Christ Born This Day
Martin Cecil December 25, 1979
Holy art Thou, O Lord most high. We present ourselves before Thee this morning in thankfulness, acknowledging this special day, both in remembrance of Thy birth in human form on earth long ago and also in a vibrant awareness of the birth into expression of Thy spirit, the Christ spirit, through all of mankind in this day. Once again there is now the birth of the Christ. At the same time this is also the resurrection of Thy body. We are deeply thankful that we share an awareness of these things in our own hearts and lives so that, as the angels of old, we may now herald that birth in the world for all people.
We are deeply thankful for Thy coming long ago, as one man on earth, to open the door of salvation, but we now accept the responsibility of extending that salvation into the consciousness of mankind as a whole, recognizing that only as there is this experience is the world restored as the place of Thy dwelling. Not by any human effort or any human knowledge can these things come to pass, but by the spirit of the Christ only, finding increased emergent expression through the hearts and the lives of human beings on earth.
We are grateful for such awareness as we have of what it is that is transpiring in these days, because we ourselves assume the responsibility of the angelic heralds on earth, saying in our own lives, “Glory to God in the highest,” that there may indeed be Thy peace on earth as God’s will is done as it is in heaven.
Our great Lord and King, we are present in this world to play our part with many others who likewise begin to know the truth in expression in their own living, not only to call to remembrance what is now offered but to share the responsibility of letting that offering be revealed to the glory of God on earth. We are thankful for the privilege this morning of being together here in this setting, that we might agree upon these things, and in that agreement let these things be brought to pass. The birth of Thy spirit is an emergent reality on earth now regardless of the appearance of things. There is no way other than Thy way. The ways of men, whether they are religious, political, scientific, economic, whatever, are valueless. Only the way of Thy spirit makes possible the fulfilment now.
How privileged we are, O Lord, to herald the coming of Thy spirit, not merely in words but in the deeds of living; for so it is surely established with absolute inevitability. In heralding this fulfilment, let our lives pro- claim, O Lord, glory to God in the highest.
We share this special prayer on Christmas morning. I am sure that we do not have any desire to participate in meaningless repetition. Let the spirit of the living Christ bring forth the natural and beautiful forms that it will do when there are those who are willing to let this be so. No longer need we attempt to confine the spirit of the living God in the structured forms that have been traditionally present at Christmas for centuries. How can anything new occur on earth if the only time that human beings pay attention to the spirit of God in a special way is in recognition of the birth of Jesus; indeed how can anything new appear if the old forms are maintained simply because there is a nostalgic memory of Christmases past? Perhaps insofar as adults are concerned there may be an endeavor on the part of many to recapture something of the magic that was sensed in childhood. That magic in childhood is splendid for children but the interpretation placed upon it by adults simply relates to a memory of physical childhood, when what really is being touched is the awareness, not of the past physical childhood but of the present spiritual childhood.
Human beings everywhere are spiritual children, indeed babies. Nowadays much emphasis is being placed by some upon the importance of what is called a born-again Christian experience. If there is any validity to the experience of being born again in this sense, obviously it is one of a newborn babe, certainly not of a mature spiritual person. The baby experiences life in its own special way, and I don’t think any of us sitting here this morning can recall very much about that. That experience certainly has little to do with such adult experience as we now have. Likewise the born-again condition in the Christian world is to be forgotten if the natural growth and unfoldment subsequently is to occur, but how few have been willing to let it occur.
To the extent that we ourselves have exhibited such willingness much has been left behind; much has been left behind that at the time seemed significant and important. It may have been significant and important when it appeared. It is significant and important that a baby should be born. Obviously there would never be an adult if it wasn’t so. So likewise, spiritually speaking, it is significantly important that there should be spiritual birth, that there should be a dawning consciousness of a new state. When a baby comes out of the womb of the mother it comes into the womb of the world, and here is a totally different state to what had been experienced before. But the ability of the baby is not all that great to discern immediately after the point of birth what the state is into which it has come. Neither is it so spiritually speaking.
To immediately swaddle the newborn spiritual babe in the ancient vestments of this human world will effectively prevent the growth of that baby into anything worthwhile. Obviously a baby needs protection to begin with but there must be freedom of movement if there is to be growth. There must be exercise, for one thing, even a little crying for another. The lungs need some development, certainly, and while it is irritating on occasion to adults it is necessary to the baby. So we shouldn’t object even to the spiritual squalling, and there is a certain amount of that. But always there is the expectation for the greater emergence of the spirit of God into expression on earth by reason of that individual form. This is the only reason that there are human forms on earth. Scarcely anyone realizes this and consequently there is the almost complete absence of spiritual adolescence, let alone spiritual maturity.
In the ordinary physical and mental growth through which human beings pass, they leave behind the stages of their growth. We sometimes say of someone, “Well that individual is passing through a particular stage.” It’s usually because it’s rather an uncomfortable stage. So there are stages of spiritual growth, sometimes including some growing pains, but always there is that to be experienced which needs to be left behind. As long as tradition prevails it is difficult to leave anything behind, and people are forced into immature molds on the basis of tradition. Religious tradition has been not the least of the methods used to limit spiritual growth. I don’t suppose those who are greatly involved in the religious tradition would appreciate this information but it is the fact of the matter, because those concerned are constantly being indoctrinated into a traditional pattern, so that the newness of spiritual expression that rightly should be appearing is stultified. It is considered that it is only right in its appearance if it comes forth in the traditional forms.
God is a God of the living, not of the dead. God is a God of living man, not of mummified man, wrapped around and swathed in traditions, no matter how good those traditions may seem to be. The bonds so formed are being burst asunder in these days, whether anyone likes it or not, and it seems to be a painful business to most. But why should it be assumed that the coming forth of the Christ into expression is necessarily a painful business? Of course most don’t recognize what is happening. There are those who are hopefully looking toward the Second Coming. The Second Coming has been in motion for quite some time, but who appreciates it? Finally, perhaps to the extent of our own willingness, we discover that the experience is one for which to be greatly thankful.
Let the spirit come forth, let the kingdom come—it’s coming anyway, whether anyone likes it or not! The wise thing is to learn to like it. We don’t learn to like it by resisting it. There are those women who have, either naturally or because they have received the required training, brought forth their babies with delight, in a recognition of the naturalness of the process; but the vast majority resist it, partly because of ignorance of course, partly because human beings have strayed so far from the natural, and this engenders resistance when the natural begins to take hold. Then people feel that it is unnatural because it is so unaccustomed. But if a person has been moving with the natural in living, then all aspects of natural living are found to be acceptable, enjoyable, wonderful!
And so it is that as the bonds, even of Christmas, begin to be burst asunder, a living birth may take place in human experience now, and we are not always being sent back to something in the far-distant past. What meaning does that have now, unless we ourselves and human beings in general let it have meaning now, participate willingly, delightedly, naturally, in the emergent expression of the Christ on earth? To reject that is to reject life, and the processes of dying have traditionally been uncomfortable. Here’s another tradition that we might leave behind. The way human beings look at things, and experience things, is based in an agreement with the unnatural. The agreement has been so strong, so firm, over the millennia that it is imagined to be natural, and what is truly natural is imagined to be impossible.
So we have come to this Christmas, 1979, close to the beginning of another year, when we may associate ourselves not with the bonds but with the naturalness of spirit brought forth into living expression moment by moment through each one. And as that spirit emerges through each one it is found to be a unified spirit through all: peace on earth, the evidence of God’s will in expression by reason of the children of men. This we herald by our own living, that all may be invited to become consciously aware of what is actually happening on earth instead of hiding their heads in the sand and struggling to maintain the human traditions which are supposed to solve the problems of the world. They never have; they never will. The only way by which the world may be saved from its own self-destruction is by the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the living God, the creative power of the universe. Why resist it? Why try to substitute the endeavors of human desire? This has been done long enough. That is the fact of the matter, whether anyone agrees or not, and that fact is proclaimed by the fact of the Christ spirit emerging through human beings, everybody, on the face of the earth in this day.
That emergence is a flaming fire which burns the rubbish, and those who insist upon being rubbish find themselves being burned, and that is the discomfort. That looks like an increasing hell on earth, but as we have before recognized, hellfire which burns rubbish is at the same time the fire of God’s love which does not burn itself. So those who associate themselves untraditionally with the truth of love are not burned. They are part of the flaming fire which burns on earth, that is true, and in this there is the herald of the coming. But let us make plain and clear the glory of that coming, rather than the pain which is natural and necessary to the rubbish when that rubbish is identified with human beings who feel.
Today is Christmas Day. How embedded are we yet in the traditions of the past? How free is the spirit of God in this moment to bring forth what is natural and right now?
Grace Van Duzen — “Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King’” not a born-again anything on that old level. How glorious to herald the birth of the Christ in expression through human form today, to herald, to initiate, into the world now, this glory; and it is real.
Martin Cecil — The newborn King, which is usually considered to be the basis for Christmas, appeared on earth through one baby a long time ago. This happened because it was the only way possible—just one individual in all the population of the earth, just one, and that was right and necessary and the only way possible nineteen centuries ago. That happened. It doesn’t need to happen that way again; it will not happen that way again; but there is a way that it is happening now. That birth long ago, in spite of the somewhat fanciful stories about it in the Bible, went virtually unnoticed. What is happening now won’t go unnoticed; it isn’t unnoticed. Human beings are very much aware of something happening now, although they don’t know exactly what it is. It looks like disaster knocking at the door.
This birth occurs now in a different way, because it occurs through many. It actually occurs through all, and in the coming forth pushes aside what doesn’t belong, burns the rubbish. The fire obviously is already kindled. Rejoice ye heavens; woe unto the earth. We rejoice this Christmas for the real birth that is taking place, not for the imaginary one which human beings traditionally remember. It’s completely imaginary insofar as human consciousness now is concerned. But there is a real birth transpiring throughout the body of mankind now. This is cause for rejoicing. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, the will of God in expression through human beings. Thus it is! Let the truth be revealed in the living expression of the spirit of God by reason of our presence on earth. We would join in agreement with all those who likewise let it be so, for thus it is.
Lillian Cecil — We would join with you, Martin, in these glorious words of life today: Glory to God in the highest! We are no ostriches that have their heads buried. We know in a natural true birth there is the crowning first, the head appears and one sees and hears and feels and there is the emergence of life. And I feel in this very moment there is the emergence of life. It’s vibrating, it’s alive, it’s glorious! Glory to God in the highest!
Martin Cecil — There is the emergence of life in form on earth, life characterized by truth and love. No man can stop it or prevent it. Seeing that that life shall emerge inevitably, why not delight in letting it be so in our own experience? Glory to God in the highest!
© emissaries of divine light
