Wishing for peace on Earth

What’s on your Christmas/holiday wish this year?

This past year has given us much to think about. On a personal level, we all experienced our individual triumphs and sorrows.

History, however, will record this year as one where people across the world tried to recover from one massive disaster after another, such as the Asian tsunami that struck in the final days of last year, hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the earthquakes that struck in Iran and Pakistan.

The magnitude of these events and the loss of life, not to mention damage to property, are simply unbelievable.

As a rabbi, I’m often asked to explain natural disasters and I find it very hard to do so.

To explain why evil people perpetrate horrific crimes is straightforward -- it is simply a case of man exercising his freedom of choice. How do we explain an act of God when there is massive destruction?

The answer is we shouldn’t spend our time trying to figure out why people are suffering, we should instead roll up our shirt-sleeves and do all that we can to alleviate the suffering.

So, as we approach the year 2006, my prayer is that humanity should suffer no more.

I would like to paraphrase a Jewish prayer, over 2,500 years old, which the high priest would recite on Yom Kippur in the ancient temple of Jerusalem:

“May it be your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that this coming year shall be for us and for all people, wherever they are, a year of light; a year of blessing; a year of rejoicing; a year of glory; a year of good assembly; a year of song; a year of delight, a year of goodness, a year of Deliverance; a year of sustenance; a year of learning; a year of tranquillity; a year of comfort; a year of joy; a year of exultation; a year of redemption; a year of jubilation; a year that we may hold our head high; a year of acceptance of our prayers; a year goodwill; a year of plenty; a year of good life. “

Above all, I wish for peace, lasting peace for all mankind.

RABBI SIMCHA BACKMAN

Chabad Center

I wish that the war in Iraq would come to an end and we could bring our troops home.

In my last sermon of 2002, before we invaded Iraq, I said it would be a happy new year for me if we did not go to war. My position hasn’t changed; I want that war to end, and the sooner we leave there, the better.

This is the Christmas season, and I must confess that I had some pre-Christmas blues earlier in the month. When I tried to figure out why I was not my usual cheerful self, I realized that one of the things keeping my spirits less than bright was the war. Isn’t it good that Saddam is no longer in power? Of course.

And isn’t it good that the most recent election there occurred with so much promise?

Of course.

But how much more blood of our young people will we spill there? We’re already at 2,000-plus, and that number doesn’t take into account our physically maimed and mentally wounded soldiers.

And how about all the Iraqis whom we have killed and wounded? The president put the death toll at 30,000 the other day, but I have heard from such programs as the McLaughlin Group that that number is much higher. What is tops on my Christmas wish list? Oh, God, please end this war!

THE REV. C. L. “SKIP”

LINDEMAN

Congregational Church

of the Lighted Window

United Church of Christ

La Cañada Flintridge

We wish for the unity and agreement of religions, the unity of mankind and for all to realize the oneness of God. We wish to know and love God, and to help carry forward an ever advancing civilization. And we wish you all a peaceful, joyful, and a happy holiday.

BARBARA CRAMER

Secretary

Baha’i Faith

Glendale

Like most people, I have a handful of ongoing Christmas wishes. Hopefully they’re not too selfish! I pray that my church would be a caring group that helps people to follow Jesus. I pray that God’s hand of favor would be with my family.

I pray that I would know Jesus more and serve Him with greater effectiveness and obedience.

But in the spirit of the Christmas season, I would put at the top of my list the wish that every dear reader of our In Theory column would experience the joy of personally knowing Jesus Christ.

“And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11).

Joy is the opposite of pessimism and despair. It is eternally grounded in the fact that God loves every person in this world and “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10).

This joy triumphs over every negative circumstance in our lives. Thirty-three years after His birth, the women at Jesus’ tomb were filled with “great joy” when they realized that He had risen from the dead.

May the joy of knowing and following this risen Lord Jesus Christ be yours this Christmas.

PASTOR JON BARTA

Valley Baptist Church

Burbank

My knee-jerk wish would be that the jolly red Saint do as his ancient legend had him, and toss a bag of currency down a chimney to aid a poor man and his family. Specifically (this time around) the smokestack of the agency that holds the note on my student loans, with an attachment instructing the bank president to pay off my account!

Now that would be a special Christmas gift for me.

On the other hand, the occupation for which that educational debt accrued has provided me the opportunity to fulfill a long-standing wish to better know ultimate truth and to share and champion that transforming knowledge for the sake of Jesus Christ (the absolute focus of all Christmas festivities).

It’s His entrance into the world that matters most at this time, and it’s allegiance to him that matters always.

It would be my wish that Christians recognize the spiritual war that is raging against the very notion of celebrating the birth of this one-and-only God-man, and make every moment count toward the defense of the Faith throughout the following months till this time again arrives. Perhaps our slack witness has brought us to this precarious place where we and our Christmas Gospel are becoming dispensable in the mind of our lukewarm nation.

I wish for people to know that because of sin, the Kris Kringle (“Christ Child” from the German, believe it or not) came to save, if only individuals would wisely receive him like those who followed his star did two millennia ago. On my immediate list, I would wish that my readers join with me tomorrow at Light On The Corner, and celebrate the Savior’s birth at our 10:45 a.m. worship service.

Better yet, everyone come between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and I’ll personally cook you a Christmas breakfast beforehand!

Merry Christ-mas to all!

THE REV. BRYAN GRIEM

Senior Pastor

Light On The Corner

Montrose

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