Have a Merry UU Christmas

Now Unitarians and Universalists
like to say they celebrate many holidays, many traditions
But observers will attest,
there is one holiday that stands out,
and that holiday is Christmas.

Now to the outside observor,
this may seem like an anomoly,
after all many Unitarian Universalist
don't identify themselves as Christians.

In fact some of our fellow religious liberals
pride themselves on debunking Christian mythology

And those among us that do consider themselves Christian,
don't take the nativity stories literally,
in fact most of us see these stories as wonderful fictions,
beautiful legends
that grew out of the earliest Christian imagination

The outsider might ask
"how can you celebrate Christmas
unless you believe
that Mary gave birth to the The Son of God.
that she was a Virgin,
and that Three Wise Men Followed A Star

My own answer is simple,
we celebrate Christmas because
the themes of peace on earth, good will toward all
are expressions of a universal, inclusive,
world affirming faith
expressions that Unitarians made a significant contribution
toward establishing within the Christmas tîradition

We helped re-define the meaning of this holiday,
understanding that re-definition, that re-visioning
helps us to better understand both Christmas,
and ourselves.

Lets look at some history.
First, the earliest Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ,
they did not know, nor did they care
about the day of the year he was born.
In fact the early church fathers discouraged
the celebration of all birthdays -
they believed this was a pagan practice.

Origen writing in the second century of the common era
polemicised against birthday celebrations
he pointed out in all the Bible
only bad guys celebrated their birthdays

Check it out,
in all of the Hebrew and Christian scripture.
only the Pharaoh
and Herod were recorded to have birthday parties,

These two were not role models.
۬It wasn't until Christianity became the established religion
of the Roman Empire
that the Church authorities relaxed their attitudes
on birthday celebrations.
They were simply too popular with
the majority of Mediterrean people.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

And so a high mass celebration of the birth of Jesus
was scheduled to co-opt the Roman holiday
of the Victory of the Sun.

From the fourth century through the fifteenth century
Christmas evolved in Western Europe.
There was the Roman Catholic mass,
usually celebrated late on Christmas eve.
and there was the continuation of the traditions of revelry
associated the pre-Christian Winter Solstice festivals,

Such traditions as gift giving, and outdoor singing come to us from the ancient Roman holiday of the Victory of the Sun.
Candle lighting, mistletoe, and pine wreaths come to us from the ancient Germanic mid winter festivals, Yule tide.

In Ireland, England, France, Spain, all over Europe,
the heavy drinking, the orgies and license for rape,
associated with Christmas made
this a time that to be watchful
and keep the children in,

Then came the Protestant Reformation,
and its attempt to purify Christianity of all corruption,
One of the corruptions targeted was Christmas.
۬This is not a Biblical holiday
the Reformers declared,

Christmas was a pagan holiday that the Catholics had kept,
more proof of Catholic corruption.
so they tried to do away with Christmas.

It is important to remember
The nation that was to become the United States of America was first settled
By European Protestants who did not celebrate Christmas.

In the southern colonies the Anglicans had parties at Christmas time,
but it wasn't a big religious festival,
in the Northern colonies,
the people were Quaker, Presbyterian and Congregational
Serious Protestants and No Christmas.
۬People caught celebrating the holiday could be fined, banished.
It was out of this background
and in the context of a profoundly liberating revolution
The American Revolution
that both the Unitarians and Universalists emerged.
free religion, not bound by creed,
open to the inspiration of the Bible, but not bound to it.

Given that, it is not surprising that
Unitarians took a fresh look at Christmas
and made significant innovations based on their open faith

In the years after American independence in cities
like New York and Boston
the Christmas parties so popular in the South
were becoming popular,
especially among younger people,
۬What the Unitarians saw was
the reassertion of the mid-winter festival
without religious support.
except among the very small numbers of Roman Catholics
and Anglicans.

A Harvard Professor, A Unitarian named Charles Follen,
a refugee from Germany
In 1832 he gave a Party,
with a German theme for the Yule season.
and introduced the decorated Evergreen tree
as the centerpiece of his party.

Christmas trees immediately
became the acccepted fashion in New England,
among Unitarians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians.

Perhaps you have heard about James Piermont,
The one time Unitarian minister who is credited
with writing the lyrics to Jingle Bells,

Both Follen and Piermonts contributions were light
and certainly not significantly religious contributions
to the Christmas Party phenomeon.

But Unitarian Universalists did far more than contribute
to the festive mood of then popular winter time parties,
Unitarian Universalists helped shape
A new religious meaning of the festival.

They helped create a holy - day
that spoke to the hopes and aspirations
of the emergin industrial society,
a society characterized by open poverty, by individualism,

by loneliness and by violence.

And not only the Unitarians in New England.
We were very connected with our co-religionists across the pond.
The Unitarians in England were engaged in similar work,
revisioning Christmas.
۬In 1843 a struggling young English writer published a story that was bound to become the most popular Christmas story
both in the United Kingdom and in North America.
A story that transformed the cultural ideal of Christmas.

Charles Dickens had grown up impoverished,
by much effort he achieved a token of success as a writer,
in the process of his struggles,
he became aware of the disparity between rich and poor,
and the subservient role played by the education system,
the courts, the press and the established church
subservient to what he considered to be
the hypocritical and greedy wealthy classes.
Dickens, the young radical had left the Church of England
with a hardy bah humbug to orthodox religion,
and after several years of searching
he became a Unitarian at London's Essex Chapel.

In Unitarianism found the religion that proclaimed God's love,
a religion that believed in the potential of everyone
to change and become more caring, more genuinely helpful.

Let us look at the character Ebenezer Scrooge,
Dickens does not create a one-dimensional a straw villian,
Scrooge's selfishness according to Dickens
is the product of his childhood fears, loneliness, and insecurity

A Christmas Carol is the story of Scrooges redemption,
And what a Unitarian story of salvation it is.

The unlikely agents of transformation
are those wonderful literary inventions of Dickens
Marley's ghost, and the three sprits.
the Ghost of Jacob Marley comes to Scrooge
dragging long chains, forged he says in his lifËœe time,
his fate after death
to search the earth for caring, helpful Marley
who could have been,
he warns Scrooge that if he doesn't heed the message
this fate will befall him
۬ In his sleep Scrooge is visited by
the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present
and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Be.
these characters lead Scrooge on a journey of self discovery.

Through this journey he comes to understand himself,
he sees the lonely boy that he was,
his yearning for the love and approval of his family,
a yearning never fulfilled,
he sees the many people who reached out to him,
but how this hurt and rejected youth
refused to be open to them.

The Spirits show Scrooge how people enjoy Christmas,
humple people, people with few resources, isolated people
enjoying the simple joy of this festive time.
The Ghosts expose him to hard life of the Cratchit Family
the love of his Nephew,
and finally the Ghost of Christmas Yet to be
shows Scrooge his own lonely death.

The awakened Scrooge
comes to realize that he can change his life.

The redeemeded Scrooge
understands that to be genuinely human,
he must affirm the worth of others,
and through this reaching out affirm himself.

The Christmas Carol as a story of renewal of the human spirit,
its power may come form just how much of himself
Dickens was putting into the characters,

Dickens like Scrooge was a lonely child,
like Scrooge his Sister was the love of his childhood,
the one who cared for him,
like Tiny Tim, the crippled child of the Cracket family,
Dicken's Sister had a crippled child
who Dickens loved through the process of his long dying,
Dickens had been bitter and angry with the world,
and had found love and caring in the Essex Street Chapel.

Dickens also shows us the abuse and neglect of children,
the suffering of Tiny Tim,
and other impoverished children,
awaken Scrooge's conscience
and seeing his own childhood, its pain,
and the choices he made to deal with that pain
all these have a powerful role
in the redemption of Scrooge,

But Dickens is not just talking about Scrooge,
millions of children were neglected in early industial society,
the Unitarians of that generation were engaged in a awakening,
to save the children, the save the hope of tommorrow.

This new emphasis on children,
on nurture, on education, on care
an emphasis flowing out of classical Unitarian theology
a theology that witnessed the divine spark in every person,
won converts far beyond our ranks.

The Christmas Carol was greeted with tremenous popularity
It functioned as only story can do to symbolize a theology
with its new symbol of the child, Tiny Tim,
who with that other baby born in poverty, the baby Jesus,
could embody for millions this new message of caring.

A revolution in world outlook, a revisioning of Christmas
Many other Unitarians

made contributions to this revolution in understanding.
Too many to mention all by name,

But one, I single out for his contribution.

Edmund Hamilton Sears, the Unitarian minister

in Wayland, Massachusetts was recovering from a breakdown.

He had been the minister of the much larger church

in nearby Lancaster,
but Sears believed that religion had ethical consequences.

۬The United States had declared war on Mexico in 1846
And like many Unitarian Ministers
Sears denounced that war as a war of aggression.
and frequently spoke out against it.
The resulting controversy in his parish was enormous
and led to an emotional callopse, he left Lancaster
to be welcomed back with love and affection
in the little parish of Wayland where he had been ordained.

On Christmas day in 1848 the word spread around the village that the minister had writen a new Christmas Carol
and wanted to try it out.
Congregants hitched up their sleighs
and the family pilled and headed for Sear's farm.
One member brought a spinet, and another a fiddle,
so that there would be a musical instruments.

And so they sang "It came upon a midnight clear."
۬This carol was a major departure from Christmas music,
and forged a new theme for the holiday
one that we all take for granted today.

We have all heard the expression
"peace on earth and goodwill to all people"
so often during this season of the year
we may assume that it was always a part of the Christmas theme.

But in fact, it was Sears song that popularized these words in Luke

Into a Christmas slogan of general usage.

Sears lyrics were such a controversal departure
in the direction of social commentary
It angered religious conservatives. They hated it.

Listen to the words of this carol we sing so often
"and we who fight the wars,
hear not the love song which they bring.
Oh hush the noise of battle strife, and hear the angels sing.

In the midst of the invasion of Mexico,
This was clearly intentional anti-war protest music

Edmund Sears, the Pete Seeger,
or perhaps the John Lennon of his generation

It was so controversial that the New Yorker wrote
the following about the popular new Carol

"[this] was just the kind of thing
that we can expect from those Unitarians."

But it moved millions, and became a beloved and accepted.
Today the theme of peace and good will to all
is among the most important of all Christmas slogans,
and much of the thanks should go to Edmund Sears.

Dickens, Sears, Longfellow and others
wrote stories, poetry, music, drama and song,
that we and millions of others
have come to know and love,
all of these efforts have helped to redefine the holiday.

Before these Unitarian efforts,
Christmas had been a formal high mass to celebrate
the birth of the Savoir God,
a time for popular parties, heavy drinking, and Parties.

But after these liberal religious efforts
a new Christmas story begins to take shape
the holiday theme of Peace, the outreach to children
the notion of making a special effort at Good Will,
and the retelling of the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus
so that it has become a story of the birth of love

and kindness in human affairs.

After these efforts
Christmas spirit was no longer the rum in the punch bow
it was now about being loving and showing kindness,
It was became a time to practice extending a helping hand to poor and needy
۬Unitarians such as Sears and Dickens
were critical of private, personal salvation religion

For both Sears and Dickens
And for the Unitarians of their generation religion had social consequences

Religion was not designed to give an individual some kind of comfort,
But rather religion was intended

to encourage growth toward wholeness as a human person
religion was about what kind of person you were,
and no one could find fulfillment
outside of human relationship,

Thus to truely celebrate the birthday of Jesus
they believed
we must affirm and promote the ethical teachings of his ministry.
Which they summarized as
Working for Peace and Love of one's fellow human beings.
۬Yes, contemporary religious liberals
have good reason to celebrate Christmas
for it provides many opportunities to affirm our principles,
to celebrate our values,

Christmas reminds us in story, song,
and sacred ritual
that we are called to contribute to the song the Angels sang
Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward all.