The Discipline of Celebration
“The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot!” (Augustine of Hippo)
Celebration: the action of marking one's pleasure at an important event or occasion by engaging in enjoyable, typically social, activity.
Celebration is at the heart of God’s way of doing things.
The creation hymn begins,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:1-2).
It progresses with God creating light to give the ability to see and life to what He will go on to form. Along the way he separates things and creates boundaries. He is drawing lines and creating limits to complete His goal. The Divine Artist does not stop until He sees His image in creation.
Along the way the hymn pictures God taking time to celebrate at the completion of each step as He moved towards His purpose in creation. He stops the process to declare that what He has made is good (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25)! And then when He has achieved His goal of seeing His image in creation, He declares all that He has made very good (Gen 1:31)!
God celebrates!
In the book of Job 38:4-7 (NKJV), God answers him from a whirlwind with these words:
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Heaven celebrates along with God! As followers of the Way of Jesus, we are called to participate in the life of God through the Holy Spirit and part of participation in the life of God is celebration!
As the first creation, so is the new creation. When Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary through the Holy Spirit, we find her rejoicing! She celebrated! When she visited her cousin Elizabeth, both of them are filled with the Holy Spirit and celebrated! When Jesus was born, the host of heaven who had celebrated the creation in ages past, appeared to a group of shepherds with a high note of jubilation: “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people! (Luke 2:10).
Jesus began His ministry with these words (Luke 4:18-19):
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord meant proclaiming the year of Jubilee, which was an OT practice where every fiftieth year everyone’s debts were canceled, everyone enslaved or indentured as a servant was set free, and land that had been bought up was returned to the family God had originally given it to (Lev 25:8-55; 27:17-24; Num 36:4). If we are followers of the Way of Jesus we are called to a perpetual Jubilee of the Spirit!
Jesus enables us to be free from possessions and to restructure social arrangements. This is a cause for celebration! When the poor receive good news, this is a reason for celebration! When captives are released, this is a cause for celebration! When the blind receive their sight, when the oppressed are liberated, who can withhold the shout of celebration, the shout of Jubilee!!!
In the OT, they were to practice the year of Jubilee for one reason to express their trust in God’s provision. He had told them this that if they practiced the year of Jubilee He would “command [His] blessing upon [them]”!
It is freedom from anxiety and care that forms the basis for celebration! Because we know that He cares for us, we can cast all our care upon Him. God promises to turn our mourning into dancing!
We live in a culture where depression and anxiety are the modern plague. We need to cultivate space in our life for a carefree spirit of joyous festivity. One of the things that should be an integral and regular part of Christian worship is celebration.
Celebration gives strength for living life. In the book of Nehemiah, we are told that the joy of the LORD is our strength (8:10)! We cannot continue very long without a little joy. Women endure childbirth because the joy of motherhood lies on the other side. Young married couples struggle through the first difficult years of adjustment because they value the insurance of long life together. Parents hold steady through the teen years, knowing that their children will emerge at the other end human once again (Foster).
We begin things like tennis instruction and piano lessons sometimes as an act of will, but we will not keep up very long without joy. We sometimes begin because we know that in the end joy is coming! This is what sustains all novices; there is a sense of pleasure and enjoyment in mastery!
Of everything we have talked about regarding spiritual disciplines celebration is central. Without a joyful spirit of festivity, the Disciplines of the Christian life can become dull, death-breathing tools in the hands of modern-day Pharisees. Every discipline should be saturated with joy and thanksgiving.
Joy is an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). Foster suggests that joy is like the motor that keeps everything else going. Without joyous celebration to infuse the other disciplines, we will sooner of later abandon them. Joy produces energy. Joy makes us strong!
Ancient Israel was commanded to gather three times a year to celebrate the goodness of God. These were festivals or holidays! They were experiences that gave strength and cohesion to the people of Israel.
The Path to Joy:
In spiritual life there are two things that will produce joy.
The first of obedience. There is an old song that says, “The only way to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey.” Jesus said that those who were truly blessed (or happy) are those who hear the Word of God and keep it (Luke 11:27, 28). When obedience to God’s Word as it is found in Scripture and to the leading of the Holy Spirit’s promptings becomes a lifestyle, we will find joy.
Sometimes people look for joy in events. There are moments when God infuses us with joy in a worship service and this is important, but God wants us to invite His Joy into our lives on a daily basis. God wants to go home with us.
The next is gratitude. The practice of gratitude results in joy. We are told in the NT to give thanks in all circumstances. This does not mean to be thankful for tragedy or abuse, but to practice gratitude towards God in the middle of life’s difficulties, challenges, and blessings. When we practice obedience and gratitude in the everyday situations of life we create an atmosphere where God breaks in with joy.
Paul calls us to “Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4). He goes on to say, “Have no anxiety about anything” and “Be careful for nothing.” This is the negative side of rejoicing. The positive side is “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And the results? “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6, 7).
Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on” (Matt 6:25). The Greek word translated as both careful and anxious is the same. The Lord wants us to move into a state where we are carefree. The only way we can do this is to trust God. Trust and obey!
The reason why celebration is a discipline is that it is a choice we make and an act of the will. God doesn’t want us to live miserable lives, but He cannot give us happiness apart from Himself because it does not exist. We need a relationship with God where His image is formed in us.
Just as the waters of chaos covered the unformed mass of creation in the creation hymn, when we are baptized in the name of Jesus we are acting out the beginning of the new creation. We are immersed in the waters and come forth bearing His Name. The same Spirit that hovered over the waters fills us and begins the new creation in us. We are born again. This is a process, that is to go on as we walk in a loving relationship with the Creator.
The Bible says that heaven rejoices every step of the way. Luke 15 says three times that all of heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. We rejoice when someone is baptized! When we receive the Holy Spirit it is righteousness, peace, and joy!
The Benefits of Celebration:
Richard Foster writes:
“Far and away the most important benefit of celebration is that it saves us from taking ourselves too seriously. This is a desperately needed grace for all those who are earnest about Spiritual Disciplines. It is an occupational hazard of devout folk to become stuffy bores. This should not be. Of all people, we should be the most free, alive, interesting. Celebration adds a note of gaiety, festivity, hilarity to our lives. After all, Jesus rejoiced so fully in life that he was accused [falsely] of being a winebibber and a glutton. Many of us lead such sour lives that we cannot be accused of such things.”
Sin is not what we are talking about, but we should experience the fullness of the life that God has given us to live. Celebration helps us relax and enjoy the good things that God created.
The book of Proverbs says that a merry heart is like medicine. Laughter should be a part of our lives as Christians.
We should cultivate the ability to laugh at ourselves. Celebration lowers the prideful and lifts up the lowly. It can free us from an inflated view of our importance. Celebrate others.
Joy begets joy! Gratitude and obedience bring joy.
Smile on purpose.
Practicing Celebration:
1. Singing, dancing, and shouting in corporate and private worship.
2. Laughing. There are good things out there to laugh about. Have you ever been so full of the Holy Spirit that you just started laughing uncontrollably?
3. Laughing at yourself.
4. Enjoy the created world and wholesome music and art! Celebrate the sunrise!
5. One of my favorites is to make family events into times of celebration. God shows up at birthdays, graduations, weddings, and anniversaries. Acknowledge His Presence and invite Him to your celebrations. Tell Him thank you for being there.
6. If your family sings, sing together at celebrations. Sing a song of thanksgiving.
7. Take advantage of holidays. Use them to celebrate!
We are at the end of our study of the disciplines, but this is only the beginning of the journey. We have seen how meditation heightens our spiritual sensitivity which leads to prayer. When we pray consistently, we can add fasting to our rhythm. Against the backdrop of these practices, we can study God’s Word and hear from His Spirit. We grow in discernment.
Through simplicity, we live with others with integrity. Solitude allows us to be genuinely present to people when we are with them. Through submission, we live with others without manipulation, and through service, we are a blessing to them.
Confession frees us from ourselves and releases us to worship. Worship opens us to guidance. All the Disciplines freely exercised bring for the doxology of celebration!!! (Foster)
