Packing Jesus

Maybe it’s because I grew up celebrating Chanukah - rooted in miracles and steeped in tradition, it's an eight day festival, a pure and unabashed holy-day party complete with candles, decorations, food, eight nights of gifts, sacks of gelt (cash money), and gambling – that I still don’t totally get Christmas. 

Contrasted to the unambiguity of Chanukah, Christmas is kind of a schizophrenic holiday.  Some of our best minds have tried to figure it out: Irving Berlin, Charles Schultz, and Dr. Seuss, to name a few.  But even with their collected wisdom plus that of the experts who write letters to the editor of our local  newspaper and the professionals at Hallmark I am only left with more questions:  Is Christmas about “home” and “family” and predictable happy endings? Or is it all about displaying nativities in public venues? Is Christmas every day?  (Or because Christmas begins in August do we just feel like it’s every day…)  Do we just need more snow?  Is it the gifts or the thoughts that count?  Santa, Frosty, help me!

So, I am on this journey (and maybe some of you are, too) to figure out Christmas.  And I don’t even want to pretend that I have the answer.  But I think I know where to look.

First, I’m going to try and let Jesus grow up this year.  It seems that even when we try to strip away Macy’s and Walmart and focus on the Nativity, we fall into a tradition of honoring the Baby Jesus just long enough to pack him up again in protective bubble wrap and newspapers where he’ll be safe until next Christmas.  Nicodemus, the Pharisee Jesus speaks with in John’s gospel asks, “How can anyone be born who has already been born and grown up? Surely they don’t go back into their mother’s womb a second time.”  It seems like an intentionally ridiculous question, but we’ve discovered the answer, haven’t we?   

Don’t let him grow up.   

We don’t want Jesus to say anything to us.  Maybe because we know, deep down, that Grown-Up Jesus is challenging and even dangerous and that if we let him grow up he will be impossible to ignore. 

In John 17 Jesus prays for his followers, “I want these people you gave me to be as I am …” Maybe that's what Jesus wants.  But we might not really want this because who Jesus was, was what got him killed.  Maybe this makes us just a little afraid and so we put Jesus back in the womb while he’s still a helpless infant who doesn’t even cry. 

Jesus is more than a silent and well-behaved testimony to a holiday with a befuddling identity.

Second, I'm going to try and listen to what Grown-Up Jesus has to say. I might start at the end of his life by looking at that prayer in John 17. It is a prayer about his dreams for the world, his followers and those who come after them. 

His last will and testament. 

The prayer of a dying man. 

The prayer of a grown man.

In this prayer Jesus speaks about a togetherness, a unity and a oneness.  He prays for his followers:

“ …that they can be one …”

“Make them ready for your service …”

“I want these people You gave me to be as I am …”

“Because they have seen me they can know what You are like…”

And the prayer concludes, “As You [God] are in me and I am in You, I pray that they can also be one with us.  I will be in them and You will be in me so that they will be completely one…”

According to Jesus then, the reason he came (was born) is so that we could be part of something bigger, better and grander than ourselves. And we means it’s something must do together; in community where we celebrate, learn, grow, live and serve together.

Third, I will light the candles of the Chanukah menorah.  Underneath, and perhaps even serving as the foundation of the party atmosphere of Chanukah is a celebration of remembrance and anticipation.  We remember God's unexpected presence and we anticipate a future where God's "shalom" is ever-present.  I think that, perhaps, another symbolism hidden in the menorah is that we don’t need to be afraid. 

The lights didn’t go out. 

So, on this first night of The Festival of Lights, I will start with The Shammes. It’s the candle that stands a little taller than the others and is used to light the other candles.  When I was a child I thought the The Shammes was the "Boss" candle, the one that was in charge of all the others.  After all, without it the other candles are useless decorations.  I have since learned that The Shammes is really the “Servant” candle. It lights the others by giving of itself.  It empowers them and beckons them to shine. And each night the menorah gets brighter and brighter as The Shammes ignites more flames. That's the way things happen in God's realm.

The Shammes, in the tradition of Chanukah, is a reminder and a demonstration that, as Jesus also showed us, one can give (and let others can shine) without losing any of one’s own radiance.

And finally, I will continue to look to the church, that sloppy community of Jesus followers, because we are meant to be together when we celebrate. Also, I don’t think we are meant to figure these things out all on our own.