We celebrated Sukkot yesterday and I’m shameless enough that I wanted to post my content for the morning. As an addendum to this whole idea – it bears remarking that there are many who believe that Jesus based the so-called Lord’s Prayer on the Jewish Kaddish. If you read the Kaddish, it’s pretty clear that that is entirely possible and probable, especially since He considered himself a rabbi or teacher.  It makes me wonder what else we are missing from our understanding of our faith?
Without further adieu ….
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The weather is starting to turn and FINALLY we are beginning to be able to wear our jeans again WITH socks and shoes. I’ve been loving the rainy days and the crock pot has been going non-stop in my kitchen … pot roast, chili, jambalaya … the foods of fall and winter. I can feel the season turning and I love it. On an e-list list I’m on, someone mentioned apple cider donuts … and I became insanely jealous.
Everywhere you look, the leaves are beginning to change color and from our CSA farm we are getting fall vegetables. Those vegetables one associates with “harvest.†Squash … acorn squash, crookneck squash and (a new one for me) cheese wheel squash. Pumpkin stands are appearing on road sides. Children are plotting their Halloween attire. We are going to have Mr. Spock trick or treating … on the home front our front stoop in going to be transformed into an abandoned house and LightGirl into a crazed old lady handing out candy to poor little children. I believe the plot also includes some whipped cream to turn our beloved Sam into a rabid beasty.
It is the season of harvest. Bringing in the sheaves. Gathering together the fruits of the labor of spring and summer and reveling in them, whilst simultaneously squirreling them away so that there will be something to eat during the short cold days of January, February and March.
Aesop had a fable for this time of year immortalizing the ant and the grasshopper. Pixar made a movie of it lionizing the ant’s behavior and vilifying the grasshopper. Short sighted. Ill-prepared. Unwilling to work. Wanting others to care for him while he played around. He was shown as a bully of sorts.
Yet, these are precisely the paradoxes that Sukkot asks us to examine. Sukkot is a festival which sets the things we imagine to be holy on their ear. We normally consider vows of poverty to be holy, yet Sukkot celebrates material wealth. We of often consider those with large well-established homes to be “good stewards†of the things God has given them, yet Sukkot asks us to celebrate in shaky, leaky temporary structures. We consider that a large harvest is a blessing from God, yet Sukkot asks us to celebrate God’s daily blessing, his daily Bread, his daily life’s sustenance for us. Our culture (both secular and saintly) celebrates the ant, yet Sukkot asks us to celebrate the grasshopper.
As a harvest festival, Sukkot incorporates frank recognition and celebration of material goods. Jewish tradition sees material possessions as a necessary but not sufficient basis for spiritual fulfillment. As Maimonides writes: “The general purpose of the Torah is twofold: the well-being of the soul and the well-being of the body. The well-being of the soul is ranked first but … the well-being of the body comes first.” The well-being of the soul is more important, but the well-being of the body comes first, for it is the context for spiritual development. Thus, appreciation and enjoyment of material things is a legitimate spiritual concern. It all depends on how it is done. Prosperity frees the individual for personal development; but worshiped or made absolute, wealth disrupts personal growth.
In many ways, Sukkot has become the model for this worldly enjoyment, which is why it is called the time of rejoicing. The depth of the joy also grows out of its relationship to Yom Kippur. Sukkot comes just four days after Yom Kippur, the most ascetic, self-denying, guilt-ridden, awesome holy day of the Jewish year. On the Day of Atonement, Jews reenact their own death, only to be restored to life in the resolution of the day. Only those who know the fragility of life can truly appreciate the full preciousness of every moment. The release from Yom Kippur leads to the extraordinary outburst of life that is Sukkot. On this holiday, Jews are commanded to eat, drink, be happy, dance, and relish life to the fullest in celebrating the harvest and personal wealth.
But making joy holy means being selective in the enjoyment of God’s gifts, not worshiping those gifts or those who own them. The first and foremost expression of this insight is to share the bounty and the joy, especially with the poor. From “Joy As A Religious Obligation”
If Sukkot is meant to relive (in some fashion) the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert, then one would think that the festival would be tied in some manner to Pesach (or Passover). But Sukkot is more than an encore of Passover. On Passover, Jews restage the great event of liberation. Sukkot celebrates the way of liberation–the march across a barren desert to freedom and the Promised land.
Passover celebrates a brave departure through a festive meal. Sukkot marks the hasty lunches and the endless wandering in the desert. Sukkot expresses the deeper Exodus–the reflective, gritty days of marching, during which a new generation grew up. Freedom came as the end result of pitching tents (booths) and taking them down over the course of 14,600 days. Sukkot honors the forty-three thousand meals prepared on the desert trek, the cleanups, the washing of utensils. Passover celebrates a moment of pure triumph. Sukkot celebrates a seemingly endless 40-year journey. Passover is the holiday of faith; Sukkot is the holiday of faithfulness. (From “First Liberation, Then What?”)
Sukkot celebrates daily life. It celebrates the monotony of snails trails of snot on a child’s sleeves, the taking in of families to homes of introverts, the hard daily work of daily life for which there are no awards or rewards. The monotony of breakfasts, lunches and dinners made for no other reason than to keep body and soul together. The trudging through the desert that was done by the Israelites for 40 long years. I can hear the children whining now, “Manna, aaaaaagain! When do we get some meat???”
I believe that Jesus lived a life that embodied the values of Sukkot. He understood the frailties of his human frame. He understood that those very frailties demanded a daily, even momentary, dependence upon his Father. He spoke of them, and he taught them rigorously to his followers. We read of them when he told his followers to go out with nothing but a cloak and leave nothing but their peace behind. This dependence allowed Him to be present and in the moment with whomever He was with in such a deep manner that when a woman touched the hem of his robes in the midst of a crowd He was immediately aware of it.
He taught those values even in the prayer he taught us to say … “give us this day our DAILY bread.” We Christians tend to make this very ephemeral and intellectual, talking about Jesus being the bread of eternal life and nattering on about it. In this way we are able to keep this at an arm’s length. But I think Jesus was talking about some very real stuff here. He was telling us to thank God every day, every, every, EVERY day for our daily bread … for our manna that He will provide. To be glad and rejoice in it. That no matter how small or how great, it will be enough.
So, my question for us is, how do we be present in this way? How do we, who know so well how to celebrate ants, learn how to become joyful grasshoppers? How do we drop back a step or two or three and learn how to become present for God and our loved ones? Take joy in the daily tasks for which there are no rewards?
We’re going to take some time today to practice this a little. There are cards on your tables with Scripture that is pertinent to understanding how to live in the present and depend on God for His provision. We’re going to spend some time discussing those Scriptures with each other with the following stipulations. When each person is talking, those who are listening must try to be fully present without thinking about what they are going to do this afternoon, how they would answer the speaker, what they really think about the Scripture. Just listen to what s/he is saying. Then respond if you have something to say. At the end of this time, we’ll close the service with our Eucharist.
