Ho, Ho, Ho! Happy Hanukkah!

Ho, Ho, Ho, Happy Hanukkah! That is the traditional holiday greeting of Santa’s Jewish cousin, Mordecai, better known as Morty Claus. Now you may be thinking, “Wait, I never knew Santa had a Jewish cousin! I’ve never heard of Morty Claus! ” You may even be thinking, “That sounds highly improbable!” Well, let me suggest to you that it is no more improbable than Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman or other concepts we are asked to believe in at this time of the year. 

So let me see if I can refresh your memory about this age-old tradition this morning. Perhaps you remember this familiar holiday song.

(Sung to tune of Jingle Bells) 

Morty Claus, Morty Claus, Morty he’s our man.

No one celebrates Hanukkah quite like Morty can.

Do any of you remember this song? Am I the only one? Well this is a Unitarian Universalist Church so there may be skeptics with us this morning. But let me say this – you may be doubtful about the existence of Morty  Claus but nobody can deny that we are living in an increasingly pluralistic society and world, where people of all faiths live in the same neighborhood and go to the same schools and even belong to the same families. 

In the Unitarian Universalist church we have households where people might put up a Christmas tree and a menorah. We have families that might walk the Winter Solstice Spiral and spin the dreidel. We have folks who might light seven candles for Kwanzaa and 8 candles for Hanukkah or an infinite number of candles for Diwali. 

The Unitarian Universalist approach to religion reminds me of an English Pub’s approach to vegetables. Many years ago my father and stepmom were in an English Pub and they noticed that there were three vegetable options on the menu – peas, carrots and mixed vegetables. When they asked what the mixed vegetables were, the answer was, “Peas and carrots.”

Many religions like to keep their peas and carrots separate. If you follow this approach then Christmas and Hanukkah and Winter Solstice and Kwanzaa and Diwali are to be kept separate. However, the Unitarian Universalist approach to religion is more like mixed vegetables. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Diwali and more can mix and mingle on our spiritual plate and become our spiritual food. 

Now if we’re honest with ourselves, and take an honest look at religious history we will realize that all religions influence each other. In other words no matter how hard we try to keep our peas and carrots separate they tend to mix and mingle. For instance, if you read the Bible closely you will realize that there is no way Jesus was actually born in December. The shepherds are not in the fields during the winter. Jesus’ parents were in Bethlehem for the Roman census and the census was never held in the winter time. So if Jesus was not born in December then why do we celebrate his birth in December? Because the Christians needed a holiday that could compete with the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice including Saturnalia, a celebration often held on December 25th. That’s how Christmas Day came to be celebrated on that day. 

Similarly, any rabbi will tell you that Hanukkah is a relatively unimportant holiday in the Jewish Calendar. However, just as the Christians needed a celebration to compete with the Pagans, the Jewish tradition needed a holiday that could compete with the Christians. So Hanukkah grew in importance with very child friendly traditions such as lighting candles and giving gifts. And the same dynamic was a work with Kwanzaa that was created in 1966 to celebrate African values, history and heritage. The goal of Kwanzaa was to give African Americans an alternative to the winter celebrations of the dominant society. 

So some people try to keep these holidays separate from each other. And yet if you go into any Unitarian Universalist Church and visit our religious education classrooms you are likely to see Advent Candles, Christmas candles, Hanukkah candles, Yule log candles, Diwali and Kwanzaa candles so that our young people will have a well rounded interfaith and multicultural religious education. For that reason I once took my kindergarten aged son to a Kwanzaa celebration in town where I watched my red haired, light skinned son join enthusiastically in the economic empowerment chant, “Be black! Buy black! Be black! Buy black!” 

Speaking of which, if you want to support black owned businesses there is a gas station called the Stop-N-Go across the street from Lennon Seney Methodist Church in East Knoxville where when you walk in the door you are greeted by a black Santa Claus. The image reminds us that there is something very problematic about building a holiday celebrating the generosity of a single white man. I am a white man and I understand that it is problematic. A careful reading of world history does not support the idea that white men are predictably or consistently or unambiguously paragons of virtue and generosity to people of different races. For this reason it can be good to walk into a business where Santa is a black man. If you go there I highly recommend the lunch specials at the lunch counter. Even those who can’t be black can still buy black. 

Unitarians have a long history of being interested in all the world’s religions. We have a lot of curiosity about different beliefs and commitments. Indeed there is a question and answer joke to that effect. Q: What is the difference between a Unitarian Universalist and a Jehovah’s Witness? A: A Unitarian Universalist will knock on your door to ask you about your religion. We are very curious in that way. 

We have a long history of this sort of curiosity. In 1844 the Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer Peabody wrote the first American translation of a Buddhist text The Lotus Sutra and published this and other excerpts from the scriptures of the world religions in the Transcendentalist journal The Dial under the heading Ethical Scriptures. In 1855 Unitarian abolitionist Lydia Maria Child wrote one of the first books of comparative religion called The Progress of Religious Ideas in Successive Ages. The Unitarian minister James Freeman Clark followed up in 1871 with his two volume work called Ten Great Religions. These are just some of the ways our faith tradition has encouraged learning more about the variety of religious traditions. Charles Follen, a German Unitarian is credited with introducing the Christmas Tree to Puritan New England in 1832, mixing pagan and Christian traditions, an idea that spread across the relatively new nation. So we are known for our willingness to learn from other traditions and mix traditions together. 

In our Children’s Diversity and Justice Library there is a book called Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama by Selina Alko written from the perspective of a child talking about her interfaith family. The child says, “I am a mix of two traditions.” She tells the story of her dad putting up the Christmas tree and her mom lighting the candles for Hanukkah. Mom puts golden gelt under the Christmas tree and Dad puts candy canes on the menorah. The family sings both the Dreidel song and Christmas carols. The family makes latkes, potato pancakes, to leave out for Santa. When all the relatives gather they hear the story of the Macabee children and the child in a manger. It is a wonderful story with great illustrations. I highly recommend it. But I mention it today because it is an example of what might be happening in your home and in homes all across the world, people of all faiths celebrating the winter holidays in peace. 

This week one of my colleagues in the ministry, Carole Martignacco posted the message, “Why do I wish people Happy Holidays? Because between November 1rst and January 15th there are approximately 29 holidays observed by 7 of the world’s major religions. And I don’t think mine are the only ones that count.” The post reminds us that those around us may be celebrating different holidays than we are. And it is also important to remember that even our efforts to be inclusive will never be all inclusive. Indeed the holidays we celebrate come from the lives of our congregation, members and friends who want to bring their culture, history and heritage. We want everyone in our congregation to have a wonderful holiday season. 

I like the idea that we live in a world where if a Jewish family runs out matches for the menorah they can go and borrow some light from their neighbors who have advent candles or a Christian family can borrow light from their neighbor’s yule log or a pagan family can borrow light from a neighbor’s Kwanzaa candles I like this image that we are all connected. We can all learn from each other. We can all benefit from borrowing each other’s light. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks “For though my faith is not yours and your faith is not mine, if we each are free to light our own flame, together we can banish some of the darkness of the world.” 

Indeed, this season isn’t just about religion, it’s about science. Anyone who has seen pictures of StoneHenge, Avesbury, Carnac or any of the Mayan pyramids knows that picking the date for the winter holidays requires science and math. It requires not only contemplating earth below but the heavens above, the rotations of the earth and the revolving of the planets and the light of our sun and the stars. This time of year culture and religion and science and math come together so that heaven and nature sing, heaven and nature sing. 

So believe it or not this leads me back to Santa’s cousin, Morty Claus. That’s because during this worship service I got a text on my cell phone from one of the younger members of our congregation and the text reads. 

REVEREND CHRIS: I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Morty Claus, that Santa doesn’t have a Jewish cousin. Mama says, ‘If our minister says it’s true it must be so.’Please tell me the truth; is there a Morty Claus? VIRGINIA O’HANLON.

Virginia, if you are watching online right now let me answer your question. 

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Morty Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary it would be if there were no Mortys. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith, no poetry, no romance to make our existence tolerable. It’s true nobody can see Morty, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist. The most real things in the world are those that we cannot see. None of us can even begin to conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

So, Virginia, I hope that answers your question for you. And I hope it answers all the questions of all the other skeptical people in the congregation today or those viewing online. Because the winter holidays are not the best time for skepticism. The winter holidays are a time of wonder and joy and excitement and love. 

And Virginia, if you are still listening, next year I promise to tell the story the story of Morty’s feminist sister Esther Claus. Some of you may be familiar with the holiday song about her. 

Esther Claus, Esther Claus, a feminist is she.

Dismantling the patriarchy is what she’d like to see. 

But that story is for next year. Until then, let me end this sermon by saying this sermon, “Ho, Ho, Ho! Happy Hanukkah!” 

(The Reverend Chris Buice shared this sermon at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, December 5, 2021)