There is currently a battle brewing between atheists and Christians over the veracity of the Christmas story. An atheist group has posted billboards over the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey which asks the question “You know it’s a myth, right?” against a backdrop of the Three Kings visiting the Baby Jesus. Christians have retaliated with their own marketing campaign with the headline of “You know it’s real.”
I would like to posit my own position, which is that both sides miss the point.
First, let’s look at the atheist side of the argument. “You know it’s a myth.” The implication is that if the Christmas story is not 100% factual, it is worthless. But any student of myth knows otherwise. Those familiar with the works of Joseph Campbell understand that myths are powerful tools that humans have used for millennia to connect to the Divinity within themselves. As Campbell himself states, “It would not be too much to say that the myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestations.” Campbell further asserts that the most important function of the myth is to foster the unfolding of the individual in integrity with himself, his culture, the universe and finally with the cosmic unity and creative mystery which is “both beyond and within himself and all things.” Compare Campbell’s assertion with the words of Jesus himself, In Luke 17:20, 21: Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Both Jesus and Campbell understood that the Kingdom of Heaven, Cosmic Divinity or Creative Force lies within us. And we experience that kingdom to the degree that we become conscious of it. Our fascination with the minutiae of life has limited our awareness of our inner selves and left us in a coma of forgetfulness. And that’s where the role of myth comes in. Myths provide a bridge between one’s local consciousness and the Divinity that lies in each of us. If the Christmas story is a myth, it is a powerful one that invites us to be reborn every day into the Grand Mystery of life.
Likewise, when Christians get bogged down in the details of the story, they miss the miracle that is available to them – the miracle of Jesus as the Great Example as opposed to Jesus as the Great Exception. As Jesus said in John 14. 11-12: Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me … whoever believes will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these.
People of all faiths — and no faith at all — should be able to unite through their Divine Connectedness that human beings have recognized since the beginning of time. All paths lead to the Divine. It matters not how we get there.
My invitation to all of you is to use the story of Christmas to recognize who you really are: a divine and perfect expression of the universe.
Merry Christmas!