Be Lights at the Feast
The Feast of Tabernacles is the highlight of the sacred year. It pictures the coming thousand-year rule of the Kingdom of God, during which the saints will reign with Jesus Christ and bring peace to a troubled world (Revelation 20:4–6). The New Testament records that Jesus and His disciples kept the Feast (John 7:2–10, 37). The prophet Zechariah states that “all the nations” will keep the Feast under the reign of the Kingdom of God (Zechariah 14:16).
As we rejoice at the Feast, we need to remember Jesus’ instructions that we be lights that “shine before men” as examples (Matthew 5:13–16). How we talk, how we dress, how we conduct ourselves, and how we relate to everyone we meet—in services, in hotels, in restaurants—will reflect either positively or negatively on God’s Church and way of life. We are called to be “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20), so let’s strive to let our light shine to everyone around us as we keep the Feast.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
LCG sent grown adults-many of them old enough to remember rotary phones-a note reminding them not to act like feral raccoons at the hotel buffet. Imagine needing a memo to tell people how to talk, dress, and not terrify the waitstaff. That's not pastoral care. That's a church that has watched the same movie every September for forty years and still doesn't trust the audience to stay in their seats.
The official story is that the Feast is a "high-visibility ambassador moment." Translation: a few thousand people who already tithe 10-30 percent are about to occupy conference centers and steakhouse restaurants, and headquarters would prefer the reviews not mention "the loud group that treated the pool like a baptismal and the bar like a second tithe." So out comes the annual sermonette: shine your light, watch your hemline, no Speedos, go easy on the merlot, and for heaven's sake stop yelling across the lobby. Matthew 5 gets pressed into service like a tired intern.
This is not because leadership thinks the members are uniquely stupid. It's because leadership thinks the members are predictable. Same people, same hotels, same temptation to treat eight days of "rejoicing" like a sanctioned bender with extra hymnals. The letters exist for the same reason cruise ships print "do not feed the seagulls" signs: experience.
Other churches send similar notes. LCG just does it with the loving specificity of a parent packing a 67-year-old's suitcase: "Don't forget your modest one-piece, your coat and tie, and your dignity. We checked last year. Some of you forgot all three."
So no, they don't think you're dumber than hell. They just think you're human, you're on vacation with a religious excuse, and history suggests a reminder is cheaper than the apology tour afterward. Have a profitable Sabbath. Try not to scare the front desk.
I'm sure we all have our horror stories. much of them about alcohol and sex. Since this was an LCG post, I remember one year when my feast roommate was popping his pils and alcohol all the way and chain smoking in the hotel room. He and his buddies forced one of the guy's wife to consume rum and then when she got dizy and fell down they all got a kick out of it. It made the feast headlines. What was done about it? Absolutely nothing. The stupid ministers didn't even believe it. after all, our good men of God would never ever do something as crazy as that. well, they did. no wonder his wife is a clingy simpering thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I attended the F.O.T., there was the odd social barbarian. So the reminders are understandable. Looking back, there should have been the occasional sermonette on good manners, since new people were still coming to services.
ReplyDeleteHow you talk and conduct yourselves is interesting, as things can be a show in front of outside hotel guests and hotel staff. But how some ministers talk and conduct themselves away from that show is another thing. Try shining that light outside of the feast. When you lord it over your members (months away from the feast), Winnail and his ilk do not let their light shine.
ReplyDeleteChurch members would be shocked at the high school graduate /20/30 something unmarried crowd. It has always been a sex festival for a lot of people. Especially for those coming from the more right wing COG groups. Tender and Grinder apps get well used.
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