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Recovering the
Lost Art of Celebrating
By
Pastor Jack Hayford
I like the
holidays! I enjoy the bowl games on New Year’s Day; I love the special
services and the high celebration of Easter; I like the parades
and fireworks on Independence Day, and I feast on Thanksgiving.
Everything about Christmas brings excitement and joy. But in much
of our society celebrating is a lost art.
In today’s
society, celebrating generally involves one of two things: getting
stoned out of your mind, or spending more money than you can afford.
It may involve
anything from a wild party that ends up in an orgy, to jumping on
a plane and heading for Tahiti, or taking a trip on booze or drugs.
Because of the pollution of celebration, many believers hesitate
to celebrate.
In the Church,
as well as in the world, we all need to learn to recover the lost
art of celebrating.
A
Biblical Example
Our situation
is not without precedent. In the Book of Nehemiah we find another
case where people needed instruction in celebration. Nehemiah 8:8-12
describes a scene in the open square in front of one of the great
gates of Jerusalem, where the people had gathered to hear the reading
of the Law. Ezra, the scribe, stood on a platform and read the Law,
while others of the scribes and Levites helped the people to understand
the words of the Law. "So they read distinctly from the book,
in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand
the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest
and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the
people, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor
weep.’ For all the people wept when they heard the words of the
Law. Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat, drink the
sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow for the joy of the
Lord is your strength.’ So the Levites quieted all the people saying,
‘Be still for the day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people
went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly
because they understood the words that were declared to them."
These people
had come together to celebrate the rebuilding of the temple and
the city at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles was
one of three feasts in which everybody was to come to Jerusalem
each year. It would have been late in September, or early in October
on our calendar. And, as they came to the Feast of Tabernacles,
the people gathered to hear the Word of God read. They had not heard
the Word in this way since the reinstitution of the city, so this
was a new experience for them.
While they
were hearing the Word being ministered by Ezra and other teachers
there, the people became aware of their own inadequacies—their failure
to measure up to the standards of the Word. Sincere tears began
to flow, and a peculiar thing happened: they were told to stop crying.
It’s important
to understand that there is an appropriate time to weep in repentance
and to regret that you’ve walked in violation of God’s Word. But
there is also a balance point. As the Word was presented and the
people responded, they were not permitted to continue in a mourning
mode. Nehemiah and Ezra instructed the other leaders to stop the
people’s crying. They said, "Wait! You don’t understand! There
is a right response of repentance, but this day is holy to the Lord
your God. Don’t mourn or weep."
Many people
don’t realize that the original derivation of our word "holiday"
is from "holy day." So when Nehemiah and Ezra said, "This
day is holy to the Lord your God," what they were saying was,
"This is a holiday; it’s a time to celebrate, not to mourn
and weep." And they gave the people instructions on how to
celebrate. "Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat,
drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is
prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow for the
joy of the Lord is your strength’" (Nehemiah 8:10).
When they said
"eat the fat" they were talking about eating meat. But
I like that it says "fat." What it’s saying is, "Go
ahead and enjoy yourselves! Eat what you like." Today we might
say, "Go ahead! Have two desserts!" And give presents
or food to each other—"send portions!" So they "went
their way to eat and drink and send portions and rejoiced greatly
because they understood." These people had to be taught how
to celebrate in the light of God’s Word.
Why didn’t
they understand? They had lived in captivity too long. Now they
were free and back in the circle of the life of the Living God and
they didn’t know how to live in His ways. They didn’t know how to
celebrate. They had to be taught all over again.
Let’s look
at how celebration can be recovered, because it’s important that
we understand both the biblical grounds and the practical implementation
of celebrating.
Biblical
Grounds For Celebrating
Deuteronomy
16 names three feasts: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast
of Firstfruits and the Feast of Tabernacles. For those feasts, everybody
was to come to the national hometown, Jerusalem, for the celebration.
Afterwards, they would return to their own homes where the celebration
continued.
These celebrations
were written into the law of God’s people. Everybody knows the Lord
said, "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not worship the idols that falsely represent God, and
you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet." But
here the Lord said, "You shall feast." It was a directive
on His part. He called everybody to do it. We need to see that the
nature and the character of God is completely consistent with joyful
celebration. We also need to understand that those celebrations
had a context.
There are two
great principles in all of the things that are fundamental to God’s
order for His people: The first is sacrifice; the second is feasting.
In sacrifice God was calling people to come to terms with their
relationship with Him. Then, in the feasts He invited them to celebrate
in the context of that relationship and to recognize the liberty
that could be enjoyed by people who live in relationship with Him.
The entire sacrificial system of the Mosaic covenant forecasted
the final sacrifice at Calvary. The Bible says the Law was a tutor
to bring us to Christ. The Book of Hebrews elaborates how the network
of sacrifices in Israel were pointing to the person of Jesus.
God provided
a sacrifice for our sin. And we dare not be foolish enough to suppose
that there’s reason for feasting, living in liberty, and rejoicing
unless relationship has been established with God first. Therefore,
on the grounds of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ,
the Bible invites us to enter into the spirit of His liberty and
rejoicing. If you have not yet entered into relationship with Jesus
Christ as your Savior, I urge you to do it right now. You will then
have the best reason in the world to celebrate: new life in Jesus
Christ.
Biblical
Guidelines For Celebrating
In Deuteronomy
16:3-17 we also find four principles of celebration that God has
ordained. In verse 3, the Lord instructs how the Feast of Unleavened
Bread (or the Passover) ought to be observed. He says that the primary
reason for this feast was to remind Israel how the Lord brought
them out of Egypt. In other words, the first principle of celebration
is remembrance. Each part of the Passover Feast was symbolic and
representative of what had taken place in the sacrifice of the lamb
for deliverance from captivity. The Feast of Unleavened Bread involved
purging homes as a reminder that they were to be rid of Egypt so
they could enter into the way of God’s people. The Feast of Firstfruits
was a beautiful demonstration of remembering to thank God for every
harvest. And the Feast of Tabernacles was to remember the Lord’s
sustaining grace throughout the wilderness journey. These feasts
each contained an element of remembrance.
Secondly, in
Deuteronomy 16:11, God’s people are instructed to rejoice. The Lord
said, "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and
your son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female
servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and
the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where
the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide." The Lord
is saying, "Gather together where the people of God worship,
and let your celebration include joyful praise."
In verse 14,
He says, "You shall rejoice in your feast." And the feasting
is to include all that are within your gates. So here it is in plain
English: Gather together and praise the Lord with rejoicing at the
worship center; then go to your homes with the orphans, the destitute,
the foreigners, and all your relatives. Then the Lord said, "feast
in your house." I can’t tell you how pleased I am that God
says, "Feast." When I sit down at the holiday dinner,
I am always very, very scriptural!
Finally, in
verse 17 the Lord said, "Every man shall give as he is able,
according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given
you." Giving is involved—giving in the sense of offerings and
in the sense of giving gifts. So celebration, as outlined in God’s
word, involves these things: remembering, rejoicing, feasting, and
giving.
Unfortunately,
what has characterized the celebration of our culture is drunkenness,
foolishness, and giddiness. It may have its moments of fun, but
it ends in a letdown or a hangover. And many believers who have
come out of that world scene and don’t know how to celebrate say,
"Well, I know I’m not to celebrate that way. So I guess I’ll
celebrate by doing nothing."
I don’t know
of anything that distresses me more deeply than the number of people
whose notion of being godly is to remove anything celebrative in
the context of the culture. Many have been systematically taught
that if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and believe the Word of
God then there are a whole set of rituals that you need to observe
or not observe. And I have dealt with people who are the shattered
remnants of children who were raised in homes where parents said,
"We serve God. You will not get Christmas presents because
that’s the world system." Or "We should thank God all
the time so we don’t have a special day called Thanksgiving."
God wants to deliver His people from religious bondage that preempts
the place of celebration.
Practical
Guidelines For Celebrating
So how do we
celebrate? I’m going to talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas specifically,
but I also want to talk about celebrating in general because these
principles had to do with all the feasts God has instituted. I want
us to see the traits of those as they’re brought over and applied
to our lives today.
There are three
Greek words upon which I would like to build this application: kurios,
chairo, and koinonia. Kurios is the Greek word for
"Lord," chairo is the verb for "rejoice," and
koinonia is the word for "share" or "sharing."
Let’s look at the heart of all celebration and to see how these
three things are observed.
First, they
are done before the Lord—He is the Lord of the celebration. You
see, all through the passage in Deuteronomy, the Lord said, "Come
and rejoice before the Lord your God." In other words, your
God isn’t shocked, ashamed, or embarrassed when people get happy
around Him.
By and large,
the world thinks of the true, pure, living God, the God of justice
and righteousness, as being rather dour and stern. And so the world
creates its own gods to party around, and it bows at the shrine
of Bacchus. But the living God, Jehovah allows for pure joy filled
with all kinds of release—without the bondage that goes with the
worship of other gods and the pursuit of the world’s system of celebration.
Celebration
starts by focusing on the Lord. "Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks
you a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). People
usually use that verse to say that you ought to be ready to witness
whenever the opportunity comes. It does mean that. But I can’t imagine
anything that would prompt people to ask more readily than being
exposed to wholesome, happy, releasing and desirable celebrating.
Some people
invite folks to their home—relatives oftentimes—and their idea of
making the most of the holiday is to seize an opportunity to witness
to the family. They’ll gather their family at the Thanksgiving table,
and what is ostensibly a thanksgiving prayer of gratitude to God
actually becomes an evangelistic sermon. People think "This
is our chance! We’ve got to make hay while the sun shines; we’ve
got them on the hot seat!" That’s exactly where you’ve got
them, and they don’t really care to be in that kind of situation.
You’re not going to win your family to Jesus that way.
But when they
see the love of God in your midst and the joy of Jesus in your home
and something of healthy celebration…that will touch people. They
may not say anything to you, but they’ll notice it, and they’ll
think about it. Sanctify the Lord God and be ready to show what
it’s like to live in His liberty. That’s the way to celebrate any
holiday.
What
Can You Do?
First, worship.
The reason our church has a service on Thanksgiving morning is so
that we can sanctify the day to the Lord. You may not be able to
join with others for worship but there are other things you can
do.
Read the Word.
Psalm 100 is one of the best known and probably the most read Thanksgiving
psalm. Here are some other psalms you might read: Psalms 34, 65,
66, 67, 84 and 107. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom
He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…" (Psalm 107:2)
After you read
the Word, sing. Sing a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.
But what if none of your family knows the Lord. What can you do?
When you get up in the morning, kneel by the side of your bed, worship
God and praise Him. Read the Word and sing a song to the Lord. If
anybody at the family table asks you to pray, then pray with thanksgiving
for whatever God puts in your heart. And thank Him for all those
in your family. Don’t become sermonic and don’t feel defeated or
depressed. Be glad that you’re in a place where the joy of the Lord
fills you and
you know what it’s about. And let your light and His life overflow
in a loving and sensitive
way.
Rejoice! Philippians
4:4 has always amused me because I have a mental picture of how
I think this happened. Paul was in jail for the testimony of Christ,
and he was dictating this letter to Epaphroditus. We read, "Rejoice
in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" I’ve often
thought that Paul said to Epaphroditus, "Next, rejoice in the
Lord always…" And while Epaphroditus was writing that down,
Paul was probably thinking, "I know those people in Philippi;
they’re so dear and precious to me. But I know they’ll fly right
on by that if I just say, ‘Rejoice.’" So he said, "Write:
‘…Again I will say, "rejoice!""
We need to
be reminded to rejoice. Then we need to be reminded that we were
reminded. How do we rejoice? The obvious way, of course, is to rejoice
with feasting and not feel guilty about it. Rejoice at the holiday
seasons with certain activities that contribute to the remembrance,
the commemoration and the fun of what it’s all about. That isn’t
giddy, that’s Godly. There’s just something about rejoicing that
we need to be told "…and again I say, ‘rejoice.’" It’s
consistent with God’s order of celebration.
Then the final
thing is sharing, koinonia. The Bible makes it very clear in such
passages as Acts 2:44, 45; and 4:32-37 that it was characteristic
of the Early Church to share. And they shared everything they had.
In the passage that we studied in Deuteronomy, we learn who to include
in our celebrating: "those within your gates." This includes
your son and your daughter—that’s your family; your manservant and
your maidservant—those are employees; the stranger—that’s the foreigner;
the fatherless—that’s the orphan; the widow—that’s the destitute:
everyone within your gates.
We think of
family as kin—blood relatives. But the Lord says that when you
celebrate you
include people that otherwise would be left out. He was establishing
a mode that needed to be perceived by His people as characteristic
of the grand embrace of His heart toward everybody. And He says
that we ought to let our sharing be like that.
Now sharing
takes place in three ways: in funds, in feasting and in family.
First of all, in funds: that’s money—giving. The Lord says when
you celebrate, give. At Thanksgiving time it is particularly appropriate
to give to organizations who help feed the hungry. But that would
also be an appropriate part of any holiday. Giving is a natural
part of celebrating Christmas. But along with giving to your family,
don’t forget to give outside your family circle as well.
Feasting has
to do with rejoicing with family around the table. Don’t restrict
these times to blood family. If you don’t have any family, begin
to develop one. Invite a lonely neighbor, a single coworker, a visiting
businessman. We Christians need to stop sitting around licking our
wounds. Look for others with whom you can share the holidays. Pour
yourself out!
One of the
first holidays Anna and I were in the ministry we were invited to
a home that had very little resource and very little of what I would
call just plain social know-how of how to put on a dinner. But the
couple invited us to their home for a holiday meal. We were just
two kids out by ourselves all the way across the country with none
of our family around and, I’ll tell you, the love that those people
showed far outweighed the fact that they really didn’t know how
to put on a fancy dinner the way some people do. There are people
who are afraid to cook for others because they’re not outstanding
cooks or outstanding hostesses. Some guys may not be able to cook
at all. Well, fast for about four days, take the money you’ve saved
on food, get a ready-cooked ham or turkey, and bring some people
in. Just pour yourself out.
Celebrating
Christmas
Anytime you
talk about Santa Claus or Christmas trees and lights, or gifts,
you will find sincere people who love the Lord and think they have
to verify it by denouncing certain things related to celebrating
Christmas.
I have seen
literature where someone has rearranged the word "Santa"
to make it spell "Satan." Many people then assume that
if Santa is satanic, then all of the trappings of
Christmas are evil, and they don’t celebrate at all.
I don’t believe
that Santa is an evil figure. Wrapped up in Santa Claus is powerful
imagery that can be interpreted and presented in a precious, tender,
and scriptural way. To begin with, Santa’s point of reference for
our culture comes from the United Kingdom—Britain. The British people
called him "Father Christmas," the one who comes to make
Christmas fulfilling and remind us of the Living God who gave the
ultimate gift: His Son. It’s very easy to make that transition to
the spirit of giving and the spirit of love, and the reason we give
gifts to each other.
Basically,
I think it’s a matter of taking a close look at any holiday and
then asking the Lord to give you a spiritual significance to it…one
that is positive, not prohibitive.
For example,
the Christmas tree is not simply a lovely point of decoration in
your home. It can also be a powerful point of instruction. I don’t
think we need to sit the kids down in front of the Christmas tree
every night before we turn on the lights and remind them that it’s
holy and spiritual. But the fact is the evergreen tree is a marvelous
reminder that everlasting life was given to us on a tree. The Christmas
tree represents God’s gracious gift to us, because it was on the
CrossTree that God gave us His Son. We come to receive gifts at
the foot of the Christmas tree, and at the foot of the Cross, we
receive not only the gift of eternal life but the gift of God’s
Spirit and His provision for our lives. The ornaments hanging on
the tree are beautiful pictures of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Of course,
the Christmas story needs to be carefully told from the Scriptures,
and it can be done effectively, graciously and joyously. Don’t be
a holy humbug. Welcome Christmas into your heart, your life and
your home, and look for ways to help others see the life and the
joy of the season.
The Lord calls
us to celebrate. God established a biblical base and pattern for
it, and He calls His people to commemorate with understanding, to
rejoice with a focus and to share and pour themselves out. There
is something that seems woefully pathetic and withering about people
who live under the notion that the only way to celebrate is the
world’s way. But in Christ’s life and love there’s plenty of room
for rejoicing established on the basis of finished sacrifice and
relationship with Him.
There is release
into the joy of rejoicing. Let’s live there.
© 2000 Living
Way Ministries * 14820 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405 * (800) 776-8180.
Additional
Resources:
Audio Albums
Recovering The Lost Art of Celebrating SC659
Thanksgiving
The Wisdom of Giving Thanks #1163
The Penalty for Thanklessness #1703
Christmas
Smashing the Scrooge Spirit - #2100
The Road to Bethlehem - #2104
The Worship of Christmas Series - #2607,
#2610, #2613,
#2615
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Jack
Hayford Ministries
14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405-2233