Tebowing for Hanukkah
What follows is my recent sermon about the upcoming holiday of Hanukkah, delivered on Shabbat Vayeshev, December 16th.
Nes Gadol Haya Po. A
great miracle happened here. This is
what is written on dreidles in the land of Israel. Millennia ago the small, outnumbered Jewish
army led by the Maccabees defeated the Syrian-Greeks and recaptured the Temple
in Jerusalem and of course rededicated it to Jewish worship. According to the rabbis the holy oil
necessary for this ceremony lasted eight days rather than the expected
one. The miracle of oil! But the victory of the small army over the
larger, better equipped and supplied, army was no less a miracle.
I have been thinking about this story as we approach
Hanukkah, the holiday which begins on Tuesday evening. I have been thinking especially about miracles. What is that we really believe? A lot has recently been written about this
question. In fact more questions about
faith and belief have appeared in the sports sections than the paper’s other
sections. These articles are by and
large about Tim Tebow, about his beliefs and his public prayers and of course
the Bronco’s miraculous wins.
I don’t know how many people watched Sunday night’s game of
the Broncos vs. the Bears. It was quite
the miracle. The Broncos were down by ten, in fact 10-0, until about four
minutes left in the game. Then Tebow led
his team to a touchdown. With no time
outs remaining and no way to stop the clock the Bears seemed sure to be able to
run out the clock. But then a veteran
running back, Marion Barber, ran out of bounds and stopped the clock giving the
Broncos time for a few plays. The
Broncos now had a little less than a minute to score. With three seconds remaining their kicker
kicked a 59 yard field goal to tie the game.
Chicago won the toss to gain first possession in overtime and again was
nearly in field goal range to win the game when Marion Barber made another
mistake and fumbled the ball. Tebow led
his team to field goal range and the Broncos won 13-10 in overtime. A great miracle happened here! By the time overtime began I gave up on my many
Chicago friends and started praying along with Tebow for his Broncos to
win. After all who prays for a
loss?
Prior to Tebow’s starting as quarterback, the Broncos were
1-4. Now with him at the held they are 7-1
and leading their division for a playoff spot.
Such appears the power of faith and the power of prayer. But what is Tebow is really praying for? Does he pray, “God let my team defeat our
opponents and win this game.” Such would
seem an improper prayer. Judaism would
counsel us that we should only ask God for that which benefits all. One cannot pray for one’s own success if it
comes at the expense of another. In
football Tebow and his Broncos’ success comes at the expense of the other
team. Marion Barber might especially
need our prayers for strength and courage far more than Tebow does. May Marion Barber rise above his mistakes and
become an even greater human being. To
be honest our prayers should never be about being a great football player, or
basketball player or baseball player or any player for that matter. Instead they should be about being a better
person. Yet it is human nature to pray
for the winning side. It is certainly human nature to pray for what might be
called, my side.
I remember some of the prayers I have uttered when watching
the Jets. There have been many times
over the years as I watch the Jets game and especially in those final minutes
find myself praying as the other team lines up for a field goal or last attempt
at the end zone, “Miss it. Miss it. Miss it.
Please. Please. Please.”
Of course sometimes my prayers appear to be answered and other times
not. It occurs to me that perhaps we are
the most religious when rooting for our side. Then again, how can it be a good prayer if my
success, or my team’s success, depends on someone else’s failure?
To be fair Tebow states that he is not praying for a win. He also has repeatedly stated that football
is only a game and that God does not care who wins. His example continues to remind us that faith
and prayer are meant to be inspiring and can also apparently inspire others to
greatness. For this teaching we owe him
a debt of gratitude. In a world where
there are far too many examples of the abuses of religion we are grateful for
his reminder that faith can inspire and help us become better.
We should also be thankful to him for another reminder. As we approach the holiday of Hanukkah that
was all about being able to be Jewish in the public square, Tebow reminds us
that it is good to pray in public. Some
might be uncomfortable with his public displays of overt devotion, of Tebowing
as it is called, but Hanukkah was about the struggle to proudly declare I am
Jewish. The Hanukkah menorah is after
all supposed to be displayed so that others can see it, so that the miracle is
publicized. Hanukkah is not supposed to
be celebrated behind closed curtains.
Faith is meant as inspiration. It is meant for the world to see. For Tim Tebow’s reminder about this I commend
him. The fact that he appears to pray after
his successes and others’ failures I fault him.
I am waiting for what might be his greatest example, to see his public
devotion, embracing the other team in prayer, after his team suffers a stinging
defeat. Nonetheless he has taught us
that faith is meant as a goad for us to do better, to improve our world, to
better ourselves.
Faith does not mean waiting around for miracles. We must bring them about. We must not wait for God to perform
miracles. Miracles are first and
foremost in our hands. This is what
Tebow teaches us. He is not just praying. He takes to the field. He appears at his best when he faces the most
challenges. In the fourth quarter when
most others might give up, he becomes better and appears to bring about
miracles. Others seem to resort only to
their prayers.
Like any good Jewish book our prayerbooks recounts many
miracles. These books are not meant to
sit on your shelves or to be read quietly in your room. You can’t just wait for a Mi Chamocha moment
to happen to you. Don’t wait to sing this song of redemption. You are supposed
to carry your prayerbooks with you. Then
whenever you need a little extra inspiration you can find it there in its
pages. If you just sit in a room and
pray for God to rescue you then you will find far fewer miracles in your lives.
This is also what Hanukkah reminds us. The
Maccabees led the charge. They did not
hide in caves waiting for God to fix their world. They did not sit quietly pouring over the
words of their prayers. They made the miracle.
On Hanukkah we recite the blessing, “Blessed are You Adonai
our God, Ruler of the universe, who performed miracles for our ancestors in
those days.” The Hasidic rebbe, Rabbi
Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev asked why we say this blessing for the Hanukkah
miracles and not for the greatest miracle of all, that of Passover. Being a rabbi he answers his own
question. He says that it is because the
Hanukkah miracle was dependent on our actions.
It was not dependent on God alone.
On Passover God alone split the sea and battled the Egyptians in that
defining Mi Chamocha moment. On Hanukkah
we brought the miracle; it was dependent upon our own success. We did not wait for miracles to be done for
us. We brought them to the world. God inspired us. We did the work.
This is the most important lesson of Hanukkah. We look to past events for inspiration. But when we start to believe that miracles
are happening here and now it gets dangerous.
It is dangerous because then we stop doing the hard work of getting into
the game ourselves. Then we try to let
God do all of the heavy lifting for us and pretend there is no weight on our
own shoulders. God does provide much
inspiration. But the lifting has to be
done by ourselves.
In the end that is why the better dreidle is our dreidle
rather than Israel’s. On our dreidles it says, “A great miracle happened
there.” It keeps the miracle at arm’s length. It keeps miracles as sources of inspiration
rather than a crutch. It reminds us that
we have to do the hard stuff ourselves.
God will inspire us. But our
hands make the miracles.
Thus, if you want miracles to happen here you only have one
choice. Take to the field yourself!