November 24, 2024
• Rev. Jevon Caldwell-Gross
Intro
We are no strangers to celebrations. We have the typical celebrations of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, Mlk, Easter, Memorial Day, Presidents’ Day and a few others. But depending on your interests, there are many more things to celebrate. The list is infinite. Did you know there was candy corn day, international coffee day, collect rocks day, make your bed day, hug your hound day, be late for something day, kiss and make up day, left-handers day, Batman Day, Pretzel Day, Everything you think is wrong day, Napping Day, and my favorite, Plan a solo vacation day. People will celebrate just about anything. Literally!
As you can imagine most of the things we celebrate are human inventions. They were the result of people getting together and deciding that something is important enough for other people to celebrate. Somebody. Somewhere thought enough about candy corn to give it it’s day.
And that’s what makes this scripture in Leviticus so unique. “Somebody” did not conjure up these celebrations. This is why we are drawn to it on this Thanksgiving Sunday. Because in this chapter, we find God relaying these festivals/celebrations to Moses to relay to the people. This is what God thought was important. Essential to their community……While we only read one, These are 6 others, 7 in total that God gives detailed instructions as to how and why they are to celebrate.
1. Sabbath: A weekly day of rest and worship, reminding God’s people of Gods creation and provision (Leviticus 23:3).
2. Passover: A commemoration of God’s deliverance from Egypt, marking the beginning of their freedom (Leviticus 23:5).
3. Feast of Unleavened Bread: A seven-day festival recalling Israelites' hasty departure from Egypt, when they didn't have time to let their bread rise.
4. Feast of Firstfruits: An offering of the first harvest to acknowledge and show gratitude to God as the source of all blessings (Leviticus 23:9-14).
5. Feast of Weeks (Pentecost): A celebration of the wheat harvest and God’s continued provision, occurring 50 days after Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:15-22).
6. Feast of Trumpets: A joyful day of rest marked by the sounding of trumpets, ushering in a time of renewal and reflection (Leviticus 23:23-25).
7. Day of Atonement: A solemn day of fasting and repentance to seek reconciliation with God (Leviticus 23:26-32).
8. Feast of Tabernacles (Booths): A week-long celebration of God’s guidance and provision during the wilderness journey, marked by living in temporary shelters (Leviticus 23:33-43).
All of these celebrations were designed to show a sense of gratitude to God as it related to specific moments on their faith journey. Gratitude wasn’t just a feeling. Gratitude wasn’t something that just took up mental space or expressed through words, but their appreciation for God and God’s presence in their lives were to be expressed through specific celebrations. These celebrations were not extra circular activities. They were not supplements to other disciplines. God commanded them just God did with prayer, worship, and other disciples. For God, it was necessary. Commit the spiritual disciple of celebration . The role of Celebration becomes the center of their faith experience and how the regular connect with God and their community. Their faith necessitated celebrations and does our ours. Acts of Celebration are necessary to our faith (slide). We can’t do it without it……
As we come to specifics of our text, we learn that Celebrations are necessary because they serve as reminders of God’s past faithfulness that gives us the promise of future possibilities. (Slide) To celebrate is to let the future break into the present.
Whether it’s from the text we read or any of the other celebrations, they were all centered on their dependence of God during moments along their faith journey. Think about it, at one time they prayed fervently to be delivered from Egyptian bondage. At one point in time they prayed that God would make a way for them to be free. At one point in time they prayed that God would provide for them in the wilderness. They prayed for fruitful harvest. This is what they prayed for…
Now….They are free. They have provision. Life is good. And that my friends is the temptation. Sooner or later gets busy. Sooner or later kids get older. Jobs need to get done. For them, the seeds need to be plants. Crips need to get harvested. Sooner or later life goes on. And when life goes on, we have tendency to forget. What we prayed for in one season is often what we take for granted in another. Remember at one point in time, you prayed for either what you have or where you are. You prayed for the experience. You prayed for the job. You prayed for more responsibility. You prayed for more free time. You prayed for the opportunity. You prayed for the answer. You prayed for the home. You prayed to be able to downsize. You asked God for it. But then life happens. The luster wears off. Life gets hard. The answered prayer comes with its own challenges. Because leaving out of Egypt didn’t end their need for dependency. Being free, reaping their harvest, governing themselves, choosing their own leaders, fighting their own battles comes with its own challenges. But don’t forget that’s you prayed for it.
I went to visit a couple this past week that wanted their home dedicated. They were convinced that the way it all came together was nothing but a God thing! It was pretty amazing to see how excited they were to move into a new home that they saw built from the ground up. The husband would drive by the house every single day while it was being built to make sure everything was perfect. Making sure everything was level. Making sure everything was done correctly. Making sure their were no dents. No scratches. Making sure all of the appliances were working perfectly. Everyday he would go through the house looking for the slightest imperfections. He had the contractors name on speed dial. They were so happy to living in their perfectly newly built home. They were sure it was a God thing. The were extremely grateful!
But here’s the question for all of us, can we still remember we prayed for it when their are scratches on the walls, clothes on the floors, spills on the carpet, taxes raising, appliances breaking, arguments happening, bills coming, lights left on, grass thinning, pipes bursting, toilets plugged, and furnace goes it? Is it still a God thing? Can the gratitude outlast the life of the luster? You may not have move into a new home but there exist in all of us the temptation to overlook and undervalue the very prayers that God has answered.
Buts is the rhythm of celebrations that reminds of Gods past faithfulness and future possibilities. The celebration helps us remember! Regularly invites acts of gratitude and appreciation.
May our prayer in this season should be,“Lord please don’t let me mismanage and/or under appreciate the moments I prayed for. Help me to remember the very things for which I prayed?”
Celebrations are necessary because they communicate what’s important. In many ways these celebrations are shaping their identity as a people who are learning how to live in community. It’s defining who they and what’s important to them and to God. God is not asking them to place so much effort into these moments of celebration for the sake of celebration, but to communicate the values that will be important as they learn how to do life together. God doesn't use the language, but God def used the strategy, “Whatever is celebrated and rewarded gets replicated.”
It’s like companies now that try to encourage their employees to innovate, try new things and take risks. They way that some approach this is by rewarding and celebrating failure. Some hold “failure” parties and actually give out awards for the “best” failure to foster these ideas. Some have times where they ask employees to stand and confess their failures and everyone claps and applauds. Some even break out the wine and cheese and beer and champagne. Why? Because whatever behaviors are consistently celebrated and rewarded will get replicated.
The faith community is no different. Think about it what is being celebrated and communicated in these festivals. They are celebrating not only Gods faithfulness and provision, but they are also celebrating their trust in God. Let’s look at verses 39-44.
Remember this was a celebration that reminded them of Gods provision when they were delivered from Egyptian slavery. They were to live in these tents for 7 days to remind them of the experience of being in the wilderness. So what values do you think God is trying to get them to replicate? Trusting in Gods promise even when it looks different. Trusting in the wilderness experience of our own lives. Embracing the presence of community knowing we don’t go through the wilderness alone. Gratitude. Joy. Persistence. God didn’t show them through a sermon but through what was being consistently celebrated. And that has more power to stick that any words or PowerPoints.
Let say this a different way. My son is a die hard Detroit Lions fan. In fact, he has become critical of his other teenage counter parts that have now jumped on the bandwagon and now route for that Lions. He almost gets disgusted seeing them wear a Detroit lions t shirts. He gets defense whenever his allegiance is questioned. Here’s what’s interesting. He was not born or raised in Detroit. He’s NEVER LIVED IN DETROIT. He goes back maybe once or twice a year. But he was born on the east coast. He does not root for any teams from NJ or NYC. He does place any team from Indiana. Why? Because from the times he’s been little, the only teams that are truly celebrates are those from Detroit. He’s simply replicating what’s he has seen lifted up as a value. This is what he sees being celebrated.
Here’s why this is important? As Faith community, as a people the way we express our values is through the things that we offer our celebration. The values that get celebrated and rewarded are the ones that get replicated. It’s the ultimate express of our values. Be careful what you celebrate.
The behaviors in our community and in our world is a direct reflection of the things we unknowingly and unconsciously reward and celebrate.
I can’t expect innovation, free thought, and new ideas and only reward perfection
We can’t expect an outpouring love and then reward hate
We can’t expect the beauty of diversity and reward division.
We can’t expect our children to be kind, thoughtful, open minded when we celebrated success by any means necessary.
We can’t expect our world or our community to replicate aspects our faith that rarely get rewarded
But if they see gratitude, joy, Forgiveness,love, understanding, faithfulness being celebrated……..
But it’s still begs the question, why does God want to celebrate so often?! God wasn’t just intentional about the context of the celebrations but also the frequency. For the festival of tabernacles which celebrated God provision during the wilderness, they were supposed to live in tents for 7 days. Many of these were supposed to be yearly celebrations, some lasting several days, with the sabbath being observed WEEKLY! Weekly! These were celebrations that took up space in their lives. They had to structure their lives around them. Which begs the question, why does God require them to do it so much? Why so frequent? Every week, Every Month, there was always something. Every month, every week there was always something…. Sit with that for a minute…
Here’s the truth. Every week. Every month there will be something... Something to make you question your appreciation. Something to make you doubt. There will always be a reason to withhold your gratitude and act of celebration. Always. But God was gracious enough to frequently give them reasons and to create rhythms of being in constant gratitude. God knew there was never going to be a week, or a season that would not challenged. Celebration becomes a necessity because life will always give us reasons to sit out the celebration.
So the Celebration becomes an act of resistance. It resists the temptation of believing there is nothing worth celebrating. (Slide)
Let me put it like this. Phil Larson, Kylie Larson’s( pics) husband who preached here a few weeks ago is highly involved with world vision and they raise a lot of money through running half marathons. They had a team of about 17 people from St Lukes and raised over 25k. Here’s what’s he said about the race, “Race-wise, it wasn't my best or my worst. Kind of right in the middle. I had a few low moments but truly, thinking of less children having to walk several miles daily for dirty water help push (shuffle) my feet forward.”
We don’t always have to be at our best to grateful. Things don’t need to be perfect to show our gratitude through the disciple of celebration. Sometimes the celebration is that we finished even if it wasn’t our best. We are just grateful that we crossed the finish line. Sometimes we are grateful for just the people that encouraged us along the way. Celebrate the doors that were open. Doors that were closed. Celebrate the memories. Celebrate the journey. Celebrate the lessons we learned. We celebrate the preparation. Some season we only have enough strength to celebrate that we got out of bed and was able to put one foot in front of the other and that’s the win for that that season. It is resisting the urge to sit this one out, and despite everting that feel, see, and hear……find a moment of celebration. Because God is faithful enough to give us something to celebrate every season of our lives! And that alone is wi