Sermon Tone Analysis

IMAGINE: Celebration Sunday

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

May 13~/15, 2005

 

Good morning and welcome to the party as we celebrate God—his character and his faithfulness and his works in our lives and in our church.

We just heard about some of the goofy ways people celebrate, but the truth is you and I were created to celebrate…we were designed for celebration.

Celebration is God’s idea.

For many of us who were raised up in churches that felt like a funeral every week, we have a hard time giving attention to celebration—but that’s God’s design.

One time Jesus was asked by a group to describe the kingdom of God, and he said, “The kingdom of God is like a wedding reception,” and then he went on to describe how God’s kingdom is one big party where everyone is invited, all those who are normally rejected by others, they are all invited to God’s party.

None of us have ever been to a first century Jewish wedding reception, but let me tell you it was quite a blow out.

People spared no expense and they worked very hard to make sure it was the party of all parties.

That’s why when Jesus and Mary were at the wedding in Cana, Mary panicked for the family who ran out of wine.

Jesus’ first miracle was saving a party.

My cousin got married to a guy who is a part of a huge urban Philadelphia Italian family.

They had this huge Italian wedding, and that comes pretty close to the way those in Jesus’ day through a wedding reception.

Talk about a party.

They bring on the food and the music and the dancing…they put everything they can into making it the best party they can.

If you’ve ever been to an Italian wedding, you’ve experienced something like a first century Jewish wedding party.

So, Jesus is asked about the kingdom of God, and he says, “It’s like a wedding party, a real blow out, and everyone is invited.”

Think of all the ways he could have answered a big question like, “what is the kingdom of God like?”

And he says, “The kingdom is a party.”

Do we really think that much of celebration?

I don’t.

Do I really view God’s kingdom expressed in the church as a party?

Is celebration really that big of a deal?

The truth is, it is!

Celebration honors God and includes everybody, it draws us all together.

Just look at the nation of Israel described in the Old Testament.

The way God set up the nation of Israel was around the concept of celebration.

Israel was the most celebration oriented nation ever, and it was God’s idea.

By the time Jesus was born, let me share with you how much God asked the nation of Israel to spend in celebration.

First of all, every week was a Sabbath, where they took a break from work and celebrated God and enjoyed each other.

Every week they had a celebration.

Every month was another special celebration, the new moon festival.

At every new moon, God asked them to celebrate, and they would gather together with food and fun and honor God for allowing them to experience his grace and his covenant blessing one more month.

Additionally, God asked them to celebrate with multiple festivals and feasts to commemorate what God had done in their history.

Their calendar was built around these parties and celebrations.

Let me summarize these major celebrations they looked forward to every year.

*The Feast of Trumpets*.

The year started with a new year celebration, the feast of trumpets.

They had this big party together to praise God for creation and for a whole new year.

We ring in the new year with a ball in Time’s Square, they did so with the blowing of a ram’s horn.

*Day of Atonement*.

A couple of weeks later as the day of atonement, which was the only festival that was solemn in tone.

At this time, people would offer a special sacrifice for their sins, and the nation would do so for their corporate sins and the sins of the leaders.

Every year they gathered to do this, and on every seventh year a more upbeat celebration was added to remember God’s redemption of the nation from slavery.

*Feast of Tabernacles*.

A few days after the day of atonement, was the feast of tabernacles, which is one of the festivals where people all over the nation traveled to Jerusalem to join in the celebration.

This party went on for 8 days, Sabbath to Sabbath, and each family would build a tent ~/ lean-to kind of structure and camp out in their for part of the time.

They did that to remember the hardships the nation went through in the wilderness and to remember how God provided for the nation in that time.

On the last night of this party was called the festival of lights, where every person lit a torch and marched around Jerusalem.

Imagine thousands and thousands of lights.

*Chanukah.*

We’ve all heard of Chanukah, which happened a couple of months later.

Chanukah was another 8 day celebration, remembering the dedication of the 2nd temple and his continued protection of the nation.

In Jesus’ day, during these days they put lamps out all over the outside of the temple, which would have been quite a site at night as the lights reflected off all the gold and marble.

They ate special food, gave gifts, and it was quite a celebration.

*The Feast of Purim.*

A couple of months later was the feast of Purim, which celebrated God’s deliverance when the nation was in captivity under Persia and God protected the race from being wiped out.

It was another very special time of feasting and gift-giving.

*Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.*

A few weeks later was the Passover, where as a family you’d slaughter a lamb and eat it all that day.

For the next week was the feast of unleavened bread, where you ate only unleavened bread.

This feast was to remember how God delivered the nation from slavery in Egypt and how he provided for them in the wilderness.

*Feast of First Fruits*.

50 days after Passover was Pentecost, or the feast of first fruits.

This was a party to celebrate the harvest.

On that day, the poor could glean food from the corners of land owner fields to provide for the season for them.

It was another special feast day and quite a party.

When you add all this up, it is really amazing how much the nation spent time in celebration together.

Every week was a Sabbath, every month a new moon festival, and throughout the year special celebrations, several of which lasted a week or more.

In fact, when you total up the days, it meant that about 95 days a year were spend in celebration…that means that about one out of every four days was a party.

Think about that.

25% of the time, they were in some kind of celebration mode, gathering together to honor God and enjoy each other.

Because of that, there was in rabbinical Judaism (time of Jesus) a story about a man who hated celebration, the kind of guy that thought parties were a waste of time, and he dies and goes to heaven.

When he gets to heaven, God sends him back down to earth because he didn’t fit in.

God sent him down to learn how to celebrate so that he would be more comfortable in heaven.

No wonder Jesus describes the kingdom of God like a party, and in the early church they continued that tradition.

In fact, by the second century it was discussed as a real problem because their calendars were so full of celebrations in the early church…they had these discussions about maybe having too many of those.

As I looked at all this during this week, I was really convicted personally.

I’m not a good celebrator.

I never have been.

When something good happens, there is always some new challenge around the corner, so there is really no time to celebrate.

That’s over, and now there is something new in front of me.

I’ve always been like that.

I never even wanted to go to graduations in college and graduate school even though I worked hard and earned these awards they give out, but the awards didn’t mean anything once I got them because there was always some new challenge out there to focus on.

But as I looked at this week, I realized that God designed us for it and it honors God when we do it.

When I pray for God’s help, and he enables me to do something, if I do not celebrate I take honor away from him.

It’s like me saying to God, “You didn’t do anything special.”

I mean, let’s say you chose to give me a car, a brand new really cool car and you are so excited to give it, and I just take the keys from you and never say anything about it…just drive off and never say anything, never acknowledge what you’ve done.

How would you feel?

You didn’t give it to me just to be acknowledged, but if you arne’t acknowledged it is just not right.

That’s they way I treat God when I don’t celebrate.

I’m acting like he didn’t do anything worthy of me mentioning it.

As a church, I think we could do better on this celebration thing.

I think we could do better expressing the kingdom of God as a party to which all are invited.

In fact, imagine what would happen of that’s the way people in our culture thought of church.

When we gather together, we should come with a spirit of joy and celebration, and Jesus in that parable where he talks about the kingdom of God as a party says we should invite every single person we can think of to join in because all are welcome.

So, this summer we want to do a special kind of celebration.

Summer is a time of enjoyment, of bright sunny skies, and we want to celebrate God and his love for us, and enjoy these weeks of summer.

So, next week we are starting a series on the book of Psalms, called, /a;lskdjfsla/.