Message from our Minister

December 2002

Greetings O’ favored one!

Are you ready for Christmas? Well, ready or not here it comes! All too often we get so wrapped up with the busy-ness and buy into the "Christmas Machine" in all its gaudiness that we loose sight of our own "reason for the season". Below is an article my sponsoring minister wrote that powerfully expresses a Unity alternative view for the Reason for the Season.

Interested in figuring out how to "unplug the Christmas machine"? Jo Robinson and Jean Cappock Stachelia, suggest that we can "unplug" applying our understanding of spiritual law by:

• Examining all of our holiday activities in light of the true spirit of Christmas (Be the change we desire) and re-dedicating ourselves to our spiritual growth. (Be faith-filled)
• Initiating one act of peacemaking within our circle of family and friends. (Be peaceful)
• Expressing my love for family and friend in more direct ways than presents. (Be love)
• Remembering those who truly need my gifts. (Be conscious)

Be blessed, beloved. May you know the Truth that will set you free!

Reverend Marylou Palmer

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The Reason for the Season
by Rev. Jerry Bartholow
Senior Minister Unity of Birmingham, AL

The "reason for the season," according to traditional Christian belief, is the celebration of the Christ, the man from Galilee, the Messiah, into the physical world. Metaphysically, we know that it’s the celebration of birth of a new way of being that’s beyond the physical (meta-physical). It’s a new way of thinking, a new testament that supercedes the old ways... the old testament and ultimately will abolish the old ways… the old testament.

Up until the time of the reformation, the Old Testament had pretty much controlled the Christian religion . . . the belief in a jealous, angry, vengeful God. With the introduction of Protestantism, the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of Paul came to be the controlling beliefs, and even today the largest body of works quoted in Protestant churches are that of Paul.

During the 19th and much of the 20th century, a new consciousness began to dawn . . . "new thought" it was called. There was nothing new about the thought, as it was the same thought that Jesus had. What was new was the ability of the human mind to comprehend what He was saying. During the time Jesus was here, even His closest disciples didn’t seem to understand His teachings. The apostles could only teach what their minds could comprehend, and their teachings were nowhere near what He was saying. Even after the "dark ages," man remained pretty much in the dark, but now, as we move into this new millennium, what Jesus was really teaching is beginning to "dawn" on the minds of more and more people. This truly is the "dawning" of a new age, and the new testament of Jesus Christ is about to become a reality "in Earth as it is in Heaven."

In Unity we quote the scripture (John 14:12) often, when Jesus said, "He that believeth as I believe, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Jesus knew that He lived in the age of the Old Testament (that was His Hebrew Bible), and that was all the mind of man was capable of understanding. He also knew that there would come a day when we would evolve to the point that we could understand what He was teaching and then we would evolve even beyond His comprehension ("even greater things")! He knew that even He was limited by His own mind’s evolvement.

As this new millennium is dawning, we are breaking into the "son" light of recognizing who we really are. Many people are now able to state, with the same knowing and conviction of Jesus, " I am the Christ, the son (daughter) of the Living God!"

He said, "I am the light of the world," and "You are the light of the world." The new testament has very little to do with the teaching of the apostles; they never comprehended. It has everything to do with Jesus Christ . . . not His birth but His consciousness. "The reason for the season" is the consciousness of Christ, and it’s time now for all of us to realize that we’re it!