Friday, October 6, 2017

Festival Fever

Friday, October 6, 2017
“Each year you must celebrate three festivals in my honor.  First, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, just as I commanded you.  Celebrate this festival annually at the appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib, for that is the anniversary of your departure from Egypt.  No one may appear before me without an offering.  “Second, celebrate the Festival of Harvest, when you bring me the first crops of your harvest.  “Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields.  At these three times each year, every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the Lord.   Exodus 23:14-17(NLT)
Festivals in our state are plentiful, and they represent so many different issues, causes and just plain any-kind-of-reason-to-have-a-party theme you can imagine.  At random I picked a website[2] of the festivals in North Carolina; there are so many different types of festivals around the state this time of year…how can you choose?
·       Bluegrass
·       Latin American Culture
·       State & County fairs
·       Winston-Salem International LGBT Film Festival
·       Family Film Festival
·       Greensboro Barks & Brews (I assume that’s for beer-drinking dogs)
·       Art and Seafood Festivals galore
·       Chili Challenge Festival
·       Cross-Country Bicycling Festival
·       Hellbelly Hootenanny in Asheville (don’t ask)
·       Lest we leave somebody out, Thomasville has Everyone’s Day to kick-off October
And, for the all-time favorites there are going to be some tough choices or tough schedules for those who attempt being in two different parts of the state at the same time…Oktoberfest!  On October 14th Durham will host the World Beer Festival.  And providing the tough choice of deep soul-searching for attending the event with the greatest social conscience, just 241.3 miles west of Durham, Hendersonville will have the Families Living Violence Free Shagging Pig Festival[3]
You just can’t make up some of this stuff!
Now, that’s a bit of fun at the expense of our state’s tourism ticket, but the concept of festival has a long history, and it is something we need.  We need celebration for numbers of reasons. 
In today’s Exodus reading God commanded Israel to celebrate three festivals annually.  The purpose is to pass along the faith, remembering not only Who we worship, but why we worship.  The Exodus was a historical divide for the Israelites, releasing them from Egyptian bondage.  As American independence from British tyranny is celebrated on July 4th each year so we will never forget the meaning and cost of our freedom, God wanted all of His children to remember the grave cost of their freedom.
Festivals can lose momentum in time when the meaning gets drowned in the drinking, eating and just plain partying.  There is a festival, ongoing for the last two thousand years, which started when the tomb was discovered to be unoccupied.  The resurrection is celebrated every week in our communities of faith – and every moment in our hearts, if we keep our life’s focus balanced well. 
That is a festival well-worth keeping! 

For You Today

Whenever and whatever you’re about to celebrate, take a moment to re-focus on Who gave you the abundant life you’re going to invest in that time.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!


[1] Title Image: CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
[3] Actually there is a social issue at back of this festival…a focus on eradicating domestic violence

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