Midweek Faith Lift
December 24, 2025
The Power of Life-Joy and Advent
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
December 15, 2025
Considering the perilous nature of the present moment, we reckon a merry Christmas is nowhere in sight. All the more reason to have a truly deep one instead. And, that all starts by making ourselves into a manger. Christmas is that point in time when the Light of Heaven contradicts the chaos of Earth. Therefore, let us ferociously contradict the Earth as never before by not merely celebrating Christmas but by becoming it instead. The nativity of Christ is the story of God wanting to get inside humanity. Jesus was the prototype for that experiment. Let us avail ourselves accordingly and be the embodiment of God every single day of our worldly lives. Let us, from this moment forward, and without the slightest hesitation, be Christmas." - Evan Hodkins, The School of Alchemy
And since today is a message of Joy, now for a little joy!
The pastor of a local church met a parishioner while walking along the street. He stopped the man and asked why he did not attend church more regularly. The man replied that the sermons were okay, but he said, "Every single time I go to church you sing the same songs!" The pastor, who was quite proud of the diversity in the church's music, was bewildered. He asked the man which songs was he talking about. The man replied, "Silent Night," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
The four stages of life: 1) You believe in Santa Claus. 2) You don't believe in Santa Claus. 3) You are Santa Claus. 4) You look like Santa Claus.
A boy wanted to be Joseph in the Sunday School pageant. When he was cast as the innkeeper, he protested, but to no avail. When the pageant was presented, Mary and Joseph knocked on the door and asked him if there was room in the inn. The boy smiled and said, "Yes, sure. Lots of room. Come on in!"
Affirmative Prayer for today: Living, loving Presence of God, in us and all around us, fill our bodies, minds and hearts with the energy of joy. Let us rejoice in our deepening capacity for love and our expansion of consciousness into the larger Spiritual Power of Life that sustains us all. Amen.
One of the aspects of the Spiritual Power of Life is regeneration, the capacity to start growing again, for new life to emerge, new energy to rise up from the inside out. Last week our topic was Presence as part of the Power of Life and love and the surest sign of that was laughter. I was at the dentist this week and picked up People Magazine as I waited for them to call me. The cover story was all about Dick Van Dyke who turned 100 years old on December 13. His picture was so vibrant and filled with life; he looked like a very merry Santa with his white hair and beard; he had for sure reached the Stage 4 of our opening story!
Dick Van Dyke lives in Malibu, CA and the whole city turned out to throw him a birthday party! That is a complete turnaround for sure. When he was a starving young actor/singer/dancer he was evicted from a one room apartment in Malibu because he could not make rent! Talk about regeneration and joy! And when asked what brings him joy, his response was that every time he thinks about young kids singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious!” he feels joy knowing that he will continue to bring joy long after he is no longer in his body! And he has no fear of death because he has had such a richly meaningful and rewarding life. What a bright light! He truly inspires joy for all.
How do we embrace Life in such a way that we, too, are filled with joy despite all the challenges, obstacles and sadness that we are experiencing right now? How do we embrace the light within that can light up our faces with a smile despite our human experiences? Well, we lean into our human experiences and let them teach us about the light, about the love, about God and about Joy. It helps me to remember that joy begins with: Just Observe Yourself! I mentioned that I was in the dentist’s office and I was there to have a gold crown placed back on my tooth for the second time in a week! Oh my! There was decay under it, which is why it came off in the first place.
They told me the first time to not chew on the left side….but I have the memory of a goldfish right now….and there are a lot of sticky Christmas goodies this time of year….so guess what I did? Not hard to imagine, eh? The key to my joy this holiday season will be to consistently observe myself, pay attention to what I am eating and HOW I am eating it. It is that simple, and that mundane and that challenging: just observe yourself and you are open to the possibility of joy, because that is the other key: Just Open Yourself!
In the opening story today, the author said that the whole point of the Nativity of Christ story is “God wanting to get inside humanity” and that Jesus was the prototype of this intention. That is a worthy perspective, but I think the spiritual Truth is that just because we are alive, God is already inside humanity and always has been. That is our Unity perspective and what we teach although not all Christian religions have that point of view. Jesus’ mission and purpose was to amplify that life and show us what it is like to live our human lives from the perspective of God-life as the Source of all life. That is what the message of Christmas is really all about. It offers an opportunity to “Just Open Yourself” to all that is alive in you and in that opening there is rebirth, regeneration and JOY!
Now the disciple that represents Life is Judas, who seems like the antithesis or complete opposite of Joy and Life. I think Judas gets a bad rap; he was just doing his part in the whole life story of Jesus. He wanted Jesus to be a warrior and he held a high vision for what Jesus would do to free people from Roman domination. He wanted to force the issue of confronting the enemy and his life illustrates for us what it means when we don’t open our hearts and minds to that larger Spiritual Power of Life that Jesus is offering. When our human impulses gain the upper hand, it usually does not work out very well at all.
Rev. Sharon Conners in her book, Adventures in Resilience describes it this way on p. 156:
Judas represents the spiritually undeveloped life forces, motivated largely by fear. When spiritually awakened and activated, the creative energy of life seeks loving, honorable ways to generate the increase of good.
She highlights the spiritual Truth that the Spiritual energy of Life is creative and when used wisely generates an increase of good. We, as humans, can create havoc with our un-developed, unaware selfish impulses. Our challenge is to use this creative capacity of life for the higher good, the highest good of all that we are able to comprehend at this moment in time.
If Christmas is that moment in time when the “Light of Heaven contradicts the chaos of earth,” then let there be light, a light within which shines in the darkness. It is amazing how much one small light can illuminate when there is no electricity in a completely dark room. Turning on that light is an action that changes nothing and at the same time changes everything. We are called to be that light, at Christmas and beyond. The world in its chaos truly is calling for us to be that light right now. And when there is light, people rejoice because they can now see! We can rejoice, because we are awake, aware and we can now see. The darkness is overcome with light.
We just experienced the Winter Solstice, a celebration of the end of the movement to darkness and the beginning of the movement to the light. Here are words of wisdom about the solstice, Life, joy and the return of the Light.
"The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory." - Gary Zukav
“This is the night when you can trust that any direction you go, you will be walking toward the dawn.” - Jan Richardson, Blessing for the Longest Night
And finally, this image is captured so powerfully in the first words of the Gospel of John about the mystical birth of Jesus.
John 1:1-5 The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
That light in him, in Jesus, is the light in all of us. Let us navigate this particular Christmas season with special attention to shining our light, seeing the light in everyone and like the eager young man in the Christmas pageant, say joyfully, “Sure come on in, there’s plenty of room!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb