First Parish Sermon

Ah, but Santa has a bright idea. He picks up the phone and makes  a  long  distance  call  from the North Pole to Hanukkah Harry on Mt. Sinai. Harry  is getting ready to deliver gifts and toys to all the Jewish children during their  eight  day Festival of Light. Hanukkah Harry definitely has the magic and is only  too  glad  to help Santa out in a pinch by delivering toys to all the Gentile girls and boys. 
  
Like  Santa, Harry has a prominent beard, except his is thin and gray, and he wears a  blue  and  white  cap  and  carries  a  blue  and white sack with an embroidered Mennorah  on  it.  He  takes off into the air with his simple horse drawn wagon and chants:  "On  Mersha, on Hershel, on Schlomo", and lands with a thud on the roof of  the  first  family  he's  to  visit  just as little Susie and Tommy have snuck down stairs  to  see  if Santa has arrived. 

They hide behind the Christmas tree to watch  for  Santa's  arrival. Harry  makes  it  down the chimney, looks for the Christmas tree,  but  doesn't  see  the children, then finds a glass of luke warm milk on the mantle, which  he  intends  to  put  back in the fridge before it spoils. Tommy and  Susie  see him and shout, "Santa!" and scare him half to death. "You nearly gave me  a   coronary", he exclaims. But he recovers and gives Susie a bright package which she  opens. She's expecting a doll, but instead she finds a pair of socks, not just  one  pair,  but  eight  pairs  of socks. “Where are the toys?”, they ask, and he gives them a dreidel, a Jewish top, and some gold coins with chocolate inside. 
       
This  is  not  quite  what they expected. Tommy looks at Hanukkah Harry and says to him,  "Your  not  Santa  Claus. You don't have a red and white suit. And you're not fat  and  rolly  polly like Santa." And so Hanukkah Harry tells him the truth, that he's  filling in for Santa who is sick. All of a sudden Susie has a moment of truth and  revelation. She exclaims, "If Hanukkah Harry is helping Santa, then that means that  deep  down  Christians and Jews are pretty much the same and we don't have to be  jealous  of  one  another." 

Just then, in a flash, Santa shows up and says that little  Susie's  moment  of  truth has cured him of his illness and he can now take over the  work of Christmas from Hanukkah Harry. He gives her a present, which she opens,  and  she  gets  the  doll  she wanted, while her brother gets a pellet gun. Hanukkah  Harry  looks a little crest fallen so Susie gives him a hug and says, "We  love  you  Hanukkah  Harry.  If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have had Christmas at all."
       
That's  quite a message for a Saturday Night Live parody of Christmas and Hanukkah. “If  it wasn't for you, Hanukkah Harry, we wouldn't have had Christmas at all.” You see, if it wasn't  for  the Jewish religious and prophetic heritage, with its longing for love and justice, we  would never have had a Jesus of  Nazareth who drew so heavily upon that heritage to define his message and to articulate  his  vision  of  the Kingdom of Heaven come on earth. Without Hanukkah, meaning  the  Jewish  prophetic and religious heritage, we wouldn't have had Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who has been called the Prince of Peace, the very term of which was first uttered by a Hebrew prophet named Second Isaiah.
       
Think  about  it  for  a  moment.  Whatever  else  he was--human prophet, religious messiah,  or Son of God--Jesus was a practicing Jew and the only Holiday he knew in the month of December was Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. If someone had said to Jesus  on December 25 when he was a boy or a man, Merry Christmas, he wouldn't have  known  what  they were talking about. Happy Birthday, he might have known, although we  have no knowledge of his actual Birthday. But Happy Hanukkah Jesus surely would  have  known.  And  the  only Santa Claus he would have understood would have been a Jewish  Santa  Claus,  Hanukkah Harry, perhaps, or maybe Don and Randy Solomon, two Jewish  brothers,  who  began  a  family tradition of visiting sick children in the hospital during the Christmas season dressed as Santa Claus. 
       
The  tradition  began  with Don Solomon who remembered the faces of lonely children  in  the  hospital  at  Christmas when he was among them as a young patient. When he become  a  man  he  decided  to bring cheer to lonely children in the hospital as a  representative  of  old  St.  Nick.  Once  as Don came into a hospital ward a nurse  whispered  to him that a little girl patient was Jewish and suggested that  perhaps he  shouldn't speak to her. To which Don answered, "That's all right, this Santa is Jewish."  When  Don was stricken  unexpectedly one year with a cerebral hemorrhage, only  hours  after  having completed his annual Christmas trek to the hospital, and died two days later, his younger brother Randy resolved to carry on the tradition which  Don  Solomon  had begun. "This Santa Claus is Jewish!" Jesus, I think, would have liked that tradition.
       
And  so  when  we exchange gifts this Christmas-Hanukkah season let us call to mind the  example  of  Jesus,  and  Don  and Randy Solomon, and yes, Hanukkah Harry, all exemplary  Jews,  who  had  the  courage  and  compassion  to  reach out beyond the confines  of  their  culture  and  tradition to touch the lives of others and to be spiritually  enlarged  by so doing. Therein lies the true spirit of the season—to become  bigger  and better and more generous selves, tolerant and respectful of the traditions  and  practices of other faiths, and ever thankful for the greatest gift of  all,  the  gift of life. Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. And may God bless you  and  yours  with  spinning  tops,  chocolate  golden  coins,  and  hearts  full  to  overflowing with love and good will for all.