Tags: Christmas

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Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, “ This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all people I will be glorified,’” And Aaron held his peace.
— Leviticus: 10:1-3 English Standard Version

Today is the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. According to the Jewish calendar on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the first of eight candles were lit, just after sundown Tuesday evening. The celebration marks the rededication of the Second Temple during the Maccabean Revolt in the second century BCE, as well as the miracle of a small jar of consecrated oil, which burned for eight days in the Temple’s menorah, when the quantity was only sufficient for one day. The New Testament says in John 10: 22 that Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah).

On December 9, 2011 President Obama had a “Hanukkah Party” in the White House. As a Christian I find the President’s party pretty much in line with the “strange-profane-unauthorized fire in the Leviticus quotation above. I also realize that many historic White House Hanukkah celebrations would not be considered kosher in the Jewish sense, but for some reason I find this date and the whole lack of any sort of sanctification or glory given to God, to fit the party occasion properly. I also read a number of writers who thought that the President would not treat a Muslim religious observance with such inaptitude.

The great thing that separates we humans from all of the lower animals is that we are inventors, or creators if you will, and with our mental and physical inventive creations we are able to innovatively construct cultures. This week we will look at our totally unique human attribute, which drives our whole world’s economic engine this time of year. That creation is religion.

Tags: Hanukkah, Christmas, Barack Obama, religion, Christianity, God, grace, Jesus