March 15, 2014 Remember, Celebrate

Remember, Celebrate

Exodus 13

Ex 13:6-8 “For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’”  

THE first year I was a pastor, I was naïve enough to believe people in the church would want to celebrate Jesus. I thought, “We don’t have enough joy in church. We are saved by the blood of Jesus; yet, we act as if it’s a chore to go to church, to serve our Lord, to stand and sing, to sit and pray, and to read God’s Holy Word.” I thought, “The Jews were a celebrating people. If we model God’s people and begin to celebrate Jesus’ love and salvation for us, we’ll love Jesus more! We’ll love each other more!”

      I was wrong. Sadly people looked at me (and I think they still do) as if I’m crazy when I talk about celebrating Jesus in our lives. After all, why celebrate a God who allows so much icky stuff in our lives?

      The answer comes in the word, “remember”. In today’s scripture, God is commanding his people to take 7 days a year to remember his amazing grace, love and power to deliver them from Egypt’s pagan slave-based culture. Remembering must be for more than one day or for a family meal for an hour or so. The remembering must be for enough time to allow the truth of God’s saving power to truly soak into our hearts. God knew if his people remembered, they would celebrate Him!

      Sadly, the Hebrews would neglect the remembering. Then they would neglect their God. Their religion became chains of “I have to.” because they forgot, “I get to.”

LIFE Link: This Lent and Easter, take some time to remember Jesus—then celebrate Him always.