After Pentecost Devotional - Day 07

“After you have entered the country promised to you by the LORD, you and your children must continue to celebrate Passover each year. Your children will ask you, 'What are we celebrating?'” Exodus 12:24-26

Traditions have an important place to play in our lives. Celebrations help us remember milestones, they remind us of important times and events in our past. They help us to think toward the future in terms of difficulties and accomplishments of the past. They help us remember and so avoid the traps of repeating the same mistakes over and over again. At least that is one way in which celebrations can serve us.

In regard to Passover, the main purpose of the celebration was two-fold. It was to remind the adults of the events of the past. It was also designed to teach the next generation in regard to the lessons from the past.

The Jews understood that as their children asked questions about the Passover, they were to retell the story of why they celebrate, honoring how Yahweh had freed them from bondage in Egypt to introduce them into a new life. It was a celebration of memory that continues to the present.

In preparing a reconstruction of the Passover of the First Century, we interviewed the leaders of the Hebrew school in Porto Alegre, where we were living. They told us that not only did Passover mean that rehearsal for the younger generations, but that many Jews only celebrate Passover while there are children in the home. For those Jews today, it is very specifically a celebration for the children. It is a tool to teach them about their heritage and the stories of their faith tradition.

While this misses part of the point of the celebration, it also underscores the importance of using our celebrations to teach ourselves and our children. It is in our Christmas pageants, passion week portrayals, Easter musicals, and the like that we pass on the stories of our faith. Hopefully, we pass along their significance at the same time.

All too often, however, we get caught up in the wrong end of our celebrations. We celebrate casseroles and desserts without the meaning of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. We celebrate our Fall Festivals and Valentines with barely a nod to the hope of the gospel of love. We celebrate our military and political independence with barely a mention of the salvation offered by the Prince of Peace.

Passover was a time to remind one and all of our dependence upon God's redemption. As the Jewish custom declares, each participant must find a personal connection to being freed from Egypt in the Passover event. Without this kind of meaning infusing our worship, our festivities, and our celebrations, why would we even bother?

Perhaps it is time we reviewed the purpose of our traditions to make sure they serve a worthwhile purpose.

Do your traditions build meaning and purpose for others? Determine to make each celebration meaningful, rather than one more excuse to serve cake.


"Lord, make me more mindful of my responsibility to use celebrations for worthwhile purposes."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
My latest books can be found here on amazon

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You Made Me Choose, but Why?

Image
Did you really think I would give you more importance than my own daughter? Did you really think you could use our father’s memory as a weapon to bend me to your will? Did you really think pulling rank would force me to adapt to your definitions of propriety, when you have never once interrupted your life on my behalf? Did you really think protecting a relationship that has always depended on my initiative would have greater weight than maintaining, caring for, and supporting the family I’ve made and lived with more than twice the time I ever lived with you? Did you really think I would refashion my life and character after your expectations for me? Did you really think I would hand over my autonomy to you, simply because you refused to listen or learn anything about me and my family? Did you really think I would interpret your attempts to control me and my family as love? Did you really think I don’t understand love enough to recognize your prote...
Read more

Self-Righteous Oppression

Image
Beware being taken in by the hypocrisy of the self-righteous. We try to hide the reality of our inner lives, but all secrets will come to light. What is whispered in the dark will be heard in full daylight, widely broadcast and published. Do we really think that those who died in the collapse of the Twin Towers were any worse offenders than everyone else in New York City? Do we think the four girls killed at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham were more sinful than those who set the bombs? Are the oppressed less worthy than their oppressors? We applaud civil rights heroes of the past, yet retain policies which actively oppose them. We join parades and erect monuments in their honor, bearing witness to their cause as just. Then we push new policies to keep the same minorities in subjection! How were diversity, equity, and inclusion just and righteous then, but now suddenly a threat? We pray before a meal, giving thanks for God’s provision. Meanwhile, greed direct...
Read more

Lenten Devotions - Day 06

“But if you don’t want to worship Yahweh, then choose right now! Will you worship the same idols your ancestors did? Or since you’re living on the land that once belonged to the Amorites, maybe you’ll worship their gods. I won’t. My family and I are going to worship and obey Yahweh!” Joshua 24:15 Joshua again! This is only one verse later than what we read two days ago. He was pretty emphatic with these people. In the same context, he will tell them that he does not believe they will be faithful, regardless of their cries of fidelity to Yahweh. He knew them too well. They were too enmeshed in their way of life to let God change them in any meaningful way. They knew all the right answers to Joshua’s cry for commitment, but their words were empty. If we went back, we would find Moses giving the people pretty much the same challenge a generation before. We would have heard about the same response, too—all the right answers, all the declarations of fidelity to Yahweh, and all the same ...
Read more