Happy Travails

Tebowing the Christmas Star

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him" (Matthew 2:1-2)

"... and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was." (Matt.2:3-10). 

Fascinating how Tim Tebow has brought Christianity back to the mainstream. It has been pushed to the side of public discourse for years. No where is this more apparent than in speculations on the Christmas Star, which used to be a rife topic for discourse. I remember growing up and going to a Planetarium at this time of year, and being shown astronomical options for the Star of Bethelehem. I daresay such shows are rarities today, and even back then, they were rich in Science and poor in Religion, as if the religious context was like an oddball uncle, better left outside the room. Yet how can one understand what the Star was, without seeking the context of the times?

In an overarching irony, I found the context not in the Planetarium, nor in orthodox Christianity, but outside the US, in the New Age section of an Australian bookstore.  I wrote about this years ago, and would like to update my findings in this Time of Tebow. 

Wedding Season

It shouldn't be a surprise that when your kids get to a certain age, they and their single cousins begin to drop like flies and get married. This creates a second Wedding Season in one's life. (The first Wedding Season was when we got married - we also seemed to have scores of friends from college getting married at the same time, too.) We have three coming up in rapid succession this summer. The first is a niece, then our son, who has set up a wedding web site for all his friends to share the experience, then another niece. For the Dad, a nice time; for the Mom, a flurry of activity that seems endless. 

It is also interesting to see how religion has changed - or stayed the same - in wedding fashion. All three have different styles: 

• one is a destination wedding, at the college where they met, with all the trappings of a religious wedding including the Gothic Catherdral, but little actual religion
• another is a HIgh Wedding, very formal, with the Latin Mass and strict requirements for attendees - strict enough it put off some relatives, who will decline attending! Amazing
• the third is more of an elopement, and not yet well-planned, but I expect it to become more of a religious wedding as the day approaches

For many in a secular society, religion is met at weddings & funerals, and a bit in between (Easter! Christmas! Passover!). Weddings are often approached casually, as if it is no different than living together. What I found, and I think our children and their cousins & spouses will find, is that marriage is different in kind not just degree - the commitment is real and changes the couple to much more future-oriented as well as more tolerant of foibles and quirks. This commitment may be essential to go through the long time together, building a family and retirement, with all of its costs and compromises. 

Religion serves a critical role in weddings, to add solemnity, purpose and tradition to the ceremony, and by doing so reframe the couple from a new way of living together to a new way of life together. 

The Da Vinci Code and the Second Coming

The critics thought it murky, and the acting reactive - with no chemistry between the leads. (How could there be, when it turns out that one of them has the Blood Royal - the bloodline of Christ? A bit calming of ardor, meditating on that legacy.) The movie has done well so far, despite the critics - with a better opening than The Passion. $225m worldwide in the first weekend.  Yet it is a mediocrity, and may lack legs.

We enjoyed the movie, and also enjoyed rapping with the protesters out front, who asserted that the Catholic Church had a monopoly on truth, and the movie was blasphemous. The alternative 'truth' of the movie is a bit much, based on a known fraud. Also, knowing he was going to be crucified, would the Son of God have left a pregnant wife behind?

Yet the incredible interest in the book is based on a widespread feeling in Christendom is that the message may have been hijacked by the early Catholic Church, especially when it became the State Religion of the Roman Empire. Is there a great conspiracy, just not the one of the book & movie?

View From The Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives overlooks the Old City of Jerusalem.  Prophets would come up from the desert and crest the Mount of Olives before walking into the Jerusalem.  The view is spectacular - but for prophets and pundits, there is no better place to cast a vision than from the Mount of Olives, and no better time than during Easter - especially this Easter, sandwiched between the release of the latest Gnostic Gospel, The Book of Judas, and the worldwide launch of The Da Vinci Code.  Both pose an enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery: was the real message of Jesus co-opted when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire? Our pilgrimage to answer that question sheds more light on the human condition than on the religious one. 

View From A Hilltop Near Jerusalem

Looking down into a wooded valley and seeing a 1500 year old monastery led to some meditations on what they must have been contemplating all these centuries.  Jerusalem has that effect.  What does God want from us?  Moses in the Old Testament boiled it down to Ten Commandments.  The first half were about our relationship with God; the second about our relationship with each other.  Jesus in the New Testament simplified it down to two rules: Love God, and Love Thy Neighbor.  A bit hard to match these talents.  Best I could do was three rules, or maybe four:

View from Via Dolorosa - Musings on Easter

This is a sign along the Via Dolorosa, the walk that takes you to the fifteen Stations of the Cross. The events are graphically portrayed in the Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of the Christ. The walk is much more prosaic, but at the same time much more profound. It provides the occasion to ruminate not just on the meaning of the Passion, but the reality of it.

More on the Christmas Star

Some non-Christian Yelnick readers found the Star of Bethlehem post too cryptic, as lacking a lot of background that people raised in Christian countries take for granted. Let me try to make amends.

Was the Star of Bethlehem the Shekinah?

One of the odd pleasures of traveling is to find books with ideas that are not common in the home country. My first vacation to Australia brought me into the very active subculture of British investigation of the Freemasons, and their connection to the mysterious Knights Templar of the Great Crusades. On my return to NZ, I found a further work by the same authors, exploring even earlier connections between the Freemasons, the Templars and Solomon's Temple. (This is about to be brought into the popular imagination, as the same topics are rumored to be the subject of the sequel to The Da Vinci Code.) In the course of their analysis, they propose yet another candidate for the Star of Bethlehem, one that ties much better into Jewish tradition than the mainstream candidates.

View From London at Christmas

After all the hard core political mumbo jumbo about elections and war, it is time for some kinder, gentler political posts. And what could be more wonderful than Christmas in London?  It is said in song and movies that the place to be from Thanksgiving to Christmas is New York City, which comes alive during the holidays.  London gives 'ole New York a run for the money. The atmosphere is festive, the crowds enormous, and the decorations sparkling.  One can easily imagine the arcades, such as Piccadilly Arcade, being garlanded and lit down the ceiling.  Scale this up, and image whole streets dressed up like this little arcade.  Regent Street in particular was arched by blue and red lights all the way from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus. 

The concept of seasonal window displays was started at Selfridges.  We visited there first.  We also went on to Harrod's and Fortnum & Mason, but Selfridges won hands down. Particularly nice was the seasonal music provided by the venerable Salvation Army Band. 

And this leads into the soft political message of the season.  Political correctness is denuding Christmas of its festive spirit, by removing its spiritual core.  Without the seasonal hymns, the Salvation Army becomes just another peddler one must block and tackle through to shop in the crowds.  A lot has been written on this topic, and no more will be added today, except to say it was a refreshing change to still experience what in the US is fast becoming lost: a Christmas with Happy Christmas not Happy Holidays, a season which respects the traditions and does not replace them with a Disneyfied amalgam of marketing iconography stripped of any intrinsic meaning or values other than be happy, buy more!

View From Jerusalem

You feel the weight of history in Jerusalem, some of it recent. Saturday is the Sabbath for one faith, but just another day for the others. Yelnick visited last Saturday, at the front lines of the New World Order.