Christmas
A Subversive Christmas Redux
with Rev. Clay Nelson
Read below, or download the PDF
Clay Nelson © 15 December 2019
People sometimes wonder why Unitarians celebrate Christmas. Even some Unitarians do. It’s quite understandable considering our scepticism about Virgin births, moving stars, the birth of Saviours of the World, divine babies in human form, and whether or not any of it is history. I, however, wonder why Christians celebrate Christmas (and of course they didn’t for the first few centuries after the birth of Jesus). Christians have struggled with Christmas ever since the Emperor Constantine declared December 25th to be the day of Jesus’ birth. Well, somebody had to decide. The Gospels certainly didn’t tell us when the blessed event happened. Since then how to celebrate it or whether or not to celebrate it at all has consumed untold hours of theological debate.
Continue reading A Subversive Christmas ReduxChristmas Eve Candlelight Service 2018
Christmas Memories
Christmas: A Subversive Holiday
Watch
No separate audio this week due to poor quality audio recording, watching the video with subtitles – hit the Subtitles/Closed Captions’ button once you’ve started the video – should improve intelligibility.
Read below or download the PDF.
Clay Nelson © 16 December 2018
I find it ironic that many Unitarians struggle with celebrating Christmas. They love to regale us with tales about how the church took a lot of pagan traditions and repurposed them. Which is true. They scoff at Virgin births, moving stars, the birth of Saviours of the World, divine babies in human form, and challenge any of it as history. And of course, they are right — none of this historically happened. They find Christmas fit only for children and gag at how it has been sentimentalised. And once again they are right. The delight and wonder in a child’s eyes on Christmas morning is worth all the hassle of making it magical for them. Only through their eyes is the wonder available to us who are world-worn and weary. And yes, the sentimentalising of Christmas makes it easy to miss its offer of another way of seeing life and of living our lives.
Continue reading Christmas: A Subversive HolidayChristmas Eve Candlelight Service 2017
Rev. Clay Nelson
Watch
Listen
or download the MP3
No text for this service.
Carols not included.
Rev. Clay Nelson © 24th December 2017
Carols and Shared Reflections
Rev. Clay Nelson
Watch
Listen
or download the MP3
No text this week.
Rev. Clay Nelson © 24th December 2017
What are we waiting for?
Rev. Clay Nelson
Watch
Listen
or download the MP3
Read below, or download the PDF
Opening words are First comes the waiting, by Erika A. Hewitt.
Rev. Clay Nelson © 3rd December 2017
Christians are celebrating the First Sunday of Advent today, one of the four Sundays before Christmas. As Unitarians, it is fair to ask, why do we care? Well, because Advent is all about celebrating waiting. Continue reading What are we waiting for?
2016 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
How Unitarians Saved Christmas
Rev. Clay Nelson
Watch
Listen
or download the MP3
Or download the PDF of this page.
Rev. Clay Nelson © 11 December 2016
This week it was reported that one of Donald Trump’s surrogates, his first campaign manager, told Fox News that President-elect Trump had saved Christmas from Obama. Apparently he had won the war on Christmas, declaring it is now safe to say “Merry Christmas” again. In a world of fake news stories where pizza joints can be shot up because of outrageous lies generated by fake news sites, it isn’t surprising President Obama was plagued by such stories. One in particular was that being a “Muslim,” he never said, “Merry Christmas” or called a Christmas tree a “Christmas tree,” in spite of hours of videotape recording him doing just that. Continue reading How Unitarians Saved Christmas