"A Great Miracle Happened"

A sermon preached by Rev. Deana Dudley at Christos MCC, Toronto, ON

December 28, 2003

Scripture:  John 10:22-23

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is the folks from Holy Fellowship couldn’t make it, due to some travel complications, and so we won’t be seeing their wonderful multimedia Source of Christmas service tonight, like we'd planned. But the good news is, we’re going to have a Hannukah party!

Why a Hannukah party, you may ask? Well, for one thing, I’m tired of Christmas, I’m over it, it’s time for something different. Just kidding.... I still love Christmas, And we’re still going to sing some Christmas carols But we’re also going to learn a Hannukah song and some Hannukah traditions, and best of all, eat some Hannukah foods!

Y’all know what Hannukah is, right? It’s a Jewish festival that usually falls around this time of year. This year, it started on December 20, and actually finished yesterday. That’s probably why I was able to get all the Hannukah decorations on sale for half price this morning!

But do you all know the story of Hannukah, the REASON for Hannukah? Well..... there’s a story Long, long ago, and far, far away.... And you may, or may NOT, find this story in your Bible. It depends on your Bible. It’s not in every Bible, only in Bibles that contain the Apocryphal Books. Those are books that are recognized as part of the Bible by the Roman Catholic, and Orthodox churches, but often not by Protestant Churches. And there are about a dozen books, and parts of books, in the Apocrypha, and most of them are regarded as having been written in the period of time AFTER the last book of the usual Hebrew scriptures, Malachi, and BEFORE the first of the Gospels, Matthew, a period of some 3 or 400 years.

And the story of Hannukah is found in one of these books, the First Book of Maccabees. And it tells a story of an oppressed people. Long ago the land of Judea was conquered by Alexander the Great, remember him? Anyhow, when he died, his kingdom was divided up, and the land of Judea was given over to a Greek king, named Antiochus. Antiochus ordered the Jewish people to assimilate to become more Greek, more like him, and to reject their G-d, their religion, their customs and their beliefs and to worship the Greek gods. In other words, Antiochus was preaching of a god who would only be appeased if the oppressed people became more like the folks in power, less like themselves and who God created them to be. Can anyone identify with that?

There were some who did as they were told, but many refused. Even though the penalty for refusal was death. And one who refused was named Judah, son of Matthias. And Judah and his four brothers formed an army and chose as their name the word "Maccabee", which means hammer. After three years of fighting, against overwhelming odds – they were vastly outnumbered – the Maccabees were finally successful in driving Antiochus out of Israel and reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem.

But the Temple had been profaned, it had been desecrated. Not only had Antiochus put up statues of Greek gods – and if you will recall, putting up ANY graven images was anathema to the people of Israel – but he had also used the holy of holies, the altar of God, to sacrifice to those Gods.

And what do you think he sacrificed? Pigs. How un-kosher can you get??? That temple was well and truly desecrated!

So the Maccabees desperately wanted to clean the Temple, and remove the hated Greek symbols and statues. So they cleared it out, and rebuilt the altar, and on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, the job was finished and the temple was rededicated. The word Hannukah, means "Dedication."

So, you know those two seemingly strange verses from the Gospel of John, that Wil read? "At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon." What that means is that Jesus kept the festival of Hannukah, the festival of Dedication. And curiously enough, this is the ONLY mention of Hannukah in our bibles.

So how did Judah the Maccabee dedicate the Temple? Well, when Judah and his followers finished cleaning the temple, they wanted to light the eternal light, known as the N'er Tamid, which is present in every Jewish house of worship, that symbolizes and represents the very real presence of God in that place. It was an oil lamp, using specially consecrated oil, and once lit, the oil lamp should never be extinguished.

But There was a problem. Only one tiny jug of oil was found with only enough oil to burn for a single day. And it was going to be eight days before they could press more oil in the right way to use in the Temple. But, in faith, the oil lamp was filled and lit. And that’s when the miracle occurred, as that tiny bit of oil stayed lit not for one day, but for eight days. And so, for that reason, Hannukah is celebrated by lighting a special menorah, for eight nights.

Hannukah is also known as the Festival of Lights, for the light that shone so miraculously so long ago. And there are special blessings said over the lights, and as Judi comes forward to light the menorah, we’ll say those..... "Baruch ata Hashem, Elokenu melech ha'olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel chanuka." (Blessed are You, Oh Holy One, Ruler of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to light the chanuka lights.) "Baruch ata Hashem, Elokenu melech ha'olam, she'asah nisim la'avotenu, bayamim hahem bazeman hazeh." (Blessed are You, Oh Holy One, Ruler of the Universe, Who has done miracles for our ancestors in days gone by.) "Baruch ata Hashem, Elokenu melech ha'olam, shehecheyanu, vekiyemanu vehigi'anu lazeman hazeh." (Blessed are You, Oh Holy One, Ruler of the Universe, Who has given us life, and sustained us, and brought us to this time.)

Now, that’s basically the story of Hannukah. But over the years, there have arisen a lot of traditions around its celebration. Just like a lot of interesting traditions have arisen around the celebration of Christmas. Because of the significance of the oil to the story, it’s traditional on Hannukah to eat things cooked in oil, like potato latkes, and in Israel, for some reason, jelly doughnuts. Alas, we have no latkes tonight, but we do have jelly doughnuts!

And another tradition is one that helps teach children about the miracle of Hannukah with a fun game. How many of you have ever played Dreidel? You play it with a little four-sided top. And each side has a Hebrew letter on it. Nun, gimel, heh, shin. Every time it's your turn, you spin the dreidel, and depending on the outcome, you give or get Hannukah gelt, from the pot. You can play it with pennies, or nuts or raisins, but it’s traditional to play it with chocolate coins, or Hannukah gelt.  Gelt means gold, or money.

So you spin the dreidel, and if it comes up Nun, that stands for the Yiddish word "nisht"or "nothing". So you get nothing. If it comes up Gimmel, that means "gantz"or "everything" And you get everything in the pot. If it lands on Hey, that means "halb" so you get half the pot. And finally, if it lands with the Shin up, that means"shtel" or "put in" in Yiddish. So you have to put a piece in. You with me so far?

So what are children supposed to learn from this game? Well, the letters, nun, gimel, hey and shin stand for something: the Hebrew phrase "Nes gadol haya sham." Which means, "a great miracle happened there." Not just the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days, but the miracle of God preserving the Jewish people against all odds. God as the defender of the oppressed.

Now, given that I’ve said that there is just this one tiny little cryptic reference to Hannukah in our bibles, why should this be of interest to us as followers of Jesus Christ?

Well.... one reason that’s been suggested is that without Hannukah, there would be no Christmas. If Judah the Maccabee and his ragtag army hadn’t defeated the Greeks who had enslaved them, by the time it was time for Jesus to be born, there probably wouldn’t have been any Jewish people. And that’s a good reason for it to matter to us.

But I think there’s another one. And it has to do with the dreidel. See, most dreidels are just like I told you. They have on them a nun, a gimel, a hey and a shin, for Nes gadol haya sham, a great miracle happened there.

Where is the "there" referred to in that sentence? Israel. The miracle happened there, in Israel.

Well, what do you suppose dreidels in Israel say? They’re a little different. Instead of nun, gimel, hey, shin, for nes gadol haya SHAM , a great miracle happened THERE, Israeli dreidels have a nun, a gimel, a heh, and the Hebrew letter PAY, which stands for the word Poh, which means HERE. A great miracle happened HERE. Right here, in the land of Israel.

So, for me, when I think of the festival of Dedication, the festival of Lights, I also think of the light of love that came into the world at Christmas, the light that shines in our lives so that – like the temple – they are pure and holy and dedicated to God. The light that shines in our lives that – like the ner tamid, the eternal flame – symbolizes and represents and IS the very real presence of God in our lives Emmanuel.... God with us. I celebrate Hannukah because of the great miracle that happened..... right here.