Sunday, December 18, 2011

JESUS THE CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS

Some years ago a family situation found us far away from home on the 28th of September, in a suburb of Seattle, Washington named Woodenville. As we were going down the main street, we passed a large nursery called Molbaks. At first I didn’t notice, but something subconsciously made me look again; it really was true, the windows of this large store were totally decked with all the types of Christmas trees that one could imagine.

This was not November 28th (just after Thanksgiving), not even October 28th (just before Halloween) but the 28th of September (when children had just returned to classes after summer vacation). The freshness of the displays eliminated the possibility of last year’s laziness and therefore, I knew that this was a deliberate attempt to stretch the commercialization of Christmas beyond the bounds of propriety.

In the rapidity which only the processes of the mind and some monster computers can achieve , my thoughts skipped from rejection and revulsion concerning the blatant 28th of September display to a remembrance of thoughts vocalized the 28th of December last. Vividly, across the span of time through the miraculous capacity of the mind, came the words as if they were now first being spoken; “I wish the feelings and goodness and love which have abounded this Christmas season could remain with us all year long.”

Gratefully, I quickly repented of my feelings of rejection and revulsion and decided that I would determine not to fight the feeling, and even resolved to become part of the flow of Christmas Spirit which annually floods mankind no matter what the date on the calendar might be.

It may well be that if one twelfth of the year is made joyous because of the abundance of those tinsels and lights which can remind us of the Christmas Spirit, four twelfths of the year might even be better. After all, if one has seriously determined to be a disciple of the Savior Jesus Christ, they should welcome every bit of help they can get in carrying forth His message.

Therefore, if my neighbor wants to leave his outdoor lights up all year long, I will be grateful and not label him as lazy. He can even turn them on for Valentine’s Day, the Fourth of July, his kids’ birthdays, his anniversary or just because he feels like it, if he so wishes. Then for a moment, I will be reminded of the birth and mission of my Savior.

If the department stores what to send out their ads for Black Friday with their Christmas specials the day after Halloween and then follow up with weekly reminders by every method of advertising known and yet to be known, it should cause my heart to rejoice about all the reminders which are flooding home about the birth of the King of Kings.

If the choir starts rehearsing for the Christmas program right after the ringing of the explosions of Independence Day have left our ears, and if Christmas carols are heard before the last cord of hymns of Thanksgiving are sounded, I’ll reverence the wondrous messages heralding the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Therefore, as one who has resolved to add his droplets to the flood of His Eternal message, I wish you happiness and joy this time and always. I pray that living Christmas trees in August will stimulate us to a remembrance of our Savior in the same way that artificial ones often do in December.

I pray that colors in May and summer scenes in June and the fresh smells of April will cause your emotions to soar and your heart to respond to the needs of your earthly companions no matter whether the date is in January or the day is in March.

We all need to spend more time pondering that it isn’t Christmas day which makes us different, but it is Jesus the Christ, his teachings, his life and his Atonement.

Without Christ, gift giving can be changed from charitable exchanges of love to concerns of commercialization and indebtedness.

Without Christ, bright decorations turn from being beacons of light into gaudy glitter.

Without Christ, gatherings turn from devoted remembrances to riotous reunions.

Without Christ, Christmas and all other days turn from Celestial contemplations to thoughts on Telestial trivialities.

It may well be that the key to maintaining feelings of goodness and love during the appointed Christmas season and throughout the whole year is not to be found in trying to keep the Christmas Spirit; but though finding Christ and keeping Him and His teachings in our lives all year long.

May the Spirit of our Savior, Jesus the Christ, come into our lives in such abundance this Christmas season that it will flow though us all unto our fellow travelers not only for a day or a week or a month, but at all times, is the prayer I offer in His Holy name at this blessed time of year.

22 comments:

  1. Thanks for your thoughts each week. Merry Christmas from the Barretts to the Rileys!!

    Bruce Barrett

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  2. Thanks again Bill for your depth of spirituality and witness of Jesus Christ .Merry Xmas.......

    Tom Borgquist

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  3. Merry Christmas, Brother Riley.

    Thank you for your message. May our love of Christ, our Savior and Redeemer abound in our hearts, lives and actions always.

    Emily Pugmire

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  4. Bro. Riley--

    I wondered if Elder Maxwell was reincarnate as I read the following words from your Thoughts this morning:

    We all need to spend more time pondering that it isn’t Christmas day which makes us different, but it is Jesus the Christ, his teachings, his life and his Atonement.

    Without Christ, gift giving can be changed from charitable exchanges of love to concerns of commercialization and indebtedness.

    Without Christ, bright decorations turn from being beacons of light into gaudy glitter.

    Without Christ, gatherings turn from devoted remembrances to riotous reunions.

    Without Christ, Christmas and all other days turn from Celestial contemplations to thoughts on Telestial trivialities.

    I have printed those words and inserted them in my scriptures, with the hope that I'll be able to share their message during this wonderful season. Thank you, again, for sharing.

    Doug Higham

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  5. thanks, once again and every Sunday when your thoughts arrive.
    I'll be the one with flashing Christmas lights on the 4th of July--remembering Christ through independence from death
    I'm speaking in sact meeting this morning. If I polish up my notes (from which I may stray far far away) I'll send them to you.

    Joyce Woolf

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  6. Bill, I want to thank you and Kathy for keeping me on your Thoughts mailing list. I always find something in them that causes me to pause and reflect on the message.

    Your Christmas e-mail song was especially nice. What's the saying? Out of the mouth of babes..." ? Thanks for sharing.

    I'm forwarding this "A Dove called Noah" that was forwarded to me from Amy & Fay. I thought it a message well deserved of forwarding.

    I wish you and Kathy a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and blessed New Year.

    Pat Savage

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  7. Bill,
    I had decided that more is less and less can be more, i.e., I should respond to your epistles less frequently for both our sakes. Yet today's thoughts agitate my dissonance, hitting the nail of my internal discontent obliquely yet sharply, so here goes nothing:

    The color, rose:
    Rose, a deep rose color of blood, The Blood. Without The Blood there is no Christ in Christmas; only a vapid commercial Xmas. Your reaction on the 28th of September was correct, from the gut, from the heart and soul: the spirit's revulsion against what you perceived as a blatant conversion of the blessed into the profane.
    Your reaction against a harsh judgment of another was correct as well. Be slow to judgment. Do not leap to judgment absent the facts; absent a knowledge of the motivations of another; certainly not at a glance at a display window.
    Your decision to modify your perception of others behavior toward Christmas (or Xmas) displays was correct. Better for you and for others to live in the way of acceptance of others when and where such acceptance is not harmful to your own beliefs or to that of others. Harmony trumps conflict most times; let Jesus be the one to issue the "woes." He rarely requires our aid in judgment; he can handle it.

    So with everything so jolly correct, why the dissonance, the internal discontent? Is it that great void in me, that emptiness, wanting fulfillment, or is it possibly substantive? A question I can only ask, not answer.

    Rose is the color of glasses; a choice of glasses to protect us from the searing (revealing) rays of The Son.
    These blessed lenses filter out the mean, the mercenary, the ugly, the uncertain; the causes of unhappy dissonance and discontent. They allow in the light, the happy, the joyful, etc. We see only good even where evil lies. We can even become unwilling enablers of evil; especially the evil of denied experience.

    Aristotle's Golden Mean:
    On the one end of the balance is The Blood. On the other end lies only a rose tinted lens; so harmless, so alluring. The immediate impulse for this analogy is to go straight to the blood; The Blood saves after all. Yet the lens was provided for our safety as well as for our comfort; that we may have a life more abundant. The blood without the lens is brutal and demanding beyond human capability: "Be ye perfect, even as I am perfect." But we find ourselves, despite our best efforts, to be bound in an imperfect state.
    To find a proper balance is to continually struggle to find that mean. Christ makes the real available to us, yet we are incapable of it without some "comfort". The lens allows us to endure, yet perpetually tempts us to rely overmuch on it at the expense of experiencing His fully revealed light.

    Paul Maddox

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  8. Thanks for your articulate insights! Hope you're well. Have a great week!

    With love and appreciation,
    Sabrina Umpress

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  9. Dear Pres Riley
    Would you please add my husband to you weekly mailing. danmccullough_99@yahoo.com
    He loves to ponder these thoughts as much as I do.

    Thank you
    Mary Hansen McCullough

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  10. Muchas gracias, Br. Riley, por su mensaje.
    I love the new perspective you give to the so called "commercialism" of Christmas. It reminds me of a recent article in The Church News. It made me contemplate, and your advice does too, that Christ was born amidst chaos and noise -- my goodness, height of tax season and signs of "no vacancy," no less. The manger animals were probably braying instead of sleeping and noise of Bethlehem surrounded our Savior's birth. Perhaps a challenge for us is to delve beyond the busyness to find the tranquil, the peace, the abiding message, just as was the case for those at that most Holy Night.
    Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Think of your readers smiling when they see holiday lights up far into 2012 --- maybe all year.
    Cuidate!

    Con amor,
    Bonnie Lynn

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  11. I may not see you before Christmas so I wanted to insure that you knew how much your “Thoughts” touch our hearts. You have been blessed with a great gift. Thank you, and a very Merry Christmas for every day of the new year -

    Brandt Peterson

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  12. I love your thoughts! I am one who loves stretching out the season of Christmas. Thank you for your insight and wisdom!

    Merry Christmas to you brother riley!

    Dana Donahoo

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  13. Bendiciones para ustedes queridos amigos!!

    Yoleida Vergel Chacon

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  14. Muchas gracias. aprovecharé este mensaje para nuestra noche de hogar navideña con mi esposa y familiares.


    Un abrazo,

    José Reoberto Guzmán Ballesteros

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  15. hermosos pensamientos hermanos Riley necesitaba esta inspiracion, gracias

    Marcela McAfee

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  16. Feliz Navidad!! Y gracias por esos mensajes tan especiales que nos regalastes en este año

    Gabi Valila Bernatte

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  17. Queridos hermanos Bill & Kathy: Nuevamente estamos en California en Temecula en casa de nuestra hija Karen y de todo corazon deseamos saludarles y desearles una FELIZ NAVIDAD Y UN PROSPERO AÑO NUEVO 2012.Gracias por los pensamientos semanales y en especial por estos sobre Jesus el Cristo y la Navidad.
    Nos agradaria saber si quieren pasar el año nuevo comiendo comida Colombina,o cualquier otro dia, antes ,lo importante es pasar un rato recordando y compartiendo.

    Gracias y abrazos.
    Armando & Chela Gomez

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  18. "Feliz navidad presidente le quiero mucho y q la pase muy bien junto a su linda familia y gracias por todo :)"

    Betty Alexandra Melendez Sanchez

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  19. gracias por tan hermoso mensaje

    leonor antonia torres leotto

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  20. En los momentos especiales de mi vida,siempre estan en mi mente y corazon.FELIZ NAVIDAD Y PROSPERO AÑO LLENO DE FELLICIDAD LES AMO CON TODO MI CORAZON

    Anita Rodriguez

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  21. My thoughts, prompted by Bill Riley's Thoughts.

    My last analogy was somewhat wry,
    So this is yet another try.

    The Lord and the Adversary:
    The first, by grace, granted gifts;
    The second, too, comes offering gifts.

    One of the greatest gifts bestowed on the faithful by The Sovereign is a Comforter.
    As a faux alternative His Adversary offers rose colored glasses - to provide comfort.

    The Monarch's light is so bright, so intense, so ineluctable that his subjects can scarcely bear the unwavering truth that accompanies the beauty revealed by it; not on their own; hence He provides them always available and immediate assistance, comfort to help them: a comforter.
    The Adversary gives them an easier alternative: magic rose colored glasses (human rationalization) with which they can seem to enjoy the beauty about them, even the gifts of The King, without enduring the intense brightness which sheds it's light into every unpleasant or unseemly aspect of life. What a beautiful filter The Adversary offers.

    Some few, a very few I'm told, choose only the comforter; a hard, narrow, albeit incredibly rewarding choice.
    Many choose the glasses.
    Grievously, more try to have it both ways, trying the comforter at times but often resorting to the glasses.
    These wind up confused, double minded men and women, never knowing whether they are wearing the glasses or relying on the comforter. They are actually more of those who have chosen the rose colored glasses, people of the lens, with temporary, temporal comfort, never comforted, without joy. They claim peace, peace when they have found no peace, as if claiming it would make it so.
    -- Who am I?
    Paul Maddox

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  22. muchisimas gracias por el mensaje muy bonito

    Maria Edelmira Jaramillo Echavarria

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