Thursday, December 18, 2014

The meaning of Christmas

What is the meaning of Christmas? Simply put,it's about innocence, and if the whole story is considered, the betrayal of innocence. We tend to focus on one part at a time, Good Friday celebrating the betrayal.

No matter what you think of Jesus, if he was born into this world to suffer and die, you have to wonder about a Father God who would concoct such a scheme that would target a child from birth to go through what Jesus has purportedly suffered. That is the first betrayal. Fathers should not do heinous things to their children. No excuses, no theology should speak of it, nothing, nothing should permit it. I have to believe that the Father God really had other plans, and did not approve of the situation he found his son in. If he had a do it over, a different path to salvation would have come about.

I think a second betrayal of innocence is what happens in society today. We see it in schools and on city streets throughout the world. For some reason, it has become okay to snuff out life of the innocent. Young people who have had little opportunity to blossom as individuals get destroyed, often because they happen to be in the wrong place in the neighborhood, or city, or country.

The betrayal is supported by the system that encourages revenge, an eye for an eye; a body for a body; a crime for a crime. It's supported by a bureaucracy that allows virtually anyone to have a gun. In some places, the gun can be worn as an appendage, and is used as such. The betrayal comes full circle when grand juries decide justice, denying a fair public trial based on evidence. The innocent, the victim lying in the street, and the person(s) causing the death, cry out for justice.
Justice assumed is the betrayal of innocence.

So we celebrate innocence at Christmas. We revel in it. We pray, we are mindful of its importance and it's fragile nature. We celebrate our determination to protect it, to work for it, no matter our beliefs, no matter our petty differences, no matter the thoughtless Facebook aphorisms to the contrary. Let innocence reign, please.