Special days
This week is on Galatians 4:8-10:
Paul is talking here to the Galatian church about keeping holy days. He doesn't mention whether they're Christian days, Jewish days, Pagan days, or Secular days, but the message is the same either way. The Galatians are enslaved by the calendar. They are bound superstitiously to it.
Most cultures have special days. In what I will call "Christendom," we have Christmas and Easter. In some places we also have Good Friday, Ascension, Pentecost, Epiphany and so on. In the US we have Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and so on. Holidays are good, but if they become too special they are in danger of enslaving us.
No one day is holier than another. There is nothing spiritual or eternal that can only happen on December 25th, or July 4th, and not on another day. God isn't closer to us on those days than any other. The fact of Jesus' birth is just as true on May 24th as it is on Christmas. Christ's sacrifice on the cross is just as valid on a random Tuesday as it is on Good Friday. Easter might as well be every day, as Jesus is no less victorious now than he was on the first one! There are traditions associated with those days, but they should be edifying for us, not something we're bound to and obligated to serve.
Conversely, our need to love and care for others isn't any less on those days than on the rest. The poor aren't any less hungry because it's July 4th. The lonely aren't less lonely on December 25th. There's nothing magic about any of the days we celebrate. They're just days.
Jesus said that the Sabbath was created for mankind, not mankind for the Sabbath. If a holiday doesn't serve us, but we feel bound to conform to the holiday and its traditions, it's no longer serving its purpose. Is feasting on New Year's Day any less holy than feasting on Christmas, if you're thankful to God? Is fasting holier during Lent than during a few hot weeks in summer?
What matters is what those actions do for us, and how our relationship with God evolves and how our love for others deepens through them. The day is not the important thing. If we tell God, "I won't fast and pray today because it's not yet Lent" we're only saying "I won't fast today." We risk disobedience for the sake of a calendar and our sentimental attachment to it. And if you say to a friend "No I won't help you move, because it's a Saturday, and Saturday is the Sabbath," then you've elevated your love of a day higher than your love of that friend. What is more important? What you do, or when you do it?
Paul wasn't saying to never take a break or enjoy a holiday. He wasn't even saying we should throw away our traditions. The message he was trying to get across was that we don't need to be bound as slaves to those things. We created them to serve us, not the other way around. Will Jesus hate us for not celebrating his birthday? No! Do I stop being an American if I don't celebrate Memorial Day or Independence Day? No, I get taxed either way!
This day has no power over me, nor hopefully does it have power over any of you. The sun goes down, the sun comes up, and the sun goes down again. That's all it is. It'll happen whether we're here or not, regardless of what name or number we've assigned to any particular day. There are enough things to do in the limited time left. We don't need to serve the calendar too.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
Paul is talking here to the Galatian church about keeping holy days. He doesn't mention whether they're Christian days, Jewish days, Pagan days, or Secular days, but the message is the same either way. The Galatians are enslaved by the calendar. They are bound superstitiously to it.
Most cultures have special days. In what I will call "Christendom," we have Christmas and Easter. In some places we also have Good Friday, Ascension, Pentecost, Epiphany and so on. In the US we have Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and so on. Holidays are good, but if they become too special they are in danger of enslaving us.
No one day is holier than another. There is nothing spiritual or eternal that can only happen on December 25th, or July 4th, and not on another day. God isn't closer to us on those days than any other. The fact of Jesus' birth is just as true on May 24th as it is on Christmas. Christ's sacrifice on the cross is just as valid on a random Tuesday as it is on Good Friday. Easter might as well be every day, as Jesus is no less victorious now than he was on the first one! There are traditions associated with those days, but they should be edifying for us, not something we're bound to and obligated to serve.
Conversely, our need to love and care for others isn't any less on those days than on the rest. The poor aren't any less hungry because it's July 4th. The lonely aren't less lonely on December 25th. There's nothing magic about any of the days we celebrate. They're just days.
Jesus said that the Sabbath was created for mankind, not mankind for the Sabbath. If a holiday doesn't serve us, but we feel bound to conform to the holiday and its traditions, it's no longer serving its purpose. Is feasting on New Year's Day any less holy than feasting on Christmas, if you're thankful to God? Is fasting holier during Lent than during a few hot weeks in summer?
What matters is what those actions do for us, and how our relationship with God evolves and how our love for others deepens through them. The day is not the important thing. If we tell God, "I won't fast and pray today because it's not yet Lent" we're only saying "I won't fast today." We risk disobedience for the sake of a calendar and our sentimental attachment to it. And if you say to a friend "No I won't help you move, because it's a Saturday, and Saturday is the Sabbath," then you've elevated your love of a day higher than your love of that friend. What is more important? What you do, or when you do it?
Paul wasn't saying to never take a break or enjoy a holiday. He wasn't even saying we should throw away our traditions. The message he was trying to get across was that we don't need to be bound as slaves to those things. We created them to serve us, not the other way around. Will Jesus hate us for not celebrating his birthday? No! Do I stop being an American if I don't celebrate Memorial Day or Independence Day? No, I get taxed either way!
This day has no power over me, nor hopefully does it have power over any of you. The sun goes down, the sun comes up, and the sun goes down again. That's all it is. It'll happen whether we're here or not, regardless of what name or number we've assigned to any particular day. There are enough things to do in the limited time left. We don't need to serve the calendar too.
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