Today I get to preach. Well, I’m the content-provider. Or the person in the charge of the “non-sermonic exploration.” Whatever we call it at Common Table, I’m the person servin’ it up this morning. Hot and yummy. With just a little cinnamon and sugar so that it tastes good. More or less …….. photos of the whole service are here.

As we’ve been exploring the Jewish holidays and our Jewish heritage it has occurred to me that Jesus did not come to create a new religion. I’ve been doing a lot of studying about what it means to be Jewish and learning a lot about the holidays and theology of Judaism. And Jesus came to bring a new convenant and new life and many other things, but I don’t think a new religion was part of his plan. I think that’s what happened when men and women got involved. So while today is the third Sunday in Advent which we are celebrating. And it’s the third day of Hannukah, which we are also celebrating. It feels very right to me that we are weaving them together somehow and celebrating them together. That this is more in line with God’s original plan somehow than what we normally celebrate.

How many stories of the small winning against the mighty can we think of? (actual question to invite audience participation … )

1. David vs. Goliath
2. Frodo v. Sauron
3.
4.
5.

Generally speaking, the small don’t win. It’s hard to think of real life versions of the little guy who wins out. Are there any in this list? Did we think of any? We always root for the underdog. S/he often wins in the movies. But in real life … not so much. It can happen. But it’s so very, very rare … a sparkling diamond winking at us from the coal heap of history.

We’re going to look at one of those moments that wink at us this morning. It continues to wink at us and glisten year after year, reminding us with lights that God keeps His promises. That He stood by the small, the indigent, the slaves, and the poor in the past, in the present and in the future … now and until the end of the age.

Hannukah is a unique holiday. It’s rather unlike the Jewish high holidays we celebrated earlier this fall. Those holidays had been clearly marked, determined by the Torah, set aside by words of Hashem. The times, the seasons, the prayers, the celebrations … all determined and organized by God.

On the other hand, Hannukah is a holiday in which the times, the seasons, prayers and celebrations have been determined and organized by the rabbis. So it is one of the group of holidays referred to as a rabbinic holiday. It is a holiday which commemorates and gives thanks for the great things that God has done for the people of Israel. But it was not set apart for them by God. This will become an important distinction … but for now we have a story to tell.

One of the best known symbols of Chanukah is the Dreidel. A dreidel is a four sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side.

The four letters are:

SHIN, HEY, GIMEL, NUN

These letters mean “A Great Miracle Happened There.”In Israel the dreidel is a bit different in that their letters mean ” A Miracle Happened HERE!”

Once upon a time in a land that is far away with scrubby pines and not so much water lived a people who were small in stature, but large in spirit. They had been given the land by their Great Father in a time that was not forgotten, but had long since passed. They had many tales of a time when the Great Father had walked closely with them. Times when He had come to save them. Many believed it was He who had created this very earth and all which was upon it.

When the Great Father gave His people the land He also gave them a few rules by which to live. Actually there were 10. The Great Father loved his people. Sometimes they loved him back. Sometimes they didn’t do such a good job of following his rules. Sometimes they turned their faces from him entirely.

After many, many years of dancing with His people like this the Great Father continued to dance. He continued to seek after His people. They continued to run away and then turn around and run back. They didn’t seem to really know what they wanted. They were a fickle bunch. In the beginning, they followed the rules very very well and even built a beautiful building in which the Great Father could rest when He wished. It held all the best treasures they could find. The walls were lined with gold and precious stones. All of the fixtures were made of the finest materials. Even the lamps held oil that was finest, purest oil that ever was made. It took eight days to make the oil. Then it was sealed in special beautiful bottles with a seal stamped by the most important men in the building … just to make sure it was the real thing.

Sometimes though, even the best fathers take too long to make their promises come true. This seemed to be the case with these people. They loved their Great Father to be sure. But he seemed to be taking too long with certain of his promises. Like the promise He made that there would rise up among them a king of the whole world. What seemed to be happening was that empire after empire ran over their little piece of land, with its scrubby pines and very little water. At one time it had flowed with milk and honey, now they struggled to pasture their sheep and goats.

In their main city a group arose who thought it might be best to begin to do things the way the latest empire did things. This doesn’t seem bad, but it meant turning their back on some of the ways that were important to the Great Father. It meant snubbing Him. It meant defiling his house of rest, and not cleaning it for many, many years. This group began small both in numbers and in tactics. But as they gained momentum they gained numbers and they did more and more daring feats that snubbed the Great Father. Until at last there were only a few of the people clinging to the old ways and to the love of their Great Father. The final stroke came when laws were passed which outlawed the old ways and enshrined the new “modern” religion as good. No one seemed to care that the Great Father who had loved them, who had saved them and who had shown them mercy for years and years and years throughout tens of generations was being left behind in the dirt.

It turned out, though, that there were a few. Those brave few stood up to the many when they came to the town and required a repugnant sacrifice on the altar of the Great Father. When a more timid soul stepped forward to comply, he was cut down in revolt at the requirement. Soldiers were sent to quell this outbreak, but though it lasted three years and the numbers were tiny, the force of the soldiers could not put it out. In the end, the Maccabees won back Judea for the Great Father. They regained the Temple and it’s surrounding environs in Jerusalem. They purified it again and in so doing found the menorah (lamp) but only one flask of oil.

This presented them with a conundrum. For once lit, the lamp must not be allowed to burn out. However, it could not be filled with anything other than the speciallly prepared oil which took 8 days to prepare. There was only oil for one day available. The Maccabees in a step of the faith that won them Jerusalem, stepped again and lit the lamp, and light burned for 8 days while new oil was prepared.

That light became for them the reminder that the Great Father who seemed to desert them, had in fact, been with them all along. While many had been unfaithful, He had been faithful. He had remained near his house of rest. He had remained near his people and walked with them, even when they turned their faces away from Him.

So every year at this time, they (we) re-light those lights to remember that faithfulness. To be thankful for His faithfulness and to remind themselves to be faithful even when it appears that the Great Father is not. The lights are a reminder of miracles long ago and miracles for today. They are a reminder that the Great Father still walks with us, that he keeps his promises to us even in the humblest of places, and in the most surprising ways ….

Mary runs in here …. with the Magnificat reworked as for today’s teens

“….Okay, Okay….I know this sounds crazy, and it’s pretty out there, but just hear me out.
I can’t begin to describe how amazing this is, but I’ve been saved by God!

He saw me struggling here on earth so he sent an angel to me! Yeah, that’s right an angel, you might get advice from a friend, but I got an angel. And he told me from now on people will know MY NAME because God has been thinking about me and is going to do awesome things in my life! He will always do awesome things for those that remember Him.

Listen, I’ve realized some pretty wicked stuff about this God guy, He’s not like anyone else you will ever meet;

He always is gonna be there for you, just wanting to be with you. He’s not like those conceited jocks; he so real and just down to earth

He always sticks up for the little guy and will keep the jerks in line.

He’s a giver to the outcasts, and uncool.
But He’s turned away the popular, arrogant guys

He helped out Israel, by remembering us and remembering to be understanding
to Abraham and his children forever and ever — just like He promised he would!

God always keeps his promises….”

What! What’s this you say? You have been visited by an angel? What did he tell you? Tell us again, please? What are you saying?

Wow … and yet again we are reminded that the Great Father, our Great Father, has not forgotten us. He remains merciful. He has sent our king. Our saviour. These lights are reminder to us that we have choices to make. Like Mary.

Mary was handed her lunch. By an angel. By all the rules and regulations she should have been stoned at the city gate in Jerusalem as an adulteress. Joseph didn’t have many choices either. Neither of them was facing a lovely future with her being pregnant before the consummation of their vows. Just how many people in this room believe this little story concocted here about an angel visiting this teenager? Yah … that.

But Mary remembered. She remembered the promises. She remembered who God is and who God was. She remembered the lights of Hannukah. She remembered how many times God stood behind the little people and caused them to win. And she sang a song of praise and protest. She stood up and claimed God. A little girl, from a little town in a little land took on the empire. Because she had God at her back.

She remembered her fathers and mothers who had seen the Temple ravaged and not seen the destruction, but seen God’s promises. She remembered her mothers and fathers who had seen Pharaoh, and not seen his power, but God’s might. She remembered her fathers and mothers who seen empires come and go, but God remained. The tyrants might make life here difficult for the little guy, but she tells us that God has our back. He has made promises and He will keep them; He is keeping them; He did keep them.

That is the beauty of Hannukah. That is the beauty of the Magnificat. They help us to remember that we always have a choice in how we look at the world. We can see the Temple as it was when the Maccabees retook it … defiled, destroyed, denuded and debased. OR we can see it with the eyes of God: beautiful, whole, perfect, filled with potential. We can see with the eyes of Mary’s family … adulteress, loser, defiled, debased. OR we can see with eyes of God: beautiful, whole, perfect, filled with potential.

We can see a family of three with the eyes of the world: adulteress, no father, no home, loser, defiled, debased. Or we can choose to see them with the eyes of God: beautiful, whole, perfect, filled with potential.

Most of us get the things of God confused. But there are a few who manage to see the diamonds winking out of the coal. Most of us see the world through the lens of what is. But there are a few who manage to see what could be. Most of us see giants in the land. But there are a few who manage to see milk and honey..

So … what if life really were like a hockey game. What if there were refs who would call time outs and do overs and you could just knock someone’s block off and then take your time in the penalty box when you saw an injustice being done? What if, finally, justice were really blind … and the big guys were going to get what was coming to them. What if … we could count on Sauron losing … in real life? What if we could finally put it all to bed … and know that the likes of Saddam Hussein would be out of business without hundreds of thousands of others losing their lives in the meanwhile. Or that wars would really be fought over human rights. So that the lives of dark skinned people were really valuable even when their land wasn’t.

Mary sang of all those things … and more. She dared to imagine a world where Herod could not be in charge because God remembered the promises he’d made in Isaiah. To Mary, a new king was about to be born. A political king. The kind of king that would give Herod a thump on the head and send him to the penalty box for all the wrongs he had done. Whereas the Maccabees had stood up and taken control for themselves, now God was truly stepping in and sending the long awaited Mesioch. The Redeemer, the savior. And Mary sang a song of dissent. She sang a song to tell Herod that his time had come, to tell all the Herods, small and large, that their time was up. The time had come for the scales of justice to be set right.. For the hungry to have food and the poor to have a place to lay their heads and the sick to be well.

As it turned out though, Mary had it right in some parts but wrong in others. God did remember us, He **was** keeping his promises and He was sending His son. His redeemer, a Savior. But as Mary learned and we continue to learn, God’s ways are not our ways and He does not think the way we think. We see giants in the land, but He sees it flowing with milk and honey. We see the roots and where, how and when we are going to stub our toes, but He sees the tree tops. If we will follow Him, trust Him for the journey He will dispense with the bullies, the Herods, the giants, the Greeks … the little people will win occasionally. We might not recognize it. We have to have our God-eyes on to see it.

We must ask God for that shift in perspective to be able to view His Kingdom today. To be able to see the world as Mary did … taking a cataclysmic shameful estate and knowing it to be the provision of God for her and her people.

So, today, we light the candles and remember:

SHIN, HEY, GIMEL, NUN

A great miracle happened there.

A great miracle continues to happen … each day within each of us as we follow God. As we seek His Kingdom here and now and maybe not yet. A great miracle happens as we open our hearts to Him and learn to see the world with His eyes. As we see people not for what they can do, but for who they are … God’s beloved creation. As we walk beside them for a few steps in their journey back to wholeness. As we help them out of their bondage in Egypt, back to a land flowing with milk and honey. As each of us does those things, we become more like Mary – singing of a redeemer – more like the Maccabees – redeeming the Temple – and more like the persons God created us to be … and more and more we also become tiny diamonds winking out of the coal dust.

A great miracle happens here, too …