The Forgotten Gifts Of Christmas

December 3, 2000

Samuel: Hello, dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: So, ‘tis the season. Good. I’m going to talk to you tonight about Christmas, sort of. Sort of. Actually, and Bonnie, love, I think this is your request, is it? Actually what I’m going to talk about is the forgotten gift.

When you think about the Christmas season and as you are moving into it now, you can think of this as my pushing you that much faster into it. When you think about that season, what are the sorts of things that come to your mind?

Gifts.

S: Gifts. Sure.

Lights.

S: Lights. Lights, yes.

Family.

S: Family. Aye. Music. Food. Food? You just had one of those holidays. Is this another? What sort of food?

Lots of it. Everywhere. [Laughter]

Sweets.

S: Sugar plums. What’s a sugar plum? Tell me more.

Decorations.

S: Decorations.

Festive decorations.

S: Aye. Santa Clause, right. St. Nicholas. Aye.

The birth of Jesus.

S: The birth of Jesus into the world. Good.

People told stories that at midnight the animals talk, things like that. Sparkling lights.

S: Lovely. Good will. Warm heart.

Carols.

S: Caroling.

Is Scrooge in the audience?

Grinch.

Stress. It’s a stressful time for me.

S: Aye. Is it a stressful time for many of you?

Busy.

S: Busy. Busy. And that makes for the stressfulness. Yes.

The expectations that you have of that season.

S: Expectations. Yes.

The family expectations.

S: Yes. And what do you do about the stressful aspects of the season? Or is it something that has just come upon you this year?

But if you plan in advance and buy gifts in advance, you’re not rushing till the end, right before the holiday.

S: Good. Good. Yes. That helps.

You negotiate a lot.

S: Yes. Very good. Very good. You negotiate a lot.

You can simplify, too, that instead of doing the cards, the gifts, and all the parties, maybe you simplify. Just do the cards and the parties, or the gifts and the parties, instead of doing all of the above.

S: Good. Good. And do you do these things? Or do you instead just revel in the stress because it’s the only thing that lets you know you’re alive these days? Aye, I’m paying attention to who says no.

It is the season of such wonder and magic because it has an effect upon mass consciousness. Mass consciousness, as a whole, has created out of this season, out of what actually is a somewhat simple story based upon a truly magical time, it has taken that time and turned it into all of the things that you were mentioning before. The family and the food and the caroling and the decorating, and the stress, and the difficulty, and the heartbreak as well. It is the best of times and the worst of times.

What do you know you need to do to make it a season that enhances your spiritual self, instead of one that glories in the worst of your physical self?

Now, that’s a freebie over to the side there, because that’s nothing to do with my point this night, but a reminder to you: this isn’t the first year that your celebration of Christmas has come upon you. It’s not the first year that you’ve had too much to do and too little time to do it in. It’s not the first year that you are older than the last year, so that things were just that much more complicated. By now, you should know things to do to help you through it.

[Looking at member of audience in full clown costume] I think you’ve got a clown sitting next to you. Hello. There we go. And, you know, now and again, I’m just sitting here talking away to you, and very slowly the eyes are adjusting in, and I’m looking across the audience, and I suddenly know, either there’s one clown in here or everyone is and there’s one who’s not. [Laughter] And sometimes I’m not too sure which is which.

When you think about the traditional Christmas story—and it’s been quite some time that I’ve waited to give you the traditional Christmas story—when you think about the traditional Christmas story, tell me what it is. Tell me the story. All right.

Once upon a time . . .

Mary and Joseph were under a great deal of stress. She with her pregnancy, trying to get to Bethlehem for the census.

S: Aye.

It was pretty frantic— really frantic when it came time to give birth and there was no place other than the back of a donkey at the time. So, you know, a lot of stress for them.

S: All right. That works. That works. We can start it there. It was a time of stress and difficulty for two major players in this particular story. Mary and Joseph and . . .

The baby.

S: The almost baby.

Yes.

S: Just running a bit ahead there.

It’s the most stressful time in one’s life, isn’t it, just about?

S: Aye, well anytime you’re giving birth to anything it tends to be a time of stress. Well, what else happens in this story?

Angels visit.

S: Angels visit. Visit what?

They visit Mary and announce, you know, what’s going to happen.

S: All right, so we’re going even further back here. We’ve got our time schedule a bit off here, and that’s sort of fitting, isn’t it? So somewhere in this drama there is an angel that comes forth. Which angel was it, do you know?

Gabriel.

S: That’s right, Gabriel, who said, “Hi Mary! Good to see you. What are you doing these days?”

Good, and said…?

Behold, fear not . . . I bring tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people, for born unto you this day, in the city of David . . .

S: I think you’re not talking to Mary here. But you’ve got the basic idea. It’s one of those time shifts going on now. It’s been a long time that you’ve been away from this story, hasn’t it? We’ve got a room full of heathens here.

I’ll give you the version that you’re moving with, all right? Probably the one that most think of when they’re able to put aside the idea of St. Nicholas and they’re able to move into what is considered in your society the traditional Christmas story.

And that is that there was, once upon a time, a woman named Miriam, who was quite young, by the way—certainly by your standards now, quite young. And she was engaged—and of course there’s a lot to the story here that I’m leaving out altogether; you fill in the blanks with what you know—but who was engaged—that’s not quite accurate, but works—to Joseph.

And she was minding her own business, just . . . polishing her toenails. That’s right. Buffing them. Buffing, right? And behold, in the room all of a sudden, probably without even a nice knock on the door, there is the glory and light of heaven above, and an angel says to her, “Mary, I’ve got great news for you. Guess what? You’re going to bear the Son of God. We’ve got an experiment going, and you were chosen. You, my dear, are the guinea pig of the hour.”

And she said, “Why, thank you very much, I’m so glad to know that. What do you think Joseph’s going to say about this? Don’t you think he’s going to be just a wee bit suspicious, angry, not believing what’s going on?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him.”

As she continues on in her life, sure enough, it is true. She is pregnant. Sure enough, it’s also true that she’s not officially married yet. And it’s also true that she’d better get herself out of town.

Joseph, in the meantime, is a little irritated about this whole thing. So, what happens for him?

[…]

S: Go on.

That’s all I remember!

S: Anybody? You’ve had to save this group before with this story.

His initial intent was, within the convention of the day, to just sort of divorce her quietly, and go on his merry way.

S: Which would have been a very loving thing to do under typical circumstances for that time.

Right. He could have had her put to death.

S: That’s right. Let’s take you out on a walk, Mary, to the end of the city for a few minutes. All right? Oh, look! What a pretty rock I have. That’s the one. Aye.

But he didn’t do it. He was also visited by an angel.

S: And that one said, “It’s true.”

Yes, “She’s telling you the truth.”

S: Aye. Indeed. Now, as the story continues, that’s where we come into the donkey, and that’s where we’ve got the tax collectors that are calling forth for you to go to your home city, and in this case it was from where to where?

Nazareth to Bethlehem.

S: All right. And Bethlehem is in?

[…]

S: You’re not too far. That’s good. Good. I was waiting for somebody to say, “Oh, in the Middle East.” And, what happened next?

They couldn’t find a place to stay.

S: Because?

All the hotels were booked.

S: All the hotels were booked. There was no place to stay, but somebody did take note that there was a barn out back. So why don’t you go to the barn and sleep there for the night? And, you know, actually, that wasn’t so far away from typical as you would be imagining now.

And into the barn they went, and what happened then?

She had a baby.

S: She had a baby. Indeed. And?

[…]

S: Sure, now you know it. And wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, and was really glad that was over with, but the angel wasn’t finished yet. What was the next part of the story?

I want to know what swaddling means.

Wrapping tight.

S: Swaddling clothes are the clothes . . . right now what swaddling clothes are for you—although I’m not sure that you do it in this country—is it’s how you tightly bind, swaddle them in, but at that point they were the linens that were put aside for death. It was a wrapping as if for death. Wrapping the small baby in clothes that are generally used to wrap up the dead people was sort of a not-done thing.

Was it because that was all that was available also to wrap him up in?

S: No, in fact, not at all. So, what’s next? What’s the angel busy doing, something?

It started announcing to all the shepherds that . . .

S: Good. Good. Yes.

. . . to go and visit.

S: Yes. And the shepherds went, and they saw the manger with the baby in it, and the mother and the father, and they were overjoyed. This is the quick version of the story now. And what did they do?

Brought gifts.

S: No, no, no.

They worshipped.

S: Yes, and then what did they do?

Knelt down and adored.

S: They went out telling people, spreading the word afar. And in the meantime, once again those angels are plenty busy. What are they doing?

Shining a bright star in the skies for the wise men.

Singing in the heavens.

S: Singing in the heavens. Keeping everything bright. And eventually, because of the stories the shepherds have been telling, and surely the ruckus the angels were making, in a country far away, there are kings who hear the story about the birth of this incredible child, and they come to visit.

Of course, in the very same way that you tell the story in many different time zones, so that story is told in several different time zones, because the kings were not actually there until that child was way too old to be laid in that manger. Nonetheless, point being that the child was even worshipped by kings.

That’s the story you generally hear, isn’t it? So what’s a forgotten gift in there?

Why it happened to the angels.

S: Perhaps. But I would tell you that the forgotten gift has nothing to do with Mary and nothing to do with Joseph, insofar as the story you’re familiar with. In fact, it’s not even a story about the birth of Jesus. And my point this night is that it’s a story that has a lot in common with you.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a country far, far away, there was a very holy man, a priest, from a line of priests, and his name was . . . do any of you know? Zachariah. Oh, sure, now you act like you know the story. You did not even know the Christmas story, and now you’re letting on that you know Zachariah’s story.

Zachariah was married to a very lovely and holy woman named . . . ?

Elizabeth.

S: Elizabeth. Good. At that particular time in the world, one of the most important things—in fact, it was considered your duty—one of the most important things that you could do was to bring forth an heir to continue your line, to keep your name going. To have a male son sometimes required a lot—I guess a male son is all there would be, right?—sometimes requires—you’ve got to wake up some time—sometimes requires a lot of work. You might have two or three children and never have that son, so you’ve got to try four or five, and not have that son. And, as a result, large families were fairly common, and it was even accepted that if you had never had the son, it was necessary that you claim from one of your other kin an heir for your family. So that would be sort of like Heidi does not have a son and so she claims Laura as her heir. Aye.

These two had no children. It was fairly well known that the worst visitation possible for someone at that time had happened to them. Elizabeth was  . . .

Barren.

S: Barren. Barren. That was the theory anyway. I want you to remember while I’m telling this story that I’m telling your story.

Now, one of the ways that being a part of the priesthood worked was that you took your turn serving in the Temple. And eventually it came time for Zachariah to serve in the Temple. Now I want you to imagine a room about this size that is divided in half by a great curtain of beautiful, finely woven linen. Behind that curtain is the Holy of Holies that only the High Priest would visit, and only once a year. So the room is cut about in half.

Was that the ark?

S: Was kept there. The room is cut in half, and there is a great table. Actually, there’s little alcove sorts of rooms and one of these areas is where incense is kept burning at all times.

So, I want you to imagine that you are old Zachariah. You’ve come forth to do your priestly duty, and what you’re in charge of this day is keeping the censer working. There is smoke everywhere. While Zachariah is doing this work, there is a bit of a light off to the side.

Have you ever been concentrating on what you’re doing and not realized that you were being watched, and suddenly you had that sense, somebody’s in here? Well, imagine that that’s probably what it was like for Zachariah, who looked around, and there was our friend, Gabriel. “Hi Zach. I’ve come to talk to you. I wanted to let you know that you and Elizabeth are going to have a child.”

What would you have done?

“Yeah, right.”

S: Laughed. Or, more likely, because I know you, more likely you would have done exactly what Zachariah did, and said, “Ahem, right. That will be a miracle!”

Gabriel said, “Because you do not believe, because you used your tongue without faith, you will not speak until this child is born.”

You know, he still did not quite believe. He went home. Elizabeth’s so glad to see him. “Oh, Zachariah, I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome back home. How was it?” Well, surely you know that what he did is he made it known what was going on, and then just had a good laugh, nonetheless, and went on about life doing the things that you do when you’re in a very secure, happy, long relationship. But, sure enough, it worked one of these times, and she did show up pregnant.

Gabriel told him that this child would be called . . . ?

John.

S: John. And that this child would be the forerunner of the Messiah.

When Elizabeth showed up pregnant, it was cause for great rejoicing, because not only was it so that, indeed, she was pregnant, but she knew it was a son. First time.

As she was about midway through the pregnancy, her cousin came to visit. Now, who do you think that was knocking at the door?.

Mary.

S: Sure enough. Who had been sent to visit her cousin for a while. Get her out of town while she started enlarging herself. Mary walked into the door, and what happened?

The baby moved its feet.

S: The baby leapt within the womb.

How old was Elizabeth?

S: Old.

Beyond childbearing years.

S: And, Mary was delighted for her, and said, “Well, I’ve got a little news of myself too.” But Elizabeth knew.

Now, why is this so seldom a part of the Christmas story? Because you see, I would tell you that that’s the first miracle of the season. A forgotten one, but definitely a first one. I’ve gone through the basics of the story. What’s the miracle? There’s a lot that you could see in there as the gift. A lot. What do you think?

It’s the belief. It’s the belief that there are angels out there, that there’s a higher purpose, that there’s something bigger than us that can create things to happen.

S: And that’s beautiful. That’s a good one. It’s not the one I’m going for, but it’s a good one. I want you to think about that for a moment, though. In your own spiritual life, are you at that point, like Zachariah, where it’s your duty to serve in the Temple, so you’ll do what you’ve got to do? Like Zachariah, is it possible that you could be visited by an angel standing right there to the side and watching you, and you don’t realize it, because you’re so focused on just getting one foot in front of the other, of doing what you’ve said you would do, that you’ve lost sight of the angels coming to give you good news?

Is it possible that, within your own spiritual experience, you are so far from the magic that an angel can speak to you and you would say, “Yeah, right”? Belief certainly is a gift. But there are more.

Scott.

The gift that it was humanity or an element of humanity that was going to announce the divine here on earth.

S: Yes. Yes. It was set forth that there would be one opening the door, that there would be set forth already a path opened, that into the world would be one who recognized the glory of God in form. That’s the forgotten gift of this holiday. That Jesus was born into the world to take on the mantle of Christ, to become the anointed one, to be Christ Jesus, and in taking that on—certainly a dangerous task—for him to know there is one here making the way known, but for the world to be prepared because of that one.

There is nothing in this world, there is no gift ever given, that there is not certainly one whose job is to open the door to make the way known. It’s forgotten, most often, in the light and the glory of the one that that way was opened for. But the work would not have happened if there had not been one that said, “I see the glory, and it’s coming here for you.”

You are, in your world, in a very often chaotic but very powerful time, a time of change. A time in which the avataric energy of Christ Jesus is moving to another level altogether, so that the mantle of Christ is seeded within those who are the way-showers, opening the door for Christ in this world again. The consciousness of Christ Consciousness.

This holiday season, more than any other holiday season that you’ve ever experienced, is the one in which you are going to become very, very aware of that forgotten gift.

You are a way-shower or one of the masses waiting. Which are you?

Well, there is a way that you can tell which one you are, actually. You are a way-shower if you know that what you are here to do is to open doors, portals maybe. You know that there is a reason for your being here. You know that you’re one of the masses if you don’t. You know that you’re one of the masses if, like Zachariah, you deny the angels, if, like Elizabeth, you’ve just given up, and you choose to just make the best of what you’ve got rather than seek more.

This is a time right now in which your whole planet is seeking a gift, and you, you have something to give them. Now, what is it that you would give them? Well, there are several things. Just as the work of John was to open the door for the work of Jesus, so it is that what you give is an awareness that there is more. Things are changing and there is hope, which was John’s message. Hope. You know that you’re one of the masses if you have no hope. You know that you’ve sold out if you see no hope. Give the gift of hope.

To open a doorway that’s going to be filled with love, give the gift of loving. This is a time of year in which, in this society, the whole idea of being kind and taking an extra moment to do an extra little bit is considered acceptable. It’s a time in your year more than any others in which you can smile and be silly and jolly and playful, and wear reindeer hats and red noses. And bring joy, safely. It’s a time of year in which you can touch and put forth extra kindness, in which you can allow your feelings to show, and be sentimental and touched by kindness and gentleness and love. Give love.

John brought joy and abundance. Now, that he brought joy is probably a pretty easy one to figure out, because Zachariah and Elizabeth were absolutely enraptured. You, too, can give the gift of joy. But how did he bring abundance? Remember what I said about, in that particular time, first children were treasures, but they were treasures because they became a means for your line to continue. That allowed you to have a greater portion of the tribal store. By having many children, you would have more coming to you. That which you made with what came to you stayed within your specific line. So children were wealth, literally.

So, what am I saying here? Give your money away? Well, a lot of you are well on the path to doing that with those little plastic cards.

How can you give abundance? What can you give? Hope, love, joy? Yes .

Your time.

S: Good. Good. Lovely. Yes.

Compassionate understanding.

S: Compassionate understanding. Very nice.

The knowledge that there are options for people to do. For me, that’s abundance, when I know I have choices.

S: Good. Good. Yes.

[…]

S: What you would do is look into your own heart and ask, What can I give? I assure you, you’ll know. In any situation, what can I give? You’ll know.

Gabriel, of course, is another version of a forgotten gift in the holiday time, because, as a messenger, also the working of that one was to open a door. And as with Zachariah and Elizabeth, it was opening a door that had been closed by unbelief. In the case of Mary, in the case of Joseph, closed by being too busy to notice. With the shepherds, opening a door to a reality that was unexpected, but delightfully welcomed.

That’s another message of this season. Don’t lie in your bed turning yourself around and around with your small mechanisms of life. Oh, I’m going to get married to Joseph and we’re going to live happily ever after, and won’t it be nice. Don’t make the angels take your tongue and blind your eyes from the glory of it all. Don’t need to be hit over the head to get the message. Unto you glory is coming.

You have been chosen to open the door to a new world and a new time. You have been chosen to pave the way. You have been chosen to carry the seed of Christ within you. You have been chosen to raise up that knowledge into the world. You have been chosen to tell others. I’m going through the whole story and the angel’s proclamations here. Do you hear them?

The forgotten gift of Zachariah and Elizabeth becoming the means by which the door was opened to bring into the world a means of touching God. The gift of the angels. The gift of joy and hope, of knowledge, of assurance, of belief. To receive that gift, you’ve got to hear it.

And one final gift, a gift given so that that path could be clear. What was that one? I’ll give you a hint. Look. Yes. The gift of the star given into the heavens, that those who were seeking the path could be easily guided to it. Also a forgotten gift. What is required for that gift to be received? Well, the kings, the shepherds, any coming to find, to seek, that one had to look out and up. Out of themselves and into the heavens.

You want help on the path, but you won’t look at the stars. You want to clearly know the way to go to find the hope of the world, but you’re so turned within that you miss the glory. You deny the miracle. You laugh at the messenger. And you never even see the path.

Well, it’s easy to see why those would be the forgotten gifts of the Christmas story, don’t you think, because humanity doesn’t like to think that they don’t see, they don’t hear, and they don’t do. But as you look at your own life, can’t you see times in which you have chosen not to see, not to hear and not to do? So you can understand.

Make this one different. Make this one different. Because I promise you, unto you is given a miracle. And you are here to open the door that that miracle might come into the world. See it. Hear it. And do it. Don’t waste time. Make it different. Do it right.

Glochanumora. Happy Christmas to you. Glochanumora.