Episode 13.5 is a conversation with Swedenborgian Mark Pendleton on the subject of Christmas. He is the Associate Pastor at the Glenview (Illinois) New Church. It’s a Bible-based church using the writings of 18th century Emanuel Swedenborg.

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Mark starts off our conversation by saying Christmas is about hope and also about realizing hope. I couldn’t think of a more relevant way to get into the subject, especially this year. I have relatives and close friends who are either laid off from work or whose houses are in foreclosure. So, if hope is more than a theological pipedream, it’s worth thinking about it.

Christmas, for Mark, is about the way the Lord came into the world making it possible for us humans to respond, giving us ideas so that we can be governed by in our responses to bad things that happen.

Those are kind of startling words. The presence of the baby Jesus was and still is like a signal that there’s another way of thinking about things around us. In my Christian Science approach to everyday human struggles, I also see that “God so loved the world, giving us His only begotten Son…” (John 3), and this is a reminder that we are loved — now. Being loved is a different feeling from the anxiety of loss.

So, how do these “ideas” and this “love” relate to the struggles? Mark says the way it works in his Swedenborgian approach is that the Lord gives us “spiritual principles,” which are an option for us to move to in with our minds and hearts. These principles, or “spiritual realities” are stronger and longer lasting than those natural events — like the job losses, for example. We both found that this spiritual sense of things is very real, despite the immediate problem at hand. It means that Jesus’ birth was a very tangible, understandable event in human history, and that his human presence made his examples and teaching practical to the rest of us humans and our very human troubles.

Platitudes about God’s goodness in the middle of needing enough to pay the rent or mortgage would sound condescending and patronizing if there wasn’t something very real and powerful in the Christmas story. Mark’s point about hope was that the Lord is always showing us how the things of the Spirit really do transcend the “natural” or earthly things.

My experience with Christmas — which is truly an every-day-of-the-year concept — is that no matter what’s going on, there is good to be found right here and now. Opening our hearts and minds to that reality not only makes us feel the love and joy of Christ, but makes us feel generous. It’s so much more fun giving than sorrowing over what we don’t have.

Mark puts it so well. He says, “The Christmas story interpreted spiritually can be thought of as the story of the birth of unselfish love in a human heart — or, the birth of a love of serving other people, of being of useful service, without thought of reward.” I can’t imagine a greater gift than the knowledge of being loved and wanting to love others.

Merry Christmas from both of us!

Here are a couple of links related to our thoughts on Christmas and on Mark’s church, The New Church:

1. ChristianScience.com: Christmas

2. The Glenview New Church website

3. The New Church website

4. Spirituality.com