While every day is an intersection between time and eternity, sacred days and seasons are engraved invitations to each of us to connect without distraction to God’s Big Story. Holy days call us to move intentionally out of our right here, right now lives into a space in time that allows us to more fully savor his holy love for us. Our own “25/8″ overscheduled days are not the measure of our value to him. Sacred days and seasons call us into the intersection. There we can remember heart, soul, mind, and strength, as whole people, that we were made to live his Story all the days of our lives.
The Jewish feast cycle and the Christian calendar each offer an on-ramp into the intersection of time and eternity. If you attend a non-denominational congregation, your church may focus primarily on Christmas and Easter along with non-holiday holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Church Picnic Day. If you attend a liturgical congregation, you’re likely familiar with the rhythms of the Church calendar, which recounts the story of Jesus’s life through a yearly cycle of observance. If you have a Jewish background or attend a Messianic congregation, you recognize the distinct cadence of the Leviticus 23 feast cycle and historical holidays of the Jewish calendar.
For those of us who love the Scriptures and the Author of those Scriptures, each holiday in the Jewish calendar and Christian calendar is an opportunity to learn – and then take that learning off the page/screen and consider how to include it in your own practice. To that end, throughout the next year, I’ll be offering a quick “5 W’s and an H” Q & A resource for each holiday or season in both calendars.
Who?
Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday. However, there are lots of rich lessons for Gentile believers in this holiday which is focused on themes of redemption, repentance, and spiritual renewal. Traditional Scripture readings for this holiday includes Genesis 21-22. 1 Samuel 1:1-2:10, and Jeremiah 31:1-19. [Read more]
