United Church of God

Holy Day Blues

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Holy Day Blues

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Holy Day Blues

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You know how you get that feeling after the Holy Days? You might be even experiencing it now, just after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and you’ve likely experienced it after the fall festivals knowing there are 6 months until we start the cycle again. It’s the blues, the Holy Day Blues. Learn from a new perspective can help us deal with the Holy Day blues.

Sermon Notes

PRESENTER'S NOTES

You know how you get that feeling after the Holy Days? You might be even experiencing it now, just after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and you’ve likely experienced it after the fall festivals knowing there are 6 months until we start the cycle again. Yeah. It’s the blues; the Holy Day Blues.

After all, the annual Holy Days are also festivals celebrating God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. Right? After all, they are commanded assemblies, so we get to be with one another in common belief and hope. Right? We get to give God thanks in prayer, praise, and offerings. Right? And, finally, God did make them Holy Days, after all. These days are special because God made them Holy.

It’s easy to get the blues between the seasons. It’s easy to wish every day could be like a Holy Day.

Let’s consider God’s Holy Days and how we can suffer less from the blues out of season.

First, what is “holy”? I’ve already mentioned it’s meaning in passing, so how is it defined?

6944 qodesh ko'-desh from 6942; a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:--consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (X most) holy (X day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary. see HEBREW for 06942

So, from the definition, we find holy to mean a day, a portion, a thing, a place, or a person to be sacred, sanctified, consecrated, and/or dedicated… In the context of scripture we must also end that definition with… “by God.”

So, days like the Days of Unleavened bread are made Holy by God and come with them Holy convocations, all made holy and commanded by God.

As they shed light on God’s plan for mankind, who wouldn’t be inclined to be a little blue when any of these Holy seasons come to an end? After all, they come only once a year!

Well, perspective is extremely important for battling the blues. So, let’s broaden the perspective and see how we can combat the blues.

Concerning, days, God also made the 7th day holy, called the Sabbath, and by the solar calendar this provides to us at least 52 Holy days a year that are not on the annual cycle, realizing that sometimes the day is shared with an annual Holy day.

The Sabbath is no less Holy than the annual Holy Days, and it, too, carries with it a very special remembrance of God’s creative power and success. If we didn’t exist there would be no plan for God to establish. On the Sabbath, a commanded assembly, we also get to experience all the same joys associated with worship, instruction, and fellowship as found in the annual days. And, even though these days are not set aside by God to provide offerings of money or goods, we are still given plenty of opportunity to offer ourselves to the service of God and our brethren. Messages are prepared, church halls are setup, people are instructed and encouraged, food can be shared, and the list goes on.

We are all probably familiar by now that God lumps the 7th day Sabbath in with the annual Holy Days, and He treats it with the same importance. A good reference for this is the first four verses of Leviticus. Some might even conclude it is given greater importance because it is part of the Ten Commandments. But, that, my friends is a product of our own reasoning, because when we read about these days, whether the 7th day Sabbath or the 7 annual holy days, God does not distinguish between their holiness.
 

Well-known saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” explain

But familiarity can breed something else, “Taking the familiar for granted, or not taking the familiar seriously.”

If I was to evaluate my level of blues after, say, the fall festivals compared to after a Sabbath day, I might be more inclined to suffer the blues after the annual holy day compared to the weekly. After all, I’ve just got to wait a week to experience Sabbath again, instead of a whole year to experience the Feast.

But, is this spiritually healthy? If God regards these days with the same stamp of holiness, should I not as well?

Let’s turn to 1 Peter to find another described holiness…

1 Peter 1: 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Obviously, as we draw our attention from an annual holy occasion, down to a weekly holy occasion, all the way down to moment-by-moment opportunities to conduct ourselves in holiness, we find the chances for shallow familiarity to take precedence. But, what we also find, just as often, is opportunity to enjoy the focus of belief and trust in God, to live our lives in Christ. The choice is ours.

I believe that if we will make an effort to show as much favor to our daily focus on holiness, we will find ourselves to suffer less from the blues that can come at the end of a Sabbath, or, possibly more so, at the end of an annual holy day.

We are precious to God, set apart daily to carry out God’s will.

1 Peter 2: 1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby  3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious…

skipping down…

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Those words are a reflection of God’s daily and moment-by-moment favor toward us. God grants us constant access to the Father by the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name. The Sabbath and annual holy days explain special and wonderful details about God’s creative power and all-inclusive plan for mankind, but we are presently already His children and can take advantage, daily, of the blessings those days celebrate. We are the firstfruits of God, recipients now of God’s Holy Spirit, His nature and power, to call upon God’s grace in repentance and to live holy lives because God is holy and present within us by His Spirit.
  ----Holy product of creation, plan, in real-time.