Holidays

I love holidays.  It doesn't even matter if it is a holiday that does not relate to me.  I still love them.

We celebrate Halloween AND Samhain.  Boxing Day?  You bet!  Yule, Christmas, and anything else I can get my hands on in December! Groundhog day is still a personal favorite.

So while we don't go to church, I still love Advent.  I figure it is good for Spud to know the basis for the hoildays that we celebrate, and Advent get to the root of the Christian form of winter holidays.

I went out and purchased a beautiful advent wreath (that can be used for other candles the rest of the year) and the necessary purple and pink candles.  Each night this week we have been lighting the first candle and reading the chosen verse.  Spud is kind of bored since there is no rhyme or reason to the verses, and we haven't gotten to the real story yet. 

However, last night's verse actually spoke to me.  It seems the antithesis of the right wing message of "Me, me, me.  Everyone looks out for themselves."  It spoke to me as the true meaning of Christmas, community, and Christianity in general.

Isaiah 58 5-8: The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free.  Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.  Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed.

Basically, help those less fortunate than you.  Stop the oppression of people and love one another.  If you do this, the world will be a better place.

I feel like we need more of these messages and less of the "everyone who thinks differently and has less money is doomed" that dominate outspoken Christianity these days.