We will soon be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kentucky Road Christian Church (October 10, 2010). We are promoting this event using Leviticus 25:10 as a central theme: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.”
Certainly we are not suggesting a reinstitution of Old Testament Law; we are simply borrowing the concept of jubilee to focus our attention on the celebration. This is in keeping with the definition of the word. The dictionary says that jubilee is a) a specially celebrated anniversary, esp. a 50th anniversary; b) the celebration of such an anniversary; c) jubilation, rejoicing.
Within that context, we are celebrating our congregation’s anniversary. We are rejoicing, both at what has been accomplished for the Lord and what will be achieved in the future. We look back in thanksgiving for the ways in which God has used us, and look forward in anticipation to serving Him all the more.
In the Old Testament, the Lord offered His people many opportunities to celebrate. They celebrated the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks, the Sabbath, and many others. But one thing I noticed clearly—in every situation—God commanded them to CELEBRATE.
Let’s take a look at the definition of celebrate: a) to observe (a day or event) with ceremonies of respect, festivity, or rejoicing; b) to extol or praise; c) to make widely known.
It was during a celebration of the Passover that Jesus instituted another celebration—a time of communion with Him. “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8, NAS).
Why do we attend church? We sing and pray. We learn from God’s word. All of that is wonderful, but those are things we could and should be doing any and every day of the week. What makes Sunday special? It is the celebration of the feast. It is the respect we show God in meeting around the table of His Son. It is a time of festivity and rejoicing as we realize the great price that was paid to lift from our shoulders the burden of sin. This was main priority of the early church. “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).
Congregations strive “to make widely known” their programs and activities, their achievements and successes. May our goal be, instead, “to make widely known” the success of God’s program through the activity of Jesus Christ on the cross. May it be His divine achievement—which has brought us liberty from sin—that is the focus of our jubilant celebration each and every Lord’s Day!