Holiday Thoughts on the Eve of Christmas

Yesterday I cheerily wished "Happy Holidays" to the grocery store checker. She responded, with an edginess in her voice, "Merry Christmas!" Her tone and manner suggested an underlying question: "Are you one of us or one of THEM?" It seemed an unfortunate response to a season's greeting of good cheer and hope. I am delighted that people derive meaning from their particular faith tradition and I'm not intending to offend anyone. Why, for some, must the season become a not-so-subtle test of ideological purity? Later in the day I read a sermon delivered on Sunday, December 15, in Massachusetts by Doug Muder. It helped me put the season and all of us diverse celebrants in perspective. The mysteries of all the various celebrations of December have fascinated me since my youth, when I pestered my United Methodist family with questions about Jesus and Christmas trees. If you have a quiet ten minutes of pause among holiday preparations and gatherings, you might find this sermon as interesting as I did. Here's the link: https://freeandresponsible.blogspot.com/2019/12/have-yourself-very-uu-christmas.html Happy Holidays! Keep to the high ground, Jerry