Happy Holidays from Stories & Fingerprints….
Malarky. I don’t even want to wish you a merry Christmas. Yeah. Anymore, I’m afraid you’ll miss the point. Because you’re dumb? No. Course not. Because I’m mean? Well, I won’t rule that out, but that’s not why.
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Shortly (high-altitude perspectiver here) before Jesus of Nazareth was even born, the Romans decided to squash those pesky Jews. Mid 2nd century bc the Roman Antiochus desecrated the Temple by placing a statue of Zeus there, and by sacrificing pigs. (Both really big no-no’s).
The Jews, rather than falling over in the streets, as Antiochus had hoped, rose up and rebelled. As part of the rededication and cleansing of the Temple, the Jews reinstituted all of the ritual practices, including burning the menorah in the Temple, both night and day. It was prescribed that olive oil alone was to be used in the menorah. But they only had enough oil for one day. And it supposedly took eight days to make more.
But the flame burned. And burned. And burned.
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In a nutshell that’s the story of Hanukkah. As I understand it anyways. Today, the faithful celebrate Hanukkah by lighting one candle each night for eight nights. And there’s revelry and gift giving and whatnot. Whatnot includes ritual prayers over the menorah, recitation of psalms, and story telling. And they do it every night for eight nights.
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Hanukkah predates the Christian holiday of Christmas. Actually, tradition holds that the wintertime Christmas holiday may not have been celebrated “officially” until as late as the 4th century. Anymore it’s celebrated from Halloween until New Years. Pretty nifty.
The thing I’m fascinated by with Hanukkah is how the holiday is continuously celebrated over an extended period of time. That’s not a speciality of our race any more. Anything over an extended period of time seems to become tiresome. Do it. Pack it up. Move on.
But there’s another “holiday” that with each passing year grabs my attention a little more and a little more. Advent. The season of waiting.
Rich with symbols, traditions and layers of meaning centuries old and largely unchanged, and pretty much unstained by commercialism, every year the dark colors come out of the closet, and the church begins to wait. Each Sunday, we light a purple candle, or a pink candle on the Sunday prior to Christmas, until finally, the night before Christmas, we light the white candle, the Christ candle.
The story of Christmas is told, part by part, through the month of December. The story of a census, the story of a young girl, her cousin, an angel, and shepherds. A young man, eager to wed, who felt betrayed. And had a dream about it. With another angel. Maybe you’ve heard about Simeon, the old man who saw the baby, and rejoiced. Why? Because he’d been waiting.
Why did the Israelites fight to take back the temple? Because God had promised something to them. He had promised a redemption that was greater than they knew. They were waiting too.
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I want to celebrate waiting more. Not because I love waiting. I don’t. I hate it. During the times of waiting I pester, I lose confidence, I get brilliant ideas that are shortcuts and doomed to failure. I waste energy, I get angry, I pester more, and I probably push other people into anxiety that they wouldn’t have had without me.
So maybe I should spend more time meditating on what happens when we wait. When we wait, God’s promises reach their fulfillment in “the fullness of time.” When we wait we experience a full range of emotions- rather than just the joy and elation. We experience desire. Who doesn’t love desire? We experience a little bit of agony. Hey, what’s joy if it doesn’t follow agony? It’s nothing. It’s empty. It’s meaning less. It’s just motion. Kinda like Christmas feels sometimes.
So, from all (one) of us at Stories & Fingerprints. Happy Catharsis. I mean Christmas. May it bring you joy, conditioned by waiting. May it bring you peace seasoned by turmoil. And above all, may it shine the light of Jesus the Christ into the utter darkness of your night. Amen.
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With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he [God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1
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