A Christmas Eve Meditation

The fundamentalists and atheists have both got it wrong, I mused as a Christmas Eve service at our church was drawing to a close tonight.

The fundamentalists interpret the Bible so literally—and so legalistically—that they cause themselves and everyone around them to be so gracelessly uptight. It turns people off; it excludes rather than loves with compassion. The atheists, on the other hand, throw the baby (in the manger?) out with the bathwater by claiming religious texts and myths are too factually or scientifically indefensible to lend any credence to the reality of a higher power.

Both have missed the mark—or missed the metaphor, to put it more accurately.

We reenact rituals and traditions such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, etc., to remind ourselves of the grander stories that are beyond dogma. These stories—or mythologies, if you will—point through metaphor to timeless truths that are more important than the concrete details that cause so much divisiveness and bickering. They tap into the wonder of the ocean, the breathtaking expanse of a sunset, the majesty of the stars, and the preciousness of a newborn baby. They are a doorway to mystery, mystery that can never be fully plumbed or explained on this side of eternity.

Tonight just so happens to be Christmas Eve. If we get caught up in the weeds of whether there was an actual Joseph or Mary or a bonafide virgin birth, we miss the larger message of opening our hearts and minds to the Christ child within us…allowing that child to blossom toward fruition and touch the world through the same compassion demonstrated by Jesus during his ministry.

We celebrate the birth of the divine because we, too, are made in the image of the divine, and have the potential to fully unleash our own godliness. We discover peace on earth when we taste the timeless, formless reality that is the essence of our identities, an identity that transcends our material possessions, worldly responsibilities and certainly our fleshly earth suits.

Holidays, rituals, traditions, coming-of-age rites such as bar and bat mitzvahs, and pilgrimages to Mecca—all such activities are not meant to be empty habits or events hijacked by commercialism. They have the potential to give each of us a story that is larger than we are—a hero’s journey to undertake. Many in this age are painfully living in search of story, and find various outlets and industries—many of them unhealthy—to fill the gap where story should be. It is the illness of our time, the root cause of so many symptoms.

The fundamentalist limits the timeless, ubiquitous experience of one unleashing their own divinity to only those who believe as they do. The atheist stays myopically focused on what cannot be, rather than transferring his mental energy toward growing in self-awareness and truly discovering the joy of eternal being within him. There is a deficit of critical thinking with the former and the latter.

Tonight, I pray that enough people are becoming enlightened in this world so that a middle, bridge-building way—the way of peacemakers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dali Lama, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohammed, Buddha and, yes, Jesus—becomes predominant and enables fundamentalists, atheists, skeptics and seekers to collectively embrace the wonders and mysteries of life. Imagine the human needs that could be better served if a majority of people—especially those with power and influence—began to see the precious divinity in one another, and refused to judge but instead sought to understand.

That truly would bring joy to the world.