The big ideas about life need to be woven into the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly routines of living if one wants to keep important Christian virtues fresh… like gratitude, repentance, mercy, and forgiveness. The perpetual rehearsal of core values in the seemingly mundane aspects of life, and in special periods of remembrance and holiday keep one mindful of them, shaping choices and attitudes alike every day.
Do you want your children to reap the benefits of a disciplined life? Then train them to order their world when it is small. Keep your room neat. Take care of your toys. Wait your turn without complaining. Make your bed. Dress nice for special occasions. Church is a special occasion. Eat as a family at mealtime… and set the table. Focus on hygiene. Brush and floss teeth. Go to bed clean. Get clean after dirty or sweaty work. Keep clothes and hair tidy. Orderly habits keep one mindful of an ordered life.
Do you want respectful and grateful kids? Train them to say, “Please,” “Thank you,” “Yes, Sir,” “No, Ma’am.” Teach them to help the weak and to hold doors for people behind them.
Jewish worshippers memorialize important events from their history and fill their celebrations with symbols that preach important things about these events. Rosh Hashanah (New Year) proves an intuitive time for reflection on gratitude for counted blessings, repentance for remembered failures, and resolutions to do better. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is a day of fasting, mourning, and repentance for sin. It rejoices in the mercy of God’s forgiveness. Passover celebrates deliverance from Egyptian bondage… a longstanding image for deliverance from a slavery to sin and the provision for salvation in the Passover Lamb. Shavuot (Pentecost) has more layers than a prize wedding cake with celebrations ranging from harvests to the birth and death of King David, and the giving of the Law through Moses.
Every week, they keep Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset), dedicating a day to Spiritual remembrance, a day of “being” not “doing,” rest for themselves and rest for those serving them. It cultivates mindfulness about the value of people over production and the joy of just existing at peace in God’s world, however much man has made a mess of it. It is family stopping together to just enjoy each other’s presence before God their Creator. Here, they also cycle through the entire Tanakh (Old Testament) together each year.
Christians celebrate Sundays as a similar day to Sabbath. We have largely lost the full Jewish mindfulness of a day of rest, living now in a 24/7 culture, but Church is traditionally held on this day to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus on the morning of the third day—Crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday. We are called to pray “without ceasing,” suggesting a life of mindfulness about God and communication with Him, but on Sundays, our services are dedicated to prayer, as well as to giving, and worship, fellowship (meaning hanging with fellow Christians) and being instructed from the Scriptures in the path of life and the way of Christian service.
Christians celebrate holidays like Thanks Giving, New Years, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Days and use each to promote mindfulness of particular Christian virtues, like gratitude, but we also have three major Christian celebrations: Resurrection Sunday (Often called Easter), Pentecost Sunday, and Christmas.
“Easter” has many elements of the celebration of newness of life, Spring as some type of resurrection… hence the chicks and bunnies and colored eggs in baskets lined with fake grass… and who doesn’t love a peep or chocolate rabbit now and then… Cadbury! Take me away!!!!! BUT Resurrection Sunday, preceded with several days of special memorializing of the “passion week”[1] is about Jesus’ death and resurrection to the glorified life promised someday to ALL who believe. Death and resurrection proved His claims of deity and to being Israel’s Christ/Messiah. It was the validation of all the promises of God in the Old Testament including the promise of eternal life with God. Here is mindfulness of sin, repentance, and divine mercy through the willing self-sacrifice of Jesus; thus, gratitude, purpose, and mission.
The next, great Christian holiday, one unfortunately ignored by many denominations, is Pentecost Sunday which occurs on the 7th Sunday after Easter, which occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after Spring Equinox on September 21st. Now, isn’t that fun? I think it’s fun. Just another joyous converging of lunar (moon) calendars and solar (sun) calendars. Here, when Jews are doing their own magnificent and layered celebrations, Christians are celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ to those putting their faith in Him.[2] Here, we cultivate mindfulness of our ongoing dependence on the Spirit of God to become more and more like Jesus, to do the work that God has called us to do, to be a people shining God’s power and light into human darkness.
Jesus was not born on December 25th, but for noble purposes, not evil purposes as many have been told, Church leaders chose this date to celebrate the incarnation of God in the coming of Jesus. As you may notice, advent calendars celebrate for a whole month leading up to the day. Many of our traditions associated with Christmas emphasize Christian values, like giving gifts, kindness, and a spirit of generosity, special care for the poor, feasting on the bounty of God’s provision in recent harvests, and coming together with friends and family to love and appreciate one another. There is beauty and decoration… dazzling lights in darkening days, and joy, and treats. We have many songs written for the occasion and sing them EVERYWHERE beginning the day after Thanks Giving on to New Years. Perhaps your Christmas celebrations looked a little different, but this is the mindfulness to cultivate in future celebrations.
Holidays and patterns done well, cultivate a life changing mindfulness of great Christian virtues.
[1] Important stuff that happened the week they crucified Jesus, like Jesus’ triumphal ride into Jerusalem, his trial on Thursday night, and his crucifixion on Friday.
[2] Read Acts chapter 2 in the New Testament.
