Monday, 14 January 2008 00:00 | and posted in Spiritual Disciplines
If, when I say "Celebrations," you immediately think of an almost empty tub of chocolates with all the Bounties and Snickers still sitting in the bottom, you are not alone. It's even possible you may be a Christian!
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that salvation is to be found in sweeties or that nuts are inherently evil, what I'm saying is that generally Church-world is not known for its celebrations and that, as a consequence, Christians themselves don't tend to be very good at celebrating.
The classic media image of the church is of a sombre service led by Rev. Lovejoy and with Homer Simpson bored or asleep in the congregation. Regardless of whether this is an accurate picture of your church or not, if you took a poll in your church I reckon you would find that people talk about fasting quicker than they do feasting! And yet both, you may be surprised to hear... are good, solid Biblical disciplines.
Let's take Matthew 22:1-14 as an example. Jesus is teaching the crowd about what ‘the kingdom of heaven' is like. Now when Matthew uses the phrase ‘kingdom of heaven,' he is talking about the same thing that Luke calls the ‘kingdom of God' and John calls ‘eternal life' or ‘life to the full.' Jesus is talking about God's people living in an interactive (heaven-like) relationship with God here on earth; bringing heaven to earth if you like.
So, Jesus says this outrageous thing, life with God - now, on earth - is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son... Wow, hang on! This is exciting stuff already and that's with us just thinking back to the last wedding we went to... but in Jesus' day, weddings were huge community affairs that lasted 7 days and were full of feasting and drinking and partying and entertainment.
Celebration is supposed to be part and parcel of our Christian experience as guests to this kingdom of heaven party. But how much do you and your friends and family celebrate?
I've come up with three reasons why God asks us to be celebratory people: (1) celebrations proclaim God's goodness to us and his role in our lives; (2) they recognise significant events that are good to remember for our development and ongoing spiritual transformation; and (3) they cause us to share our lives and God's blessing with others.
The next time something significant happens in your life - your birthday, you pass your exams/driving test, a friend becomes a Christian, you get your first job - then why not throw a party to celebrate and share the good news? All you need is food!