Mental Preparation for Christmas
By the Rev. Dr. William Woofenden
Retired from the faculty of the 
Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton, MA
In the December, 1996 Issue of Our Daily Bread

In a little more than three weeks it will be Christmas. This means that the rush and hustle and bustle will become more and more frantic as the days go by.

On this Sunday of the Advent season, which, as our Book of Worship notes, is a period "to invite our inner preparation to celebrate worthily our Lord's coming in the limitations of our nature, and emphasize the necessity of a new birth of the spirit for all of us and for His church." I should like to make some suggestions for our mental preparation for Christmas.

Perhaps we can make the importance of mental preparation more clear if we contrast in some detail the spiritual aspect of the Christmas with the materialistic one. I once read a touching story about a small child who,  having been told that Christmas was a birthday party, upon returning home, said, "Mother, Santa Claus was there, but Jesus wasn't."

Almost two thousand years ago a child was born in a stable in the little town of Bethlehem. We are able to see in the Babe of Bethlehem the fulfilling of prophetic threads which run through the whole of the Old Testament, threads which prophesied that God Himself would come into the world in the fullness of time to save His people from their own follies. This miracle, which we call the Incarnation, involves everything there is of religion: the nature of God, our relationship to Him, the foolishness and wickedness of humankind down through the ages, the love and mercy of God in following his creatures in their wandering, and the supreme and divine work of redemption.

We follow the outward details of the Lord's life in the wonderful burning words of the Gospel. However, what the letter of the Gospel does not tell us in any depth is what was happening in the mind and heart of Jesus during those years. It does not say, for example, how He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and humans. Little is revealed of Jesus' inner life, His inner experiences during those critical 33 years.

This lack of psychological knowledge about Christ did not, however, seem to be a problem to those of the early Christian church. The apostles could preach with a zeal and simplicity hardly possible today. They could say, "I have seen; I have heard. I was there when this happened. No one ever spoke this way before."

In these latter days, much of the early zeal and devotion seem to have been lost in the Christian church. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, Christmas became not so much a day of worship and thanksgiving, but a day at home for parents and a vacation from school for the children. Then, more in a spirit of obligation - or possibly self-righteousness - families who took the trouble to spend an extra hour of their holiday in church, became somehow convinced that by so doing they were adequately discharging all their religious duties for the season.

The American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once wrote a biting, ironic poem called "To Jesus on His Birthday." Surely none of us can deny guilt in some of the areas it includes in its brief scope:

For this, your mother sweated in the cold,
For this you bled upon the bitter tree:
A yard of tinsel ribbon bought and sold;
A paper wreath; a day at home for me.
The merry bells ring out, the people kneel;
Up goes the man of God before the crowd;
With voice of honey and with eyes of steel
He drones your humble gospel proud.
Nobody listens. Less than the wind that blows
Are all your words to us you died to save.
O, Prince of Peace! O, Sharon's Rose!
How mute you lie within your vaulted grave.
The stone the angel rolled away with tears
Is back upon your mouth these thousand years.

Perhaps this poem is not entirely "fair," so sweeping are its criticism, but it is fair to ask why the Christian world has permitted the spirit of materialism to replace the true spirit of Christmas, which involves among other things a sense of gratitude that God in His great love chose to give Himself for our salvation. I think part of the reason is that some centuries ago humanity had departed so far from the pattern of the perfect life Christ admonished us to live, that the bare Gospel record became a matter of indifference.

But God in His all-wise providence had foreseen that this time would come. As quietly and unobtrusively as His coming in the flesh, the Lord revealed, through a person especially prepared for the task, new and deeper truths needed for a new age. Barely two hundred years have passed since then, but already we can see - if we look with proper discernment - marked signs of its effect on our relationship with God. We stand at the threshold of a new era in the spiritual development of the human race. Is it not appropriate, then, that we ask how we as individuals can contribute to the development of this new spirituality? If you agree, then let me suggest a pattern.

In our workaday world, we can see by careful observation a model of three distinct steps in almost any line of endeavor. First, there is the period we might call the early apprentice, in which the main characteristic is obedience to higher authority.

Next there is what we may call the senior clerk stage, where the main feature is following the example of an overseer This too is an important part of the process. But if growth stops here, the person soon falls into a state of apathy and lackluster routine. The third step in the series is what we may call the executive or journeyman stage - one of much greater freedom, characterized by a well-rounded and intelligent perception of the work to be done, whatever one's field may be.

By the time Christ came into the world, leading humankind by simple obedience had ceased to be effective. A new impetus was given by the perfect example set by the Lord. But in time even the memory of this dimmed, to the extent that people became lukewarm and their religion insipid. A time came to begin a new era, marked by greater perception and more intellectual freedom in matters of faith than humankind had ever known. The catchword for this era was seen in a vision by Swedenborg written over the gate of a temple in heaven: Nunc licet, meaning that permission has now been granted to understand clearly the mysteries of faith. (True Christian Religion #508)

During this Advent season, each of us would do well to take certain definite steps. If, for example, we in any way believe that the Lord's purpose in coming into the world was to enable us to receive Him into our lives in clearer and more definite ways, then should we not be prompted to make an effort to live out more fully some of the truths which He lived so perfectly?

Let us resolve, for instance, to make, in the midst of the holiday gaiety and - yes - even in formal worship, a concerted effort to re-order one or more of the disorderly or less-than-satisfactory parts of our individuals lives. Whenever we repeat that perfect pattern of prayer that the Lord gave us, "Thy kingdom come," we can, if we choose, do so with the full intention of committing ourselves to do actively whatever is without our power as individuals to help His Kingdom come on earth.

The overarching question is this: Are we willing to make this a sacred season within our hearts, to do all we can to open our hearts and minds for the Lord to be born in us? The promise He has given is timeless. Note it is set in the present tense: "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you." This timelessness means that any day we choose can by the day He is born anew in us!

Tomorrow a new day will dawn. It may look like any other to most people. But for those who choose to use it as the day to commit more fully to the Lord, it will mark the fulfillment of another great promise: "Salvation has come to this house today." (Luke  19:9) Amen.

Prayer

Help us, Lord prepare for your rebirth in our hearts as we contemplate and celebrate the meaning of Christmas. Amid the hustle and bustle of the season, may we take the time to hear your angelic chorus proclaiming your birth. The humble setting of your Advent, O Lord, stands in stark contrast to your Messiahship. Let us pause and rejoice in your glory. Amen.

Scripture:

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in bands of cloth, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their clock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom He favors!"

Luke 2:7-14

Reading from Swedenborg:

Jehovah God came down in the world as Divine truth, in order that He might work redemption; and redemption consisted in subjugating the hells, restoring the heavens to order, and after this establishing a church. This the Divine good is inadequate to effect; it can be done only by the Divine truth from the Divine good. The Divine good, viewed in itself, is like the round hilt of a sword, or a blunt piece of wood, or a bow without arrows; while Divine truth from Divine good is like a sharp sword, or wood in the form of a spear, or a bow with its arrows, all which are effective against an enemy. (In the spiritual sense of the Word "swords," "spears," and "bows' mean truths combating.) The falsities and evils in which all hell was and always is, could have been assaulted, conquered, and subjugated in no other way than by means of Divine truth from the Word; nor could the new heaven that was then constituted have been built up, formed, and arranged in order by any other means; nor could a new church on the earth have been established by any other means. Moreover all the strength, energy, and power of God belong to Divine truth from the Divine good...

God assumed the Human in accordance with His Divine Order...Since, then, it was God who descended, and since He is Order itself, it was necessary, if He was to become human actually, that He should be conceived, carried in the womb, born, educated, acquire knowledges gradually, and thereby be introduced into intelligence and wisdom. In respect to His Human He was, for this reason, an infant like other infants, a child like other children, and so on; with the sole difference that this development was accomplished in Him more quickly, more fully, and more perfectly than in others.

True Christian Religion, #86, 89