The ARDS Foundatin - Body, Mind, & Spirit

By Pastor Ian

Understanding the Reason for the Seasons

By the time you get to read this article it will be December. Hanukkah has been and gone and there will be a scant few days left until Christmas. What does that mean to you I wonder? Will it be worrying there are sufficient funds in the bank account or on the credit card balance to pay for the kind of celebration you wish to have this year? Will it be worrying you will have time to complete the round of shopping for gifts, for food and all the other things which go to make up your kind of festival?

I guess what I am really asking is: What does your religious festival look like? Are some of the above, elements in your challenges? I’ll bet they are.

But you know, with all of the modern hype we receive through the media, I think that some of us are beginning to forget that Hanukkah, Christmas and other religious festivals are a celebration of events which happened, as far as we can ascertain, thousands of years ago. There are now at least two whole generations who have little or no knowledge of the real reason why these events are still celebrated, and the numbers will only increase as our world continues to change our priorities.

Doesn't it seem strange that some people all round the world are still celebrating events like these without really knowing why? I mean, what is it about us that we almost break the bank, or blow all our credit on buying gifts for ourselves, and our family and friends. What is it that causes us to write dozens of pretty cards and mail them off to people, many of whom we might not have seen for the past 30 years…but we do it because we just know they might send one to us?

Surely our need for information; our need for answers challenges us to discover for ourselves the real story of why Canada and the rest of the developed world goes spending crazy at this time of the year. So I would like to give you an invitation. I would like to invite all of you who seek to remember the reason for the season, to come to one of your local religious organizations and find out for yourself. You will need to allocate a little of your time to this task, but I promise that you will come away
from the synagogue/mosque/church feeling uplifted…feeling better about yourself…feeling hopeful for the future, and just so confident that you will be able to meet the credit card bill when it rolls into your mail box.

I am not going to spoil the story for you by giving you a quote from a Holy Book, or talking about it. Instead, what I ask you to think about is that the stories which we hear at times like these are all about how people who lived so long ago, in a world very different from ours; a people who saw God in their daily lives. How many donkeys or sheep or cows were in the stable at the time is unimportant…how many candles were burning is also, I believe, unimportant.

What really matters is that the people we think about who are portrayed in these mystical events had a vision for what life should be like in the world in which they lived. The example of their often frugal lives stands out as a beacon for us all, and challenges us to be better than we are; challenges us to think more about our neighbor and less about ourselves; challenges us to see the world as a Creation of which we are an inseparable part, and challenges us to respect all that has been entrusted to our care.

Let me correct one idea. It is that religious festivals are all about extravagant meals and giving and receiving gifts. They are not, and nice as they are, we are only responding to high pressure marketing and indulging ourselves at this time of year. But, and there is always a “BUT!” When we think about the “Spirit” portrayed in these ancient events as meaning we should become more aware of others in need, and more open to providing hope to people who are struggling to survive; struggling to make ends meet, THEN and only then are we acting in the way those whom we are remembering at this time of year would have expected of those who would follow them…..yes, even hundreds of centuries later.

You see, in my mind is the single mom whose disability income is little more than $1000 per month, struggling to raise a 12 year old and a 17 year old. In my mind are those who, in spite of their best efforts, are unemployed or are existing on minimum wage. In my mind are those people in other countries who live in appalling conditions. In my mind is the thought that initially, the circumstances of my own birth helped me to be the person that I am now, making me one of the world’s more affluent people.

If I had one wish at this time of year, as the “old” year comes to a close, it would simply be that no child would ever be born into poverty again. We live on a paradise called Earth which has more than sufficient resources to meet all our needs and more besides, but we must continue with ever greater vigor and understanding to try to ensure that these resources are more equitably distributed.

Individually we can all do a little to change the tide of events and I challenge us to take up this task in 2005.

Blessings to you all this Season, and may it surround you all with Hope, Love and Peace.

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