This year’s Christmas Card Story is later than usual, although many of you hold to the romantic notion that they never make it out before Easter Sunday anyway. Fair enough! And my guarantee is that always I get it to you by the 4th of July! 🙂

But this year, perhaps like me, you have found the past eight weeks to be a bit unsettling. I find that the Creative Process cannot but be affected by all that’s going on in the world.

I had a Christmas Story for you close to being ready by the 31st of January, but by then the world had changed so much that I was compelled to scrap it and write this one. And, as a writer friend likes to say, “The story comes when it comes.” So, it took a bit more time this year.

As our society has become increasingly conditioned to only giving time for 160 characters or less, please consider the short story format in which these ideas are presented.

Today is the Ides of March. Oye! That, too…

Yet, perhaps today is the perfect day, in this final week of winter, to give yourself a break for an hour, cozy up with a mug of tea, hot cocoa, or your favorite warm beverage, and just enjoy taking this journey back in time.

Please receive this as the gift that it is intended — an offering of encouragement and inspiration — perhaps it will serve to motivate you to take action toward your vision for a better world, whatever that may be. At the very least, I hope it will serve to remind you that we have been here before, and we have come through it all right.

May the Blessings of this Season of Kindness and Inclusivity be yours every day!

A Thrill Of Hope

By Arnold J. Mungioli

Impenetrable darkness blanketed the stars – there was nothing left to wish upon, the moon never rose that night, and the sky felt like an ominous black expanse of hopelessness. This was the Judea of King Herod.

Suddenly, a blazing light arose in the sky irradiating the land, sea and the air itself. It brought to a halt everything the people had suffered their whole life long – despair, despondency, doom, and the lack of light – all dispelled in a moment! It needed to be let go of – all of it — as something new had now ignited! This light both defined and defied the darkness!

Every person, be they shepherd, townsfolk, innkeeper, tax collector, or king, felt a deep chill to the bone. Oh, God, what now? But, for those who stood still and bathed in the glow of this light, something else welled up inside them – a thrill of hope!

One must consider the landscape upon which hope appeared that night. A society living in despondency for generations, giving birth to people who survive without dreams, who go on to rear children without hope – and then quite suddenly they all at once experience what it means when “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – a thrill of hope!

Herod was an asshole! It had been a gloomy time since the dissolution of the Hasmonean Dynasty, and the ushering in of his newly declared Herodian Dynasty. Herod had been king for some 37 years, now. What a vitriolic buffoon!

Spiteful. Petty. Vindictive. Cowardly. Cruel. And Viciously Crafty.

He had no interest in protecting the people over whom he ruled – only in what he could take from them. His need for attention was insatiable. A narcissistic sociopath, the people’s lives were so much the worse for his being in office at all.

And the people would pray from the Ketuvim, the Writings section of the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 109:8…”May his days be few; may another take his office.” That’s in the Bible!

Herod’s charge was to serve his people – he proclaimed an oath to do so, but he lied. He lusted for wealth and obsessed over his own image. Can you imagine a leader who had done so many terrible things to his people at such a rapid-fire pace to confuse and distract them from the even more terrible things he was doing, that he had succeeded in stealing from them, their very hope?

The shepherd boy Amir, and his twin brother Asher, had come of age in the time of Herod, so neither of them had ever known the world any differently. Amir gravitated toward the practical – he knew everything about sheep shearing, handled the aspects of trade well enough, and accepted the society into which he was born as the way it had to be. Asher’s proclivities leaned more toward the imaginative – he liked to carve wood, make magic, and create new things. Asher envisioned a better world.

Rivka, regarded as the town gossip, would regale the boys with tales of the Hasmonean rulers from years before and the vastly better lives enjoyed by the people of their village back then. Hasmonean rulers accepted their responsibility to lead the country, and while the people found lots to complain about, as they always will, they felt secure – the Hasmonean rulers of the Jews were practicing Jews themselves, and they ruled Judea autonomously. Their government was stable, and the people knew that for all their grousing and dissatisfaction, they would mostly be okay in the day to day.

It came as quite a surprise when Herod declared himself the first ruler of the so-called “Herodian Dynasty.” “What the hell is that!?” Rivka asked the trader who first told her of this. “Ohhhh,” she went on as it dawned on her, “so if the penis is small enough, then just being king is not enough – you must declare your overprivileged divisive ass the leader of an entirely new dynasty,” and she spat. Rivka had no tolerance for fools, especially those that wore a crown on their head! She mocked his crown unreservedly because Herod was a vassal of his Roman overlords. Whenever she would hear of his decrees and his endless stream of executive orders, she would ask, “Does that please his Roman patrons? Is this traitor to the Jews being a good donkey for his masters?”

Rivka’s house stood on the outskirts of the village near the road. This made her the most reliable source for news, which in those days travelled via the trade routes. She knew most of the traders who journeyed that road. Rumors were often bandied about that she had established her relationship with each of them early on, bringing these men into her home for food, drink and comfort of all sorts, and she neither denied nor verified any of these tittle-tattles. Still, though she was a woman of some years now, the shepherd boys looked upon her as a kind of marvel, and for most of them, more than their curiosity was aroused. Their mothers did not like her and often referred to her as “Asifah” meaning “Stormy,” for they thought her news to often bring a shitstorm of confusion and grief. “Don’t kill the messenger,” she would retort in her gravelly voice, raising one shoulder and looking them directly in the eye as she was wont to do. Still, everyone recognized that if they held any interest in what was going on outside of their village, throughout the kingdom, the news hailed from Rivka.

Rivka took Asher under her wing. He would visit her, and she instilled in him an interest in music, teaching him to play stringed instruments.He admired her jewelry, and she would allow him to put it on. He felt whole. She admired Asher for taking the journey toward being who they truly felt themself to be, and she supported them in that. Rivka didn’t judge anyone, as she was used to being judged by almost everyone. Brash and vulgar, widely considered a woman of ill repute, the truth is that she walked in Love more assuredly than any of those who judged and condemned her. She gave Asher a bracelet to keep as their own. Amir, uncomfortable with change, did not like that Asher wore this bracelet. He took exception to having a brother who might be a eunuch. And there were a lot of eunuchs back then – just as there are today. Amir’s complacency with Herod’s rule was enough reason for Rivka to despise him, but his lack of acceptance of his own brother amplified her repugnance.

Herod the Great, as he referred to himself — and beware men who throw that word around about themselves, as they are most assuredly not – was the Roman Appointed King of Judea. His father, Antipater, enjoyed a good relationship with the dictator Julius Caesar of Rome, and the unskilled little bastard who benefitted from this nepotism rose quickly to power, riding Daddy’s fortune. He was backed by Rome, but here at home, the Sanhedrin condemned him for his brutality. This man was all about grudging retaliation and punishing those disloyal to him. What a petty, loathsome ruler!

Deeply concerned with his legacy, Herod was known for colossal building projects, such as the Western Wall. “Build the Wall!” “We will build the Wall!” “The Wall! The Wall! The Wall!” These were the messages that came from the Palace and Rivka would roll her eyes every time she heard about it! For one thing, Herod was more devoted to staying in good with Rome than he was to his own people, so his architecture reflected a more Roman style. “Oh, he’s so proud of his big Roman wall – men with small penises like to build big things. I know this for a fact!” Rivka could see that Rome was a competing empire that was trying to take over the world, and Herod had sold her country out to get himself in good with Rome, expecting it would increase his own wealth at the expense of the people’s. “And as he is incapable of building a longer table, he resorts to building a higher wall!” Rivka would comment. “He is the Emperor Augustus’s bitch!” And she would spit.

The energy of the villages was dim, while the King’s many palaces of debauchery were well-lit reminders of all the power and money that he had syphoned away from the people.

The tone of the Village was by now one of bitter, hopeless misery, and this pleased Herod. Under Herod’s rule, people seemed more put upon, less glad to see one another; they mumbled and grunted, resented their work, and moved through life hopelessly. The children had dead eyes – no spark of brightness in them – Rivka would grab their chins, stare down into their eyes, and say to them, “Find your fire, you little shit! Reclaim your brightness! Ignite your spark!” As they would run away from her terrified, she would shout after them, admonishingly, “The world needs it! You’d better do it! You are the plan!”

Rivka would teach young people the history of the Romans’ special interest in Judea, stemming from their general, Pompey the Great — commenting “Another ‘Great!’” and rolling her eyes while holding her thumb and forefinger about six centimeters apart. Pompey had conquered Jerusalem during her grandmother’s time. Up until then, their region had not been in the Roman sphere of influence, “And oh, we were a rich country then!” she would go on, explaining that it came to everyone who lived there as a surprise, not that Herod’s father had cashed in a favor to his friend Julius Caesar to get his loser son a job, but that the Senate had agreed to appoint that mushroom-dick pissant Herod as King of the Jews. Perhaps the Romans hated Jews that much! But Rivka never felt it was personal. She would say how the actions or inactions of a senate always speak to the level of corruption in any government and from that, you can tell how deep it goes. “Yet,” she would continue, “that is not a reason to surrender an entire country and its people to an authoritarian despot!” Rivka was an anomaly in that time – a woman so well educated in a time when women were not allowed to be. She had been taught secretly by her father whose regard for knowledge, learning, and the Talmud was immeasurable. Some young men found her wealth of knowledge quite stimulating. The greater percentage of adult men most vehemently did not. So, she had created a persona of the town gossip or local whore because on that level, men could deal with the information she shared, and she could insert her perspectives and analysis into the news she was able to garner. She knew that the legacy of history she passed along, and the value of her villagers staying informed of current news was well worth her moving past societal limitations on gender, age, and all the other claptrap that people mistakenly thought was important in that era. Just think, as a civilization, how far we have come in the two-thousand years since then! No really, think!

The information that Rivka brought to the village would spark many conversations, as well as instill in young men a desire to seek out more learning. And while the women of the villages showed their disdain for her outwardly, most of them secretly agreed to have her tutor their daughters, as well. Though the education of young women in this time and place was not considered acceptable, Rivka considered that further and she took action upon it! Every day in the late afternoon, while the young boys were out in the pasture grazing their sheep, Rivka would meet with young girls and teach them to read and write, as well as history, and the political science of their government. There were not teachers in the village – or in any village, under Herod. One of the foundational supports to a tyrant’s success is an uneducated populace. Keep the people expendable! This repeats itself throughout history. Look around! Back then, Rabbis took on the duties, at least to teach the Holy Books and Jewish traditions. Rivka was not paid to be a teacher, nor would it have been a career she would have pursued if there were such a job available. Sometimes, we do things just because we know it’s right! And that is when life is at its best!

The women of the village were grateful to be able to give their daughters an opportunity that they’d never had themselves, not to mention the practicality of their daughters’ learning helping to improve their own quality of life. Nevertheless, Stormy or “Asifah” (in their own language, as they continued to refer to her amongst one another), was dangerous, for she dared to laugh at the king!

Rivka was a devout Jew, and while many found it easy to discredit that, citing her sexual expression, she could easily tear off the head of anyone who challenged her on it. She knew her Torah, her Nevi’im and her Ketuvim – and she lived the essence of these Holy Books, but religion would continue to be used for centuries to discredit people for their sexual expression. To be human is to have a sexuality, regardless of how those in power might exploit that to shame and discredit so many beloved children of God, and to oppress others, and climb to power on the ladder of their oppression. “Nothing new in that game,” Rivka would comment, then adding, “Pay attention to who benefits from the oppression of marginalized groups!” Then she would spit.

Rivka continued to share her jewelry with Asher, and she provided them inks, paint dyes, and clay to make art. She even instructed them in saltation and would delight in their natural propensity for dance. Amir grew increasingly enraged about who and what his brother grew to be and aligned himself further with Herod’s nationalistic policies. Herod was now completely controlled by Rome and worked against the interests of the people of Judea. Although he had declared himself “King of Judea,” as Rivka would expound, a tyrant never tells you that he is selling you out. He will hypnotize you with charms of how he is making your nation great. But one need look no further than the price of eggs from your local farmer, the conditions your farmer is working under, and how lavishly the King spends on himself at the people’s expense to detect what is nothing more than an autocratic martinet. And one must resist submitting to a man like this – for the sake of your children, for the sake of all children, for the good of our country, and the world!

One evening, an argument erupted in the village square. A man whom Rivka had known found out about her teaching his daughter, Salome, to read and write. This was forbidden in his interpretation of Jewish law. Rivka scoffed at this. Her ability to read and write meant that she too could interpret Jewish law, and she made cogent arguments that there was no rule against women learning. The man grew angrier. It appeared that Salome was pregnant, and he blamed Rivka’s house and the traders who frequented there. A crowd began to gather, and he called for her stoning. He was fair skinned, well off, and a man of influence in the village. He was a vocal supporter of the new Herodian Dynasty, and like so many who obediently followed Herod’s rules and oppression like lemmings, he was unthinking, no match for her wits, and always resorted instantly to violence in the hope that it would hide his ignorance. Instead, Rivka trapped him in his rhetoric, reminding him, and by extension all that had gathered, that Herod’s family were late converts to Judaism, and the King’s religious commitment was specious at best.

It was this well-remembered squabble in the village square, popularly termed among the villagers as “Asifah’s Night” or “Stormy’s Night,” that called Herod’s religion into question by many elements of Jewish society across the kingdom. Herod had, in fact, been born in Idumea, south of Judea, where people were Arab or Nabataean – he was raised an Arab; Arab on both sides. Although he had now converted and publicly identified himself as a Jew — notably it was essential to this new office he wished to hold — he avoided doing so until the crown was within his reach. Herod was accepted as a Jew by some – mostly those with something to gain from it, who sought political advantage, or the unthinking who just lacked the curiosity to question much of anything – the latter group being a tyrant’s most treasured supporters. Herod’s religious identification was notoriously undermined by the decadent lifestyle of not only his own debauchery, but by that of all the Herodians, which over time, earned them the antipathy of observant Jews, and anyone else with even half a moral conscience.

“The golden age of Judea begins right now,” Herod said, hypocritically proclaiming his Judaism, “From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation. And we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. Judea will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before. We are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and Judea has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.”

Rivka pointed out to Salome’s father that Herod, this king he admired so much, had married Mariamne, a Jew, and then murdered her! “Enough ‘sunlight’ pouring in for you?” she asked. Mariamne was an exceptionally beautiful woman who could have had any man in the kingdom, but Herod’s interest sprung from her being a Jewish princess of the Hasmonean line helping to secure his claim to the throne and attempting to gain himself Jewish favor. Rivka further imparted that at the time Herod married Mariamne, there was the one small detail that he was already married to Doris and had a young son by her whom he had named after his own father, Antipater. So, to get them out of the way, he banished them both! Then, after Mariamne had served his purposes, Herod ordered her execution!

Murderer. Executioner. Butcher. Slaughterer. Tyrant.

“Still think he’s making our country ‘great?’” Rivka would unabashedly shout out to his supporters. And she would spit.

Rivka made an example of her opponent that night, proclaiming to the villagers in the square that Salome’s father somehow unfathomably could not see their murderer king for who and what he really was, although Herod had been quite outspoken about his plans for their country. He had been on the throne for 37 years now! He did not hide from the people what he planned to do – it was as if he were somehow proud of his reign of terror, and he simply continued to unfold the building of the walls and every other atrocity that he had promised, and then some. He had a giant treasure chest which he filled with coins that had his face on them, and he loved to roll around naked in them. He would walk through the palace naked, defecating as he walked, just to make the servants who followed him around clean it up after him. If he turned, and it was not cleaned, he would behead them on the spot. He had a fetish about being peed on by Roman women, and when Roman officers would visit the village, they would bring with them Roman ladies of the evening just so they could watch him be humiliated in this way; they would go back to the Roman Senate, tell stories, and laugh at him. When the officers travelled through the Village with those women, Rivka would nod toward them and say to any villagers nearby, “See? At least we don’t have the worst job in town!”

Liar. Cheat. Scoundrel. Pervert. Narcissist. Sociopath. Traitor. Murderer.

And for the people, hopelessness prevailed.

My father was back then a young fisherman named Yonah who had travelled to the village from Bethsaida in Galilee with his young wife, Ahava to learn from Rivka. “Do not buy into the hopelessness,” Rivka admonished them. “It works to the oppressor’s advantage! Fight it!”

“But what can we do?” they asked.

“What do you do?” Rivka asked in reply.

“I am merely a fisherman!” Yonah told her.

“Then fish!” she encouraged him. “You know how to resource food,” then turning to Ahava, “you know how to clean and prepare it,” and she went on, “You can share that food with those in need! Feed the hungry! You can save lives and change the world! Do what you CAN!”

“But what of our rulers and their tax collectors? What is the plan?” Yonah asked her.

“YOU ARE THE PLAN!” Rivka darted back firmly. “YOU have the Power!” “YOU can help save the world!”

She went on, “Small mushroom dick Herod will cease to exist. He has to die someday! He is older now, and obsessed with his fear that no one will mourn his death, and I say he is right about that! To the contrary, we shall dance in the streets with glee when he is gone! So, you know what he’s done? He has issued an order that all of Judea’s wealthiest and most distinguished men will be summoned to Jericho at such time that he is dying, and once these men of power and influence are assembled, they will all be executed without warning at the exact moment of his death just to generate throughout the kingdom the immense emotional outcry and inordinate displays of grief that he craves!” And she spat.

Hopelessness. Rage. Fear. Grief. Pestilence. Terror. Distress. Anger. Woe.

These were the fruits of Herod’s Legacy. And it would continue to escalate and to get worse throughout his remaining years.

Young girls brought to Rivka their feelings of despair and anguish, wishing they could do something about it all, yet knowing that the way their government was structured, they had no voice and there was nothing to be done. This was not the democracy of Greece in which citizens had had a voice in their government for over five-hundred years. They would ask Rivka longingly, “But how can we overcome this? What is the plan!?” And Rivka would always proclaim to them, lovingly, firmly, and most assuredly, “YOU ARE THE PLAN!”

In spite of all she saw going on, Rivka encouraged the people in her village toward buoyant positivity! “The tyrant’s reign will end,” she assured them, “and then where will you be? Then, it will all be on you! And if you live downhearted, the failure of this great nation will be on your shoulders!”

“But…” the young people would begin to protest, and she would raise her hand and stop them.

“Your life is now! Those who have gone before you – look up in the sky! Those bright stars that you see are actually holes in the sky through which their bright souls look down upon you – they look to you for the hope of the world’s future! It is on your shoulders! YOU ARE THE PLAN! You must do what is right and live a fruitful optimistic life!” The young people would look up at the stars and they would ask her if those could really be souls.

“Every one of ‘em!” she would assure them. “Why? Have you never seen someone die? Their body evaporates and they transform into light – Pure Positive Energy! Their light ascends to the sky! And there they stay! I have seen it happen! Your source is not little mushroom dick Herod, nor is it any of the pathetic clowns posing as Dictators from here to Rome! Your source is Spirit!” Then she would add, “When oppressive dictators like him die, they evaporate into ash with a tiny pathetic puff of black smoke. They will have built nothing worthwhile. They will have given the world zilch – only taken from it! They did not shine in life, and they will not shine in death! They will just disappear! I am merely an old whore, and for myself I do not expect any kind of transformation into light! But You – you young people are the future! You are the voices we need to hear, and you are the shining lanterns by whose brilliance future generations will be guided! And the brightness of your Hasmonean ancestors and past generations that shimmer by way of the starlight above – they are here, always with you to guide you on your path! YOU ARE THE PLAN!”

And so it was that Rivka fought the king by teaching the people the importance of taking care of one another, of keeping themselves informed and of holding their leaders accountable, of Community, and of embracing their own power – she forbade the people to look outside themselves for a plan of action!  “YOU ARE THE PLAN!” She said it over and over again until they got it! They began to say it to one another. Asher painted this phrase on papyrus and posted these signs around the village. Yonah and Ahava brought it back to Galilee and spread the word there. They would have two sons, Andrew and me, and they would teach us to fish, to feed those less fortunate than ourselves, and to strive for a better world. And we would make one!

It was such a simple truth. It was a course of action. And action is the antidote for hopelessness. “Action before inspiration!” she would tell all those she taught. “Do not sit around and wait for inspiration! Take action and you will be inspired! Do not wait around for hope to dawn upon you! Make your own hope! It’s thrilling! Take action and you will feel hopeful! But always, always it must come from you! YOU ARE THE PLAN!”

People’s reaction to Herod’s long and evil reign, of course, was to curse Herod and his family (though his family too, suffered at his hand), and to curse Rome and to fight for something better or different or resist – and as Rivka was quick to agree, “Those things are important and they have their place, and Yes! Do them if you can! But the first order of business – the Plan, if you will – is to dissipate the pervading hopelessness, and firsthand, empowered as the creators that we are created to be, create the new world that we want to live in, NOW!” And Rivka would giggle delightedly and add, “…right under Herod’s nose!”

Oh, this change was not likely to take place overnight. It was not like unleavened bread, so quick to bake – this was more of a slow rise. Moments of light sparking here and there amidst a sea of dark despair, over the course of generations. Rivka toiled pretty much every day of her life to fight Herod’s totalitarian reign.  Then eventually, after so many years, Rivka fell ill. No one knew her exact age, but she had been around since the Hasmoneans! Asher took care of her and nursed her in her final days. Asher wore one of the dresses and some of the jewelry that she had given them, and she had bequeathed them all the rest. She told them, “You are So Beautiful! You have to know that! Ignore what people like your brother would have you be! You are BEAUTIFUL! Always celebrate yourself as you are! Live your fullest Life! Be You! For YOU ARE THE PLAN!”

These were her last words, for that cold late autumn night, some 39 years into the reign of Herod the Arab posing as King of the Jews, Rivka died. Her soul began to shimmer as it prepared to leave the body that had been the vessel of her occupation for such a long time. Asher witnessed the moment of her death, and it was something extraordinary, the likes for which they could never have been truly prepared. But haven’t we all experienced this when we have witnessed a Loved One dying? They don’t cease to exist, so much as transition into light – and we can feel that! It is made visible to us dependent upon our willingness to see it – demonstrable, quantifiable, if we look!  It happens to each and every one of us, but in this case, it was made so visible, so bright as it had never been before, and for Asher to see it up close was a life-changing event. The village talked about it for many years afterward; in fact, the whole world continues to celebrate it to this day! The glowing light of her soul levitated up, up, up, through the rooftop of her humble abode, and into the air… above the village and into the chilly night sky. As it rose above a hundred meters in the air, the entire village could see this light and it stopped everyone in their tracks. The message of this Stormy and Loving Light (for Love is often Stormy), was crystal clear: YOU ARE THE PLAN! Some claim to have heard this reminder proclaimed in Rivka’s very voice from the mysterious luminescence which continued to rise up, past the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, and exosphere… The light now burst forth as a shining star over Bethlehem!

An experience this grand would have surprised Rivka when she lived in the physical realm. Rivka was not what anyone would call successful by worldly standards — neither wealthy nor risen to prominence in imperial office, and as an unmarried woman her whole life, neither was she looked upon as successful in love.

She didn’t care, though. She had lived long enough without people’s approval.

Yet, despite all society’s reasonings, how she had lived, all she had given, how she treated others, her willingness to speak truth to power, her integrity, her candor — even when it made her exceedingly unpopular, even when the townspeople vilified her for it – all she said, all she put out into the world in her words, her behavior, her teachings, and her expressions of kindness… the energy that had been created by these actions ignited, and now burned blazingly bright! Although while she lived it, she did not think of her tale as one particularly destined for a happy ending, a life lived and created in this way is surely the greatest glory of the Lord, our Creator. Her Light shone in the sky that night!

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” [John 1:5]

“…And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them…” [Luke 2:8-20]

As you can see, (with the one exception of mentioning Mary’s presence) all that happened that night was written down a hundred years later and in a different language by men as if it were a story exclusively about men. There were plenty of women there, most of them educated and awakened by the one they called the town whore! Throughout the ages, tyrants have used the writings of various Holy Books to advance their own warmongering and suppressive agendas – against women and people of color and people of different sexualities or disabilities or genders — and to fool people into surrendering their allegiance. Sure, and did you think that with all that Jesus had to teach that there were only twelve apostles, that they all had White European Male names, and that there were no women involved in any of it?

Nevertheless, more than two millennia later, Rivka’s Stormy voice still rings so clear and true: YOU ARE THE PLAN!

Kings and sorcerers, mothers and daughters, women and men throughout many lands caught sight of Rivka’s light and they felt instantly humbled by the brilliance of this pure source energy shining so radiantly in the sky — there was something here to follow. And they stepped down from their thrones and came, bearing gifts, to worship the newborn King of the Jews – the true King! So many Kings from so many other lands understood that this was a greater king. Not Herod. Herod was an asshole!

Three of these Sorcerers and Kings came directly to the palace in the newly named Herodium on the West Bank and asked Herod, king to king, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him,” [Matthew 2:2] Herod, perhaps the only person in Judea who did not notice the star in the sky, and unsurprisingly feeling immediately and acutely threatened by their request, directed the Magi to Bethlehem, instructing them, “Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” [Matthew 2:8]

Yeah, right!

The Magi departed and Herod was alone. They left the palace perplexed that the King of Judea was such a rude and insulting buffoon! Yet, compassionate kings that they were, they understood the people’s need for a true leader – someone less of a bully! No one likes a bully! And they had hope for the one they went to see in Bethlehem. They journeyed onward.

Having heard why the Magi had arrived, Herod’s personal servants had all run for cover and were still nowhere to be found when they’d left! Herod paced the halls of the palace contemplating the many possible ways he might murder this newborn child. After all, he himself was King of the Jews! (Herod was not a Jew!!! This would be as if nowadays, someone whose values and way of living were completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ claimed themself to be King of the Christians – as if any Christians would follow a person like this! How could they not see through it!? Please tell me that could never happen! Please…)

Herod’s rabid and maniacal thoughts continued…This child was obviously an imposter! He wondered if the Magi might read between the lines of what he had asked of them and return with the child, surrendering it to him, bowing down to his authority as the only King of the Jews! Then he could behead them all. He hated other kings – other world leaders always reflected to him his own smallness – not because of anything they did, but just because seeing how it could be done by those who were good at it felt like it brought into sharp relief just how bad he was at it. So, he talked down to them, disrespected them, carped at them ordering them to say, “Thank You!” to him, and made fun of their national dress. Herod was an embarrassment to his nation! Still, perhaps he needed to go out right now and find this child and kill it. Perhaps he would kill all the children in the entire kingdom!

Feeling frustrated, he jumped naked into the chest of coins with his face on them to make himself feel very rich and to cheer himself up. But nothing was working to help him feel better. He lay awake all night, plotting.

Meanwhile, Rivka’s spirit appeared to the Magi in a dream – isn’t it remarkable how expansive our souls are and what we can do beyond the physical realm!? We are so much more powerful than we realize…No wonder we are the plan! And, regardless of what we may think or feel, we are enough! She warned the Magi to go back by a different route as Herod had by now already decreed his massacre and included these three kings in it.  Similarly, Rivka in her non-physical realm light energy appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him that the tyrant Herod intended to kill his newborn infant, so Joseph and his family fled to Egypt.

Rivka loved herself as Pure Source Energy, though she missed being able to spit to punctuate her criticism of authority figures.

Bullies are so easily threatened for they sit upon thrones of lies and deceit which are the weakest of foundations. When Herod realized he had been outwitted – which honestly, was not that hard to do — he erupted into a volcanic rage! He gave orders immediately to kill all Jewish baby boys, age two and under, all throughout Bethlehem and Judea. Could anyone who had been paying attention to Herod’s rule and the things he actually said over so many years be surprised by this order? His blitzkrieg became known as the “Massacre of the Innocents.” And his orders were carried out! Herod killed all the Jewish male babies. He even ordered the execution of his own son! Herod, posing as a Jew, would not kill pigs, but a mass murderer of humans, he had three of his own sons killed. Even Augustus, Herod’s Emperor buddy in Rome, is said to have remarked at this, “It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son!”

And oh, the mothers, how they mourned!

Only with the Massacre of the Innocents did some citizens finally come to realize what so many others could easily see so early on – this man was the personification of evil and he meant the exaggerated and seemingly hyperbolic things that he said. He was hell bent on destruction; and everything that he did was intended for no one’s good except his own. For some people, it was only when the blood of babies ran in the streets and the wailing lamentation of grieving young mothers in the village kept them awake all through the night that they began to comprehend the scope of his evil.

How does it take some people so long to see what is perfectly apparent to most of us from the start?

Joseph and his family wisely stayed in Egypt until Herod’s death, at which time, Rivka’s soul energy guided them to further safety, moving to Nazareth in Galilee. Their child would be raised there safely and throughout His life, He would preach a message of hope. Though Herod had died at last, his kingdom had been divided and was now under the rule of his three surviving sons from amongst his ten marriages – Yes, Ten! And one of these three sons, Herod Antipas, having now ascended to power in Galilee, would try this new King of the Jews some thirty years later and find him not guilty of any crime. He would have no idea that this was the exact child his father was trying to eliminate when he ordered every Jewish boy in the kingdom to be massacred. He would send this man to Pontius Pilate in Rome who would also find this one they called ‘King of the Jews’ not guilty of any crime that would warrant a death sentence. And yet, in spite of these just and unbiased declarations of innocence, some thirty years after Herod the Great had left this earth, he would get his wish, and Jesus would be put to death.

We are not alone in this! We are not abandoned! We can stand up, like Rivka, and educate those who are denied education – tell our stories, feed the hungry like Yonah and Ahava, clothe those who need warm clothing, make a change like Salome, speak out, resist tyranny before our children’s blood runs in the streets, make our voices heard, and bless everyone in our thought, word, and deed – for we are the plan! That is what we celebrate – and that is why we celebrate the spirit of this holiday — not just at Christmas, but the whole year through!

When Rivka transitioned into Pure Source Energy, she literally arose in the sky and became the light of the world! She bestowed her gleaming rays upon a child, and He became the light of the world to whom she led those who followed her light. Her energy shone throughout the land, and her radiant light gave a thrill of hope!

Perhaps the idea that we become stars would have seemed miraculous, even hyperbolic, at the time. It would be almost another two-thousand years before scientists would discover that every atom of oxygen in our lungs, of carbon in our muscles, of calcium in our bones, of iron in our blood – was created inside a star before the earth was born. We are literally made of stardust. So today, the idea that we return to stardust seems less farfetched. Back then, when the earth was young and curious and way less was taken for granted, miracles seemed somehow more miraculous.

Yet even today, in spite of thronging cynicism and overstimulation rendering us barely able to notice them, miracles continued to abound…they shine in our lives every day.

The shepherd boys, Amir and Asher had not spoken in a long time. Yet, after having been bathed in the shining light of the star, they felt a thrill of hope.

“It’ll be okay!” Amir told Asher. He commented on the jeweled bracelet, nodding, “That’s really nice! It looks good on you!” And he hugged his twin – they held that hug for a long, long time. In the weeks and months that followed, together they took action. They shore their sheep, and Asher dyed the wool and wove blankets and warm clothing of the most magnificent patterns and colors. The palaces showed great demand for these, and the siblings were able to sell them at very high prices. They invested their profits in the Community and created opportunities for people. The very best of the blankets and warm clothing that they made they saved for the poorest people, giving those items away so that kings would not have anything better than the poorest of the poor. It was exactly what Jesus as a devout Jew had come here to teach and it was already happening right here in Judea. His teaching would be that people in power piss God off with their big show of so-called “religion,” when they are so corrupt in their actions! Our responsibility is to care for the most vulnerable in society. This was the world that Asher and Amir decided that they wanted to live in, so they created it! Asher taught Amir, as Rivka had taught them, that we are the plan!

Salome, now an orphan and a mother of two sons, had lived with the guilt of having brought children into this world where such corruption ruled, and in which her own father naively yet obstinately supported a system in which the wealthy few determined the quality of life for the many. It was exactly the system that Jesus came to warn us against.

That magical and transformative night of Jesus’ birth, Salome heard a voice say, “You are the plan!” She felt a sudden rush – a thrill of hope — from the light of that star, and she was compelled to take action. All she had was her education, and she had hidden that, as her father had made her feel such shame about it. That night, she sat down with her baby boy John, opened up, and began teaching and encouraging him in new ways. Raised in this way, John went on to teach and preach and tell his stories which over time were written down as one of the Gospels, three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation expanding the Christian Bible to a New Testament. One of the very first things he preached was from the core of his life experience: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  John and Jesus unquestionably shared such a deep and special love. Even a hundred years later when it was all written down in a different language, their relationship was still being described with John as “the disciple that Jesus loved.” And he was. They were. I saw it. Salome, John’s fragile yet loving mother, made the gift of that loving relationship possible through the simple action of encouraging her son every day to tell his stories and live his life out loud! Out of this grew the Johannine school which continued after his death, eventually wrote it all down, and set in motion miracles that affect the world to this day, influencing how we think and our experience of all that we know about the life of Jesus. Once Salome stopped waiting around for someone else to figure out what to do, and recognized that she was, in fact, the plan, a thrill of hope ignited a new world.

My brother Andrew and I were simple fishermen — the sons of Yonah and Ahava from Bethsaida in Galilee. Our parents had met Rivka years before and she had awakened them to focusing their simple lives as part of the plan for a better world! Awakened by a thrill of hope that night that the star shone in the sky, Andrew, though merely a child, came to believe there was something more. As he grew up, he went out and searched for it. In due course, Andrew followed John the Baptist who believed and preached that a better world would not come from kings nor any worldly grifters posing as world leaders, but from among the people. “You are the plan” was John the Baptist’s message, as well.

Jesus, John, Andrew and I– we were all among what the Herodian government referred to as the expendables. We were the nobodies. But getting baptized by John, we could hear God’s voice tell us that we were “Beloved!”

Once he had fully embraced that idea and had begun living it, Andrew met Jesus. He could not wait to introduce me to his compelling new friend. My name was Simon, but Jesus renamed me, “Peter” – the rock, and I like to believe that was meant as a compliment. He made me walk on water – no, literally! And I almost drowned! He taught me forgiveness by forgiving me for denying Him three times right when the Roman authorities were putting Him to death. Although He was a devout Jew, He taught us all that we could let go of the letter of the law (The conservative leaders like Herod and his descendants were all about the letter of the law and used it with gusto to punish people!), and we needed to embrace, instead, the spirit of the law.  This lesson was for us, the people! And in this, He gave me the keys to the kingdom. These keys, of course, were about creating a world in which there is no hierarchy, where we are all meant to love and to forgive and to speak up for the expendables! All that happened from there, all that was done, an entire faith, and what, over time, grew into the world’s largest religion — arose out of this simple message, “You are the plan!”

All it took for the world to get as far as it has gotten today was the willingness, in the darkest of times, for us to embrace hope and to take action. And it’s a really good world, and it’s worth saving! …over and over again!

Had no one tapped into that willingness, it would have been Herod’s legacy that survived, not Jesus’ – the tyrant would have had his way, and to this day, he would be the one we remember, and the one so many people worship. But the people chose differently.

So, that is not how it all played out! Many of the details of Herod’s life chronicled here (and only a surprisingly few of these have been embellishments) have been long forgotten and today are almost completely ignored. As Rivka predicted, these dictatorial morons — they evaporate into a tiny pathetic puff of black smoke. They build nothing worthwhile. They neither shine in life, nor in death! They do their damage and ultimately, they just disappear!

In the midst of such a bleak landscape, the people looked up in the sky and saw a bright shining star. Like grace, there was nothing they had to do to earn this thrill of hope. It was given. All we needed to do was to open ourselves to receive it.

None of us can afford to be passive in a situation like this in which our own government threatens us and the world. We must take action. Opening oneself to a thrill of hope in whatever form it may come is an action. Beyond that, whatever you have to offer, offer it – offer it Now! Offer it Abundantly! And offer it with your full heart and soul to all of the people around you – the people that your government considers expendables: the refugees, the immigrants, the elderly, the poor, the widows and children, the disabled, the infirm, Trans and LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, people of color, women – all told, most of us… Do not let the government have say over the world you wish to live in! Create it! There is a plan to create that world of which you dream. YOU are that plan!

And so, even as so many did on that night more than two thousand years ago, in the face of tyranny, oligarchy, and a troubled world, let us open ourselves to a thrill of hope.

YOU ARE THE PLAN!