WHY CHRISTMAS?

The short answer:

‘It is the season chosen to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ a little over 2000 years’ ago. 

The next question: “Why is that important?” 

The next slightly longer answer:

‘For the same reason that we celebrate anyone’s birthday—the fact that this anniversary day is important to the one celebrated and to us who remember and love or appreciate this person..  We want to honor the person named (and should, I believe, though rarely considered, the birthday person’s parentage).  In fact, Christmas is very important and looked forward to by several billion people who call themselves Christians and to many others who enjoy the spirit they feel or have felt of the season without, themselves, being avowed Christians.

The next question: “Couldn’t we celebrate ‘the season’ without mentioning ‘Jesus Christ’?”

Answer:

‘Many do.  They send out cards saying such things as “Happy Holidays,” or “Season’s Greetings,” or even “Merry X-mas.”  All of these types of cards in the words or symbols they use eliminate the real ‘reason for the season.’  Whether these people have given the day much thought, or if they are embarrassed by being labeled as or associated with Christians, or perhaps they really do not believe in the divinity of this man and thus choose not to honor Him they still  find something of value in the spirit of the season. They also may put up a thousand lights around their houses and a decorated tree or stick a plastic Santa Claus and elfs or the like in their front yards. They frequently like to play or listen to music such as “Jingle Bells” or “I saw mother kissing Santa Claus” or “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” or other songs of that genre. Most give a gift of some value to someone else they love or out of obligation or tradition they feel may expect it of them (but this person most certainly isn’t Jesus Christ).

But in all the above cases they are not really celebrating “Christmas," but simply participating in a shadow of it.  

Question: “So how do Christians celebrate Christmas?”

Answer: 

          ‘Perhaps in some of the same ways as non-Christians, but always, if they are truly Christians, by keeping the name of Christ in their thoughts, language, prayers, chosen music, and focus. They sing with thought and feeling songs such as “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “Silent Night,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” They are moved by songs and performances such as “O Holy Night” and Handel’s “Messiah.” 

They remember and probably read or certainly listen to the Christmas story as recorded in the Biblical books of Luke and Matthew. They attend, where they can, a Christmas service in a Christian church and by their attendance worship Him.  

They hopefully resolve to try to better keep the commandments that Christ and Christian scriptures prescribed:  “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); and “…love one another; as I have loved you…by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35). 

For Christians the season is Holy; the Christmas Day is Holy; and they truly reverence their Redeemer and Savior as the only begotten Son of God in the flesh.  

The implications of His coming to this earth, to do what he was sent to do, are tremendously important for all of God’s other children (us) to understand.  They appreciate that. “O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”

May you have Christ in your Christmas this year!

MOE NORMAN

Being an ‘old-schooler’ and a golfer I must pay tribute to perhaps at once the greatest and most unique golfer to ever play the game.  Meet Moe Norman (July 10, 1929-September 4, 2004).  He died at the same age I am now. 

If you never heard of him it may be for at least one of several reasons:  (1) He played most of his golf in his native Canada; (2) He played professionally on the P.G.A. tour in the United States in only twelve events ( all in 1979) before he got his feelings hurt because of thoughtless criticism of his unique and eccentric behavior. He was said to be autistic although he never went to a mental health professional to find out.  Of this experience he said, “Life just ate me up.  I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, and that’s what hurt me so I just quit [the PGA tour] and returned to where people cared about me.”; (3) He had many social anxieties and was very shy around people he did not trust—especially non-golfers who could not appreciate what he was doing; (4) Being a loner—he never married and said he dated a woman only three times in his life—or flew in airplanes from tournament to tournament but rather drove alone in his big Cadillac at his favorite speed of about 50 mph.

What did he do?  He was said, by his contemporary professional golfers, that he was the greatest ball-striker that ever lived.  Nobody could hit the ball repeatedly straighter than he.  Asked, I think, in the 1980’s when he last hit a ball out-of-bounds he said, “The last time I hit a ball out-of-bounds was in 1974.  The ball hit a sprinkler head and bounced out-of-bounds.” A few of his many records include these notable accomplishments:

·        3 rounds of 59

·        17 holes-in-one

·        9 double-eagles

·        Holds 33 course records for lowest score

·        Won 50 tour events in Canada

·        Won the Canadian Open 7 out of 8 years (1980-1987)

Most interesting are the stories and legends that have grown up around him.  In a one-of-a-kind interview with him, Guy Yocom (My Shot: The very best interviews from Golf Digest magazine, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, 2007) recorded him as saying, “I’m good with numbers.  Number of courses played: 434.  Number of courses I can remember the exact hole yardages: 375.  Age when I saw my first doctor: 68.  Number of two-stroke penalties in one eleven-year period: only one—I hit a drive that went out of bounds by two feet.  Most balls hit in one day: 2,207.  Total balls hit in my lifetime: About five million, not counting chips and putts.” 

As a boy he was a caddie and a pin-setter in a bowling alley.  He was very poor and relates that, “Even in my late teens and early 20’s, when I got good enough to play in tournaments I slept in bunkers and hitchhiked to get from one place to the next.  Some golfers laughed at me and teased me constantly. . . ‘Where you sleeping tonight, Moe?  Nobody came to my rescue until I was 26.  I really resented that.”  “When money was dear, I’d play with the same ball until it wore out.  A balata-covered wound ball had exactly 5 rounds in it before it got knocked out-of-round or got too soft.  Then it was time to search the bushes for lost balls and root out a new one.”  Later when he became a professional, Titleist sponsored him and provided him golf clothing and golf balls.  Of the balls he said, “Why did they give me all these?  All I need is one.”  Another time he said, “If there was ever a tournament at midnight, I’d win it.  I know where to find my ball every time.”

Surely Moe was the “Rain Man” of Golf.

I understand there is a movie currently in the process of being made about him. 

A recent book about him was published: The Feeling of Greatness, by Tim O’Connor.  

LESSONS FROM HOME

The older I get the more I acknowledge that people have absorbed from their parents (wittingly or unwittingly and probably more from one parent than the other) lessons that continue to color their lives.  At least so it was from my father to me. For many of the people I know it was their mother.

When I was a boy growing up I just assumed most other fathers were like my dad.  I took him for granted, resented him for some things, thought for a while he knew everything, was proud of him, then embarrassed by him, knew I needed him because I couldn’t maintain myself, and finally, shortly before I got married and moved out of my childhood home, couldn’t wait to leave.  By then I believed I knew as a college student many things dad didn’t know and I wanted to know more that I believed he couldn’t teach me. Besides, at age 19 it was time to go. 

    

Well, there were lessons he taught me that I didn’t know at the time he was teaching me that I now know became a large part of my personality for good. 

Here are some of those things: 

I was taught that “if you don’t find or take time to do it right the first time, when are you going to find time to do it right when you have to do it over? Work at it until you get it right. Work never killed anyone.”  A deliberate, contemplative approach to things that I have to do/should do has helped me not make any serious mistakes in my life;  but I have sometimes procrastinated and failed to do things when they ought to have been done—when I didn’t work like I was taught and time was wasted and I regret that. Dad often paraphrased this quotation by Benjamin Franklin: “Lost time is never found again.”

I was taught that “if you make a promise or commitment to yourself or to others, follow through on your promise. Do it.  Hold up your end of the bargain.  Don’t be a slacker or prove untrustworthy or unreliable.” He disdained these types of people. I don’t disdain them, but I try to never be classified with them.

I was taught to not be a “taker, one who takes but does not give back at least as much as he receives.” As a child, or one who is in need, we often take what is offered through the kindness of others, but do we, now, in turn give back with interest, so to speak, what we can as we gain resources and competencies to do likewise? He taught me self-reliance and he taught me service.  He served.

I was taught to not expect anyone or any agency (such as government or even family or friends) to do for me what I could and should do for myself.  If I did, how could I grow?

He taught me to never take advantage of people, whether because of their color, social or economic status, age, or physical or mental capacity.  I interpreted that to mean live the ‘golden rule’ at all times, in all places, and with all people.

I was taught to go into debt only in the direst of circumstances, and certainly not for anything frivolous.  Save for it and pay cash.  I was taught to stay out of any kind of bondage—whether to creditors, or to bad habits.

He taught me to pay attention, watch carefully, listen first and talk last.

 

Dad never helped me with an algebra problem, or a spelling word, or anything academic, but he did teach with his actions many of life’s most important lessons.

Dad died nearly eight years ago but his lessons remain with me.  I think of him more now than ever. 

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

When I was young we used to ask that question as an informal greeting. We didn’t give the question or receive the answer tendered by our friend much thought.  Now, as we have grown older, if we ask that question not as a greeting, but in sincerity and really try to find out we will find the answer disquieting. America is beginning to look nothing like the America of the recent past.

America is in the throes of a demographic transformation. Huge generational gaps have opened up in our political and social values, our economic well-being, our family structure, our national racial and ethnic identity, our gender norms, our religious life, and our technology use. Our present is marked by the most striking social, racial, and economic shifts the country has seen in a half-century.

Today’s Millennials are well-educated in terms of technical expertise but when they step off the campus whether as a graduate or a dropout many find they are still unemployed, still dependent, unmarried, lacking religious faith, and the American Dream has become, for them, very dim.  They have to settle for becoming underemployed and are finding they are becoming the first generation in American history to have a lower standard of living than their parents; and they are historically illiterate.  Meantime, on the other end of the generational spectrum our researchers say that currently well over 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every single day, most of them not as well prepared financially as they’d hoped, and many are now reaping the consequences of poor health practices choices of their younger years. These generational and social changes are contributive in polarizing our people.

People are struggling, and emotional depression is increasing.

Every aspect of our demography is being fundamentally transformed.  Our population is rapidly becoming non-white, and our median age will soon edge above 40—both unprecedented milestones in our nation and in other ‘developed’ nations.  It is not so with the ‘developing’ nations: they are younger and darker and hungrier and want what we have—or had.  

  

My take? We as a people need to get our moral, religious and social values back on track to mend the breech.  We need to restore the foundational pillars that have been yanked out if we hope to get out of free-fall. The government cannot do it for us. 

To address just one of the ‘pillars’: when I went to school in the ‘60’s we talked about a ‘Social Contract.’ This was an age-old compact—parents (must) take care of children and children (should) take care of parents.  Every society and each family has an unspoken covenant between the generations—I care for you when you’re young; you care for me when I’m old.  Support flows toward need.  There needs to be generational fairness—it is not all ‘take’ and no ‘give.’ We have a shared and mutually influenced destiny--or could have--but sometimes we forget that.

Conclusion:  We should more willingly try to get along with and serve one another. Elders should do a better job inculcating traditional historical, cultural, and religious values to our young. 

All generations see the world through a lens shaped by the ups and downs of their own life. Some gain wisdom from their own experiences, but fewer, unfortunately, of those who preceded them.  The young hopefully will appreciate that experience—the experience of their elders—has value and can help bring us back.

Our (my) generation’s last big mission might be to help rebuild the citadel for today’s young by starting to rebuild the pillars. Without that, what will our children’s inheritance really be?  A Greek proverb says that societies become great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.

  

Cultural and social expectations enforced by custom, convention, traditional civic and family values or conscience are cracking.  We need to fill the cracks with the cement of moral virtue.  Identify what those virtues are (and you won’t find them on ‘Dancing with the stars’). Talk with your elders and look in the history books and the world’s great literature if you are serious about restoring this country’s greatness. Answers can be found there.

We all have an obligation to do our part to get things back on track. 

A MUSIC BOX GOOD-BYE

I want you to visualize this:  You have a music box and you wind it up.  You listen to the music—many notes, up and down the scale, some repeating themes, a few notes held long, most others very short, but finally, if it’s programmed right, more or less the music comes to a conclusion as the song starts to wind down.  The song doesn’t usually end, though, as it might if you experience it in a concert you attend or as you hear it on a recording or on the radio.  Rather, it starts to slow down, and slow down, and finally almost stops, and then a last note or two and then . . . stops.

So it is with most lives and most deaths.  So it was recently with Aretha Franklin and John McCain.  So it will be with almost all the people we know and so it will be with  us. 

There will be lingering memories of the pitch they sang in, the songs they sang, the concerts they performed in, the speeches on the floor, the places they walked, or sat, or built, or spent time in—the  notes they emphasized in their lives.   And then they wind down and the music stops . . . or does it?  Or should it?

Who, in our generation, will not remember Aretha belting out R-E-S-P-E-C-T whenever we hear it replayed for the next how many years of our lives, or visualize and ‘hear’ the voice of John McCain reminding us of stoic and heroic patriotism when someone invokes his name? Or when we remember special times in the lives of our loved-ones, or ourselves with them, at unbidden moments, when just their name is mentioned, or you see a picture, or a scent, or go to a place where they once walked? 

Just remember the music box.  It didn’t just stop; it just wound down and we no longer hear it.  But it will be wound up again by another hand and its music will play on another stage and delight and inspire and add to the music once played by billions and billions of other sisters and brothers . . . and one day, too, by our music box. 

PRIESTHOOD

In my little biographical sketch on the right side of this weblog home page I indicate that I find it a great honor to hold the priesthood in my Church.  I have felt that way from the day I was first ordained many decades ago and I do today.  It is because in the Church to which I belong priesthood really means something.  It means that I have authority and power to act in God’s name for the salvation of all of God’s children provided I keep myself worthy to exercise it.  And that is a worthy purpose. 

I am embarrassed for those faithful members of another Christian denomination, those who trusted their leaders who called themselves ‘priests’ of this denomination.  I am more embarrassed and even appalled regarding those fallen men who have not kept their sacred vows and have violated some of the most fundamental commandments and expectations of God. They have befouled the very title of 'priest.' But most importantly, I feel sorry for those who were violated and who had their faith and lives damaged by these trusted ‘priests’ who were in reality weak men and unworthy imposters.

Jesus said, “Whoso who shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). 

Perhaps it is not only weak men, but an ecclesiastical structure that traditionally has disallowed these men to marry that drives some men (many more we are now finding) of the 'cloth' to engage in these reprehensible practices.  I am not saying that this church encourages such behavior—because it does not—but it does not recognize or put sufficient weight on God’s observation or foreknowledge that “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18).   That ‘helpmeet’ was a woman who God gave to Adam to be his wife.  The sexual drive which was given to procreate the human race and to bind, through marriage, a man and a woman together in love was to be used in no other way and for no other purpose.

And it was not to be used to exploit children.

These attacks on the innocent not only psychologically damage the victims, but they damage the very institution of religion in the eyes of an increasingly skeptical public.

My own father was agnostic or maybe even atheistic because of what he saw, read about, or perceived as common among false priests, or hypocritical preachers who drove the big cars and held in charismatic bondage those who belonged to the big-box, ‘feel-good’ churches he saw on television. 

Don’t, like him, throw the baby out with the dirty bath water.  The invitation remains, "Come unto Christ and be saved." But be sure the church you attend is truly led by a man of God.

SECULARISTIC SCRIPTURES

Well, not exactly.  These scriptures (holy writings) come from the Bible but are not theological writings nor do they express dogma (a doctrine formally proclaimed by a church) of any kind. Any jaded, cynical, existential atheist non-believer (as well as a theist/or any religious believer) could well benefit from their application and not feel compromised in their unbelief.  The source of words of wisdom, or the person who is given credit for uttering them should make no difference to any honest person who is looking to make the world, or his or her own life a better place.

 Let’s look at a few:

·        “. . . all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so them . . . ” (Matthew 7:12).  In our vernacular we would say, ‘do unto others what you would have done to you.’ We call this the 'Golden Rule.'

·        “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).  This truism is commonly called ‘the law of the harvest.’

·        “. . . do justly, love mercy, walk humbly. . .” (Micah 6:8)

·        “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. . . .” (John 7:24)

·        “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose . . . “ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8-11.

·        “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29::18)

·        “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

·        “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

·        “The love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

·         

Civil War general Robert E. Lee said:  “In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.”