The Light of Hope

What does Christmas mean to you?

(And here I must confess that by “Christmas” I mean “the greater Yuletide season, marked by Christmas, Hanukah, Diwali, or just a secular celebration of the winter solstice”.)

To me, the meaning of Christmas is, and always has been, hope.  This is reflected in the imagery of the original stories, and the similarities of that imagery in the religious observances of other cultures is a bold reminder of how connected we really are to each other.

The strongest metaphor for the hope of the season is light.  A light shining in the darkness is symbolic of hope standing strong against despair, of standing fast against all odds.  Light plays an important role in all of the stories associated with Christmas.

Remember, if you will, the story of the wise men from the East, who, as told in Matthew’s gospel, followed a star in search of a long-promised king.  The light from the star was their hope that the king had finally come.

Further, in Luke’s gospel, we have the light of the angels who announced the birth of the Messiah to a band of lowly shepherds.  Again, light signifying the long-awaited hope of deliverance.

Even in John’s gospel, which has no formal Christmas story, there is an account, of sorts, of the beginnings of things.  And it includes this passage: “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.” (John 1:4-5)

What a thrilling concept!  The light shines on, against the darkness!  The darkness is helpless before the light!

That light is hope.  Hope for the future.  Hope for a struggling relationship.  Hope for the truth.  Hope for much-needed help during desperate times. 

Another Biblical text often used at Christmas time also uses this metaphor. 

“Arise! Shine! For your light arrives!

The splendor of the Lord shines on you!

For, look, darkness covers the earth

and deep darkness covers  the nations,

but the Lord shines on you;

his splendor appears over you.” (Isaiah 60:1-2)

Again, this powerful, recurring symbol of light against the darkness, of long-awaited hope.  This, in a nutshell, is what Christmas is all about for me.

And let’s not forget our Jewish brethren.  At this time of year, they celebrate Hannukah, the Festival of Lights.  They do so in remembrance of a miracle during the cleansing of the Temple.  There was only enough oil to keep the Temple Menorah burning for a single day, but it burned for 8 days.  This symbolized hope renewed, and they celebrate it with the festival of lights to this day.

The Hindus also have a festival of lights, Diwali, in which they celebrate the triumph of good over evil.

Light against the darkness is a strong motif, celebrated in culture after culture.  In our case, the birth of Jesus symbolized the triumph of hope over despair.  That hope rings anew every year, as the darkness grows ever longer with the onset of winter.  And we are reminded again that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness STILL has not mastered it.

Maybe your hope is for a broken relationship to be restored.  Maybe it is for a new job.  Maybe it is for the health of a loved one.  Maybe your hope is a simple one, or perhaps it is a desperate one.  Maybe it is hope for all of mankind.  As Stephen King wrote in his masterful novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

I don’t know your background, and I don’t know what your hope is this Christmas season.  But I hope your darkness is held back by the light, and I hope that the light you seek shines on you.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Jeremy Hefner

Love my neighbor? What?

I am very grateful to live in a country where our religious freedoms are so vast.  I am free to worship in any style of my choosing, to any god(s) of my choosing, or not to worship at all.

That is why it makes me so nervous that so many of my Christian brethren would willingly limit the religious freedoms of everyone else if they could.  In fact, many of them are so convinced of their worldviews (which they can, of course, back up with clear Scriptural references) that they feel they should be made into law, so that others, even if convicted of different religious tendencies, should have to obey them.

This level of hubris is disturbing.  To think that you can know the mind and will of God to such a great detail that you know what he wants for everyone, and for the nation in general.  To think that, in this country of all places, that MY religion is so much better than YOUR religion (or your LACK of religion) that all citizens should be affected by changing the laws of the land, so as to fit MY religious convictions, making some things  illegal that are currently legal, and preventing other things from becoming legal, even if they amount to more freedom - which seems strange, since, according to the apostle Paul, "where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

It seems especially strange to me that my fellow Christians should take such concern in the laws of the land, especially since Jesus said "My kingdom is not from this world" (John 18:36).

Of course, all of these Christians behave this way out of the best of intentions.  I realize that.  But their efforts seem misplaced.  Their certainty in these matters also seems misplaced.  Yes, they can point to Scriptural examples to explain their stances on certain subjects, and I would never presume to say that those passages aren't real, or that they are misreading them.  However, being able to point to Scripture for precedent isn't necessarily all that it's cracked up to be.

After all, Job's friends certainly had evidence and conventional wisdom on their side when they argued that God rewards the righteous and punishes the transgressors, so OBVIOUSLY Job was misstating the truth when he insisted he had done nothing to deserve his various calamities.  All Job did was continually question God.  So when God finally shows up and blows Job's mind with a glimpse into the length and breadth of his perceptions, what does God say to Job's friends?  "My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has" (Job 42:7).  They had all of the written and spoken evidence on their side, and Job only questioned God instead of making pronouncement about him, but they were wrong and he was right.

Also, the Pharisees and Sadducees  had a virtual monopoly on Scriptural exegesis in first-century Palestine; no one knew the Bible better than they did.  But Jesus countered them on every turn, telling them over and over again that they were wrong in their teachings.

I think that if we Christians just followed the teachings of Jesus (go figure), everyone would be better off.  Look at this passage from Luke 10: 25-37:

Now an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him,“You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”  

But the expert, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem  to Jericho  and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him up, and went off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, but when he saw the injured man  he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came up to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling came to where the injured man was, and when he saw him, he felt compassion for him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way.’ Which of these three do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

The story of the Good Samaritan is often thought of by many Christians as a wonderful example of how to help those in need, but that isn't the point of the story.  The whole point of the story is to provide an answer to the religious expert's question, "And who is my neighbor?"  And the answer is radical: your neighbor, whom you should love as yourself, is the person whom you most despise, with whom you disagree the most, whose lifestyle is one that you in no way approve or condone.  THAT is what a Samaritan was to a first-century Jew, and vice versa.  And THAT is who we should be neighbors to in this current age.  We should love our neighbors, not try to legislate against them.

Christians can still be the examples for the nation (and the world) that many of them so desperately want to be.  But for that to happen, we have to stop representing the worst facets of human nature, and instead represent the best.  We should live our lives in the Way that Jesus taught, by his examples and words, and stop browbeating our neighbors.  "You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. . . In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:14, 16).

Here I am...

My name is Jeremy Hefner, and as 2012 is nearing its end, I am waking up to a new beginning in my life.  I find that as I grow older, many of the things I thought I knew don't seem to be true anymore, and other things that I had earlier dismissed are in fact as real as real gets.  I have a lot of unlearning to do.

Part of that unlearning is a re-evaluation of my life in faith.  You see, I was raised in the church, and like so many others in that circumstance, much of my life in faith went unexamined; many people don't know the reasons for the things they think they believe.  As I grow and change, I see that my faith must also grow and change.  In addition, I think that the church in general must grow and change, or it, like all other living things that don't grow, will eventually die.

This blog will be about the things I have learned and continue to learn along the way.  It will look at the intricacies of life seen through the lens of an evolving faith.  It will look at mistakes I have made, and will continue (I'm sure) to make in the future.  This blog will deal with life lessons with which I am coming to terms, and the adjustments in perspective I am occasionally forced to make.  It will also deal with things that are seemingly unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but which still seem to occupy so much of our time here in the 21st century.

Walking the Path Today will remain an open-ended experiment in relating my thoughts, ideas, and experiences to others.  I am hopeful that it will be found useful for some, and entertaining for others, but at least a little bit thought-provoking for the majority.  But for now, just remember that sometimes, the questions are more important than the answers.