Hannukkah

Sermon given at Grace UMC 12/6/15

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  1 Maccabees 4:52 Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year, ⁵³ they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had built. ⁵⁴ At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. ⁵⁵ All the people fell on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. ⁵⁶ So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burnt offerings; they offered a sacrifice of well-being and a thanksgiving offering. ⁵⁷ They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the gates and the chambers for the priests, and fitted them with doors. ⁵⁸ There was very great joy among the people, and the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed. ⁵⁹ Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.

Hanukkah begins today at sundown and continues until sundown on Monday December 14^th. Today we are going to explore what the celebration is about and why we too should celebrate this Jewish holiday. But first, a little Hanukkah humor:

A Tree for Christmas

Admiring the Christmas trees displayed in his neighbor’s windows, Nathan asks his father, 'Daddy, can we have a Hanukkah Tree?'

'What? No, of course not.' says his father.

'Why not?' asks Nathan again?

Bewildered, his father replies, 'Well, Nathan, because the last time we had dealings with a lighted bush we spent 40 years in the wilderness.'

Rudi, The Village Rabbi: A Short Joke to Laugh At

It was Hanukkah and the tiny village outside Budapest in Hungary was frightened that they may not have any latkes [pancakes] because they had run out of flour.

Rudi, the Rabbi, was called upon to help solve the problem. He said, 'Don't worry, you can substitute matzo meal for the flour, and the latkes will be just as delicious.'

Sarah looks to her husband and says, 'Samuel, you think it'll work?'

'Of course,' Samuel replies, 'Everybody knows Rudolph the Rab knows grain, dear.'

The Top Ten Reasons Why

Everyone Should Celebrate  Hanukkah

 10  No big, fat guy getting stuck in your chimney

 9  Cleaning wax off your menorah is slightly easier  than dismantling an 8-foot tall fir tree

 8  Compare: chocolate gelt vs. fruitcake

 7  You get to learn cool new words like "Kislev" and  "far-shtoonken-ah"

 6  No brutal let-down when you discover the truth about Santa Claus

 5  Your neighbors are unlikely to complain about how  your menorah is blinding them senseless

 4  It's like a big reunion when everyone gathers at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve

 3  In a holiday character face-off, Judah Macabee could  kick Frosty's butt

 2  No need to clean up big piles of reindeer poop off  your roof

 And the Number One reason why everyone should  celebrate Hanukkah is:

 None of that Naughty-Nice Stuff EVERYONE GETS LOOT!!!

First we need to explain to those who are a little confused about where this scripture comes from. It comes from the book of 1st Maccabees which is in the Apocryphal, an addition to the Bible. These books were in the original English translations and were removed during the reformation because they are not part of the Old Hebrew Bible. They were in fact books that were included in the Latin version of the Old Hebrew Bible that we done around the 1st century to make the Hebrew Bible available to the Greek and Roman folks of that day. Included are a number of works like the story of the Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, another version of Daniel and Nehemiah among others. If you have never read the Books of the Apocryphal they are worth the reading and are included in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. I have included the reading as an insert in your bulletin so you could follow along.

The Maccabees lived during the reign of Alexander the Great and after up until the time of Christ. There may well be descendants of the Maccabean family still in the world today. Mattathias was a priest in the time of Antiochus IV. Antiochus IV was the son of Antiochus III who was one of the generals under Alexander the Great. When Alexander the Great died, he took control of the land we now call the Middle East which included the lands of Israel. Under Antiochus IV, life for the Jews was difficult at best. He imposed laws that made being a Jew illegal. Imagine with me for a moment that all of a sudden it was illegal to be a Christian. You could no longer worship at a church, they were closed down, you could no longer carry a Bible, they were burned, and you could no longer practice the disciplines of your belief. In 168 B.C.E. the Jewish Temple was seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of the god Zeus. This upset the Jewish people, but many were afraid to fight back for fear of reprisals. Then in 167 B.C.E. the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus made the observance of Judaism an offense punishable by death. He also ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods. Jewish resistance began in the village of Modiin, near Jerusalem. Greek soldiers forcibly gathered the Jewish villages and told them to bow down to an idol, then eat the flesh of a pig – both practices that are forbidden to Jews. All of this 160 plus years before Jesus is born. Some believe that this is the desecration that John is referring to in his Revelation.

In 167 BCE, Mattathias was told to worship the Greek Gods and refused. He was told to make a sacrificial offering and when he refused another person attempted to do it for him. That action led to a revolution. Mattathias and his five sons led a revolt against the forces of Greece under Antiochus IV. Maccabee literally means hammer. Judas or Judah, one of the sons of Mattathias continued the battle after his father’s death. In 164 BCE they were victories and removed the Greek forces from all of Israel. Peace would last for them until 63 BCE when Rome would come and conquer again the nation of Israel. Just a side note, the calendar that the writer is using is the Syrian Calendar of that day. After removing the Greeks from Israel soil, the Maccabees set about returning the Temple to God. They cleansed it of all of the desecration and put back the requirements of God for the Temple in Jerusalem. Once that was done, they again dedicated the Temple and began worship there.

It is here that the story of Hanukkah, which means dedication, begins. It is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight day and nights and as I said earlier, it begins today at sundown. Once the Maccabees had regained control they returned to the Temple in Jerusalem. By this time it had been spiritually defiled by being used for the worship of foreign gods and also by practices such as sacrificing swine. Jewish troops were determined to purify the Temple by burning ritual oil in the Temple’s menorah for eight days. But to their dismay, they discovered that there was only one day's worth of oil left in the Temple. They lit the menorah anyway and to their surprise the small amount of oil lasted the full eight days. This is the miracle of the Hanukkah oil that is celebrated every year when Jews light a special menorah known as a hanukkiyah for eight days. One candle is lit on the first night of Hanukkah, two on the second, and so on, until eight candles are lit. This is the celebration of lights and is part of the annual Jewish traditions celebrated each year. God was watching what they were doing and the candles stayed lit for eight days. Eight days on one’s day supply of oil. It took eight days to get new oil and the candles in the Temple stayed lit until then. Praise be to God!

As we celebrate this Jewish tradition we need to be reminded of the miracles of God. God is constantly doing miracles in the world around us, every day. I believe we should celebrate this tradition to remind us that God loves us and to put ourselves in a place where we expect to see the miracles of God at work. Hanukkah happens in late November or early December and coincides with the celebration of Christmas for the Christian community. God is constantly working in the world around us. God is working in each of our lives. We know that Prevenient Grace, the love of God begins to work in us from the moment we are conceived and stays with us until the last breath we take. God desires us to be in relationship with God. I believe that God rewards those who share in that desire. Hanukkah is an example of God’s love and grace when the people are trying to lift up God in praise and thanksgiving.

We have so much to be thankful for as we continue this journey of Advent. We have great things to anticipate as we march down towards Christmas day when we celebrate the gift of God through Jesus. Let us lift up our hearts to the Lord during these days of Hanukkah, remembering the miracle of light from God in Israel. But let us lift up our hearts to the Lord during this season of Advent as we share in the grace and mercy of God through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.