new in the way of thinking about the Incarnation (in conventional Christian thought) that is especially pertinent to the present generation. In view of this and given the current drift in the popular culture, there is a pressing need to articulate the Christmas message in a new way that is relevant and meaningful to the average Joe and Jill of our day. Once it is presented in a rational, coherent manner that makes sense of it, there is a good chance it may spark a renewal of faith in the religious disaffected.
I grappled with this concept of the Incarnation (i.e. the divinity of Christ) for some time. When I set out to examine what it was about my Christian faith that I had difficulties with, the most perplexing question was: how is Jesus the Son of God, when God is Spirit (incorporeal) and Infinite. It was something I had to make sense of, if I was to hold to it as an article of faith. I decided early on that I would one day seek out the answer for myself. I had an inner sense of knowing that the truth was out there to be found if I assiduously applied myself to find it. This set me on a lifelong quest in search of the truth of life. It was only later in life that I came upon a credible exposition of the question that had eluded me all these years. It came in the form of this Greek word Logos: the INCARNATION OF THE WORD.
Logos has different meanings as gleaned from various dictionary definitions (only slightly paraphrased and somewhat amalgamated). Pre-Christian Greek philosophers spoke of Logos as a universal, eternal, immanent force in the universe. The idea of a divine Mind (nous) which informs all things and constitutes the harmony and structure of the universe. Gnosticism conceived of the Logos as a force uniting God and man, the embodiment of all human perfection. In the Prologue to John's Gospel it indicates Christ as "the Word":
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth".
There is yet another esoteric definition that is perhaps more germane in this context: "The Word is the Logos; it is the power of God and the realization of that power in and as the Christ - the Christ is the personification of the Word".
In John's Gospel he speaks of a Light "that lighteth every man that cometh into the world". What is that Light but a divine spark of the Creator implanted in the heart of man as a flame that gives him life and being. (This is true of all sons and daughters of God.) In the case of Jesus, John the mystic intuitively perceived him to be the embodiment of that Light in its fullness - coming to fruition in the Incarnation of the Word.
This illumined understanding of the Incarnation sheds new light on the humanity of Jesus and how he attained to the exalted status of Christhood. It must be appreciated that Jesus' previous embodiment was that of Elisha. He was a disciple of Elijah who was about to be carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Before leaving, he asked Elisha if there was anything he could do for him. Elisha replied that a double portion of his spirit might fall on him. As Elijah was ascending, his mantle fell on Elisha - symbolizing that his request had been granted. It is interesting to note that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah - the forerunner to prepare the way for Jesus' mission. Jesus paid tribute to him by saying; "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist".
He received the decent of the Christ into his physical form at his baptism (anointing) and was consequently a Christed being. (Christos is the Greek word for anointed.) This as prelude to his mission as the Messiah - the Anointed of God. He was not at this point, in my view, fully God realized but well on the way to becoming the "fullness of the Godhead bodily". That was to come later in the episodes of his Transfiguration, Resurrection, and ultimately at the point of his Ascension.
From this you may deduce that my take on the life and mission of Jesus is not so much a religion about Jesus as it is the religion of Jesus. (You might say, I am a disciple of the Master Jesus the Christ.) This same status of the Christ - anointed of God - is open to us all, usually after many lifetimes of devotion to God and in service to our fellow man, as was the case with Jesus of Nazareth. The question of Jesus' nature (human, divine or combination of the two) is, in my view, more a matter of degree than of kind.
This begs the question: What is the nature of man? The perennial question that goes to the heart of who and what we are and who or what we perceive God to be. And wherein lies the meaning and purpose of life. Why are we here? Where did we come from? What's expected of us during our sojourn here? Where are we headed? How firmly are our feet established on the pathway of moral rectitude and spiritual fidelity? And lastly, what is the ultimate goal of earthly embodiment? (But this is a topic that is too big to go into here.) Once these mysteries are pierced, it opens up a whole new vista of how we view the world and our place in it - our purpose and reason for being.
To follow on, there is no death - life is a continuum - we do go on in our soul's journey toward perfection. Jesus said it: "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect". Also, "the works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do". The clear implication being, that whatever he was, we might ultimately become; else why would he have said it? The question of whether it was achievable for us in one lifetime is something else, hence the need for multiple reincarnations to affect this.
In the Old Testament there is a verse that reads:
"There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding."
Everyone, by virtue of this "spirit within", has a direct link to the Almighty in the form of an individualized God Presence that is personal to each. It is our best Source of inspiration and guidance. There is only One God in all the Universe, but each individual has a focus of the Godhead that is specific to them. One day, when we've completed our sojourn here in time and space, we will meld with this Presence and attain "union with God". Jesus the Christ was the supreme example of this, and demonstrated it two thousand years ago on Bethany's hill - from whence he ascended.
This same glorious achievement is our ultimate destiny as well, but it exists for us as a potential that must be realized through spiritual practice and in service to life. God has a life plan for each one of us; but we have to attune ourselves to this "inspiration of the Almighty" by placing ourselves in a meditative state of listening grace so as to align ourselves more closely with that divine plan.
By fostering a more comprehensible understanding of Logos as the 'Incarnation of the Word' (i.e. God in manifestation) as exemplified and personified by Jesus the CHRIST, we can then go on to contemplate our own innate divinity and strive to bring it into greater expression.
Earl Baerg