Bringing the Adult Jesus Home for Christmas, Part I

Bringing the Adult Jesus Home for Christmas: A Resource for Celebrations at Home at the Holiday

Part 1: Listening To the Teachings of Jesus

What an idea!  Let’s bring the whole Jesus home for Christmas and see what happens.  In addition to the stories about Jesus’ birth, let’s see if we can celebrate the larger meanings of Jesus at Christmas.

This bulletin is one of four that are meant to help people enrich their Christmas holidays with simple times that focus on what Jesus can mean in our lives.  These four resources can take advantage of the extra time we have at home or with friends and family during the holidays.  Each of the bulletins lead the reader(s) through different significant ways Jesus has meaning, and invites you to take no more than a half hour to focus spiritually on that meaning.

Hearing Jesus’ Teachings at Christmas

Perhaps more than anything, Jesus was a teacher.  The Bible contains more about Jesus’ teachings than anything else.  You are invited to spend some time with Jesus, the teacher, in your home in this spiritual exercise.  (It can be done with a group or alone.)

First, find a comfortable place to be in your home. If you are more than one person, find a place where you can both talk to each other and stare off into the distance.  If you have one, light a candle after you have sat down.

Second, read the following teachings of Jesus. If you are more than one person, have different people read each teaching:

“The time is fulfilled, and the realm of God is coming near.  Repent, and trust the good news.”   Mark 1:14

“The realm of God is like someone who scattered seed in the ground, and slept and rose night and day, and the seed sprouted and grew, but the one who planted it did not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain.”  Mark 4:26, 27

“The realm of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”  Matthew 13:33

“You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hid.”  Matthew 5:14

“The realm of God will not come by watching it.  People will say, ‘Look, here it is.  Or, it is over there.’  But the realm of God is spread out upon the earth and people just don’t see it.”  Gospel of Thomas 113

“Be on your guard so that no one tricks you by saying ‘Look over here’ or ‘Look over there.’  For the Child of True Humanity exists within you.   Follow it, for those who search for it will find it.”  Gospel of Mary 4:3-5

Third, notice one or two things that are surprising to you about any of these teachings. Take about five minutes to make sure that each person in the room says something that is surprising.  For this five minutes don’t ask each other questions or respond to each other, just focus on something that you didn’t expect and say how you feel about it.

Fourth, look back at these sayings and notice how much Jesus was interested in the “realm of God” and how and where it is portrayed as among people right now. Then notice that Jesus portrays the realm of God as not only present here and now, but in very common and ordinary ways.  Take several moments in silence to see if just as the realm of God is present in a seed or some yeast in the teaching, there is an ordinary part of your life where the realm of God might be present in your life.  Review your daily routines, your home life, your neighborhood, the places you spend time outside your home; and see if and where something like the “realm of God,” some “good news,” or the “Child of True Humanity” is a part of your lie.

Fifth, talk to each other about where the realm of God that is “spread out on the earth and people just don’t see it” is in your life. Listen carefully to one another.  Don’t doubt what the other person or you yourself are saying.  If you have time, talk about what you have heard from each other.

Sixth, take the candle that you lit for this time and pass it around to each other. If you are alone, just hold it.  Then say something like, “Amen,” “Thanks be to God,” or “Merry Christmas,” all together.