"Hanukkah; The Festival of Lights"

Rev. Dr. Joshua Snyder, December 9, 2001

Tomorrow is the first night of Hanukkah.  Hanukkah is actually a relatively minor holiday in the Jewish religion, taking a backseat to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover.  However, due to its proximity to Christmas and other secular holidays, Hanukkah has come to enjoy more limelight that it might otherwise have had.  I think this is a good thing.  There are a number of important religious lessons that Hanukkah has for us Unitarian Universalists.  Therefore, this morning I want to give "equal time" as it were to the Jewish tradition during this holiday season.  

Where does the tradition of Hanukkah come from? Probably all of you have heard the story of how there was only enough oil to keep the temple lamps burning for one day, and miraculously these continued to burn for eight days.  Hence there are eight nights of Hanukkah on which a new candle is lit on the menorah.  However there's a lot more to it than that.  The story of the Maccabean revolt is the context of this miracle; this was today's reading.  The book of the Maccabees is part of the "Apocrypha;" the series of books included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, but not in Protestant or Jewish versions of the Old Testament because it is written in Greek and not in Hebrew.  Nevertheless, Jews do consider it a part of their broader tradition, just not the Bible.  

The book itself describes a period of Jewish history that took place just after the time of Alexander the Great.  The Greeks had taken control of Israel and were trying to institute their own religion, culture and way of life, at the expense of the Jewish laws and covenant.  Some Jews at the time went along with this assimilation, but others resisted.  Judas son of Mattathias, was the leader of this rebellion against the Greek ruler of Israel and the oppressive laws that he instituted.  Judas Maccabaeus (The Hammer) as he was known, felt that these rules were not only unjust but also blasphemous.  Israel had made an agreement (covenant) with God.  For him it just was not an option to give up on the faith of his forefathers and mothers.  It was part of who he was.  So he began what one might call the first revolution for religious and political freedom.  But make no mistake, it was a war, and it was not pretty.  However, Judas was successful, and the Jews were able to practice their religion according to the Torah.  That was what today's reading was about, Judas cleaning and rebuilding the temple so that it would be fit for worship once again.  

The story of Judas Maccabaeus and his successful struggle for religious freedom is one that resonates well with Unitarian Universalism I think.  I am reminded of the so-called Unitarian trinity of freedom, reason, and tolerance.  Nearly a century ago, the great Unitarian historian Earl Morse Wilbur wrote that freedom, reason, and tolerance or three themes that he saw as continuous throughout Unitarian history since the Reformation.  Ever since he laid this theory out in his two volumes called the History of Unitarianism, freedom, reason, and tolerance have become a cliche in Unitarian universalists circles. However, I think the Hanukkah story of Judas Maccabaeus illustrates these themes very well.  

Religious freedom may be a cliche among Unitarian Universalists, but it is revolutionary in many parts of the world.  The Unitarian Universalist gospel is one of liberation and healing.  We see this in the current conflict in Afghanistan.  A number of weeks ago, I remember being somewhat amused to see what the people of Kabul were doing as soon as the oppressive Taliban regime had been removed from the city.  CNN showed pictures of men rushing to the barber to have their beard shaved off.  This was one of the many repressive laws that had plagued the people of Afghanistan for half a decade.  Now that they were free it was like a breath of fresh air.  Shaving their beards was like throwing tea into Boston Harbor; it was a symbol of the freedom that they so dearly desired.

A similar story could be told in other parts of the world.  Tibet was an independent nation for centuries until the Communist Chinese invaded in 1959.  The Dali Lama and many others went into exile in India, but many Tibetans were brutally killed and tortured simply for practicing their religion.  The situation of the Tibetans and the 20th-century is not very different from that of the Jews in the time of Judas Maccabaeus.  Like Maccabaeus, the Tibetans cannot imagine just abandoning their religion, culture, and way of life.  The Tibetans are unlikely to wage a war of the magnitude that use Maccabaeus did, so we are left with more peaceful diplomatic means.  Some say trade with China is the means toward opening them up to democracy.  Others advocate isolation because of their human rights abuses against Tibetans and many others.  This however has not worked with Cuba.  Whatever the answer may be, the truth remains the freedom, reason, and tolerance are in short supply in this part of the world.  The Hanukkah messages a global one, calling for the liberation and transformation of all souls.  Or is Thomas Jefferson once put it, and is now carved above his likeness in the Jefferson Memorial, "I oppose all tyranny of the mind."

Freedom, reason, and tolerance are revolutionary ideas in our time, but with all due respect to Earl Morse Wilbur, I think they take us only so far.  Perhaps these ideas were sufficient for Unitarianism at the turn of the last century, but with the turn of this one, I think Unitarian Universalism need something more. "Freedom, reason, and tolerance" is a nice sound bite, but it is lacking something, something very important.  It lacks a sense of community and communal responsibility.  Freedom, reason, and tolerance as the center of Unitarian Universalist thought leads to an isolated form of individualism that we seem to be less comfortable with at the end of the 20th century and we were at the beginning.  Freedom unfettered becomes laissez-faire, and isolating, I may choose to be with others, but I might just as easily exercise my freedom elsewhere.  Also tolerance implies that I will merely tolerate you.  I may disagree with what you say, but I need not concern myself with it.  It makes no demands and has no consequences for me.  In a sense it trivializes the religious faith of others.  Reason, which has defined Unitarianism at least since Channing, also needs to be coupled with compassion and the brightness and insight of the soul.  

So while freedom, reason, and tolerance are good things so far as they go, we need to include some sort of understanding and community to balance their implied individualism.  These studies work best in the context of a social and organic understanding of life instead of an isolationist one.  Instead of tolerance, for example, we Unitarian Universalists a need to practice pluralism.  Pluralism is similar to tolerance and that each person is able to say and to be who he or she most truly are, but there is also an interaction with others.   In a pluralistic community, the Buddhists don't merely tolerate the Christians, but talk to them. They listen to them and value what they say, and most importantly, they learn from them.  Pluralism implies that my relationship with others is primary, so I need to listen and maybe even be transformed by my interaction with another.  While there is surely freedom of religious belief, there needs to be a corresponding responsibility that goes with this freedom.  My individual freedom comes to their responsibility to the common good of all.  I could go on, but point is that the values of freedom, reason, and tolerance, as they are articulated by Earl Morse Wilbur, needs to be practiced with a firm understanding of the beloved community.  

Hanukkah carries with it this message of community.  The Maccabees were not concerned about just themselves.  There were traditionalists who felt that the covenant between God and Israel was in jeopardy.  That meant something to them.  This saw themselves as part of the sacred history; the collective story of the Jewish people, and the religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The freedom to go to the temple and offer a sacrifice was not understood in individualistic terms.  This was a fight for all of the Jews of Israel and their way of life.  It was a fight for the very existence of their community and society.  

Recently the UUA has experienced a rather dramatic example of this.  Some of you may have read some article concerning a breakaway group called the American Unitarian Association.  This made news in a number of newspapers and magazines.  This group, consisting of about 25 individuals and so far zero congregations, Inc. last spring and was sued by the UUA for using its historical name.  This settled the suit and now the group calls itself the American Unitarian conference or AUC.  Why the break? Well the folks at the AUC will tell you because the UUA has moved away from its Christian roots.  It has become too political, too Humanist, and too Pagan.  Presumably it is also to Universalist since this group decided to claim only the Unitarian side of our heritage.  Dissatisfied with the state of Unitarian Universalism they took their marbles and went elsewhere.  There was a very interesting article about the American Unitarian Conference in the recent issue of The Voice, an independent UU magazine.  In this article, written by Dean Fisher, the President of the AUC, he outlines the basic grievances he and his organization have with the UUA.  As I read this, part of me was intrigued.  I am interested in their point of view.  I too would like to see Unitarian Universalism take seriously more spiritual and theological issues, though I would not limit it to Christianity as the AUC would.  Which brings me to my critique.  The AUC claims to be non-creedal, but you have to have some belief in theism of one sort or another.  They also profess to have congregational polity, but if you speak ill of their seven religious principles then the Board of the Conference will drum you out.  So you have to be Christian, or least believe in God, and you are subject to an ecclesiastical board.  We have a name for people like that or I come from; we call them Presbyterians.  

But it is not the AUC's desire to be lukewarm Presbyterians that bothers me.  What bothers me is the way they went about doing this.  Instead of staying within the UUA and joining the discussion, the plurality that is our Association, they left.  I personally think they brought up some important issues and some needed self-reflection within Unitarian Universalism, even if I didn't come down and quite the same place they do on those issues.  I thought they made some good points.  But instead of starting a conversation and being a part of some collective process of self-discernment, they took off.  Fisher makes it clear in his article that AUC did not want to become an affiliate group because they felt this to be too limiting.  They just wanted to have things their way or the highway.  There was no room for compromise, no room for discussion, there was no room for fellowship, relationship, or covenant.  There was only room for their agenda.  I am fine with people expressing different ideas, even radical ideas, but if one is to be a part of a community or relationship then you have a responsibility to listen to the response of others.  I have to be open-minded enough and have the humility to allow for the possibility that I don't have all the answers and someone might just say something that could change the way I think.  This takes a good deal of maturity of course.  The AUC illustrate, I think, freedom, reason, and tolerance gone awry with individualism.  We need to practice freedom, while being mindful of our connections to others.  

One of my favorite Hanukkah stories is of the people of Billings, Montana.  This is a popular story, and I am sure some of you have heard it before.  This is a true story that happened a few years back, maybe 10 years ago now.  It was the holiday time, and most of the folks in Billings  were Christians and put up their Christmas trees.  There were a handful of Jews in Billings also, and they displayed menorahs in their windows.  And for joy, there was a hate group in town, the skinheads I think.  They would go around town and break the windows of any house in which there was a menorah.  This happened night after night.  Of course the local newspaper carried the stories of hate and intolerance throughout the city.  That is until the editor of the newspaper came up with an idea.  He printed in the newspaper fullsize menorah.  Soon everyone in town had cut out the menorah in the newspaper and displayed it in their windows.  Every house in town had a menorah in it.  Under the menorah was written, "Not In Our Town."

Here is a beautiful example of not just tolerance, but community.  The people in Billings did not just tolerate their Jewish neighbors.  They did not practice "live and let live." They understood that a threat to the Jews of the town was a threat to them all.  Their religious beliefs differ, but there are part of a community.  This is what I mean about recognizing that communal dimensions of religious freedom.  Hanukkah is about religious freedom, but not in the individual sense.  It is a story that teaches us to stand together in love against the forces of hate, be they the skinheads, the Taliban, or the ancient Greeks.  Hanukkah teaches us Unitarian Universalists about import aspects of our own religion.  That we cannot be tolerant as isolated individuals, but only in the context of a relationship.  It is that relationship that is sacred, because it reflects the interconnected and organic nature of life itself.  

May we be open to the transformation that comes with our relationships with others.  May freedom, reason, and tolerance be practiced among us and not just towards us.  And May all the world heed the lessons of Hanukkah during the sacred time of the year.  Amen.  Blessed Be.