Patterned by Celebration

I’ve been listening to a great book recently called ‘Biblical Critical Theory’ by Chris Watkin. It’s a great tool for thinking through social analysis of our culture using a deep understanding of philosophy and biblical theology. He was making one point about the uniqueness of Christians singing. We sing songs of celebration because of what God has done. We sing because he created and continues to care for this world (Ps. 104). We sing not just because God is creator, but also because he is redeemer creation prepares the way for redemption. So we sing because of the resurrection from the dead of our crucified Messiah and Lord, Jesus Christ (Rev. 5:9-10). We sing in celebration for what he has achieved for us; in Christ, we receive new life, forgiveness of our sins, his Spirit at work in us and as we celebrated in the twins baptism last Sunday we receive adoption into his family as sons and daughters. Christians are a celebrating bunch. And yet, that doesn’t make us happy, clappy Christians, naively happy or oblivious to sin, suffering and evil. The Christian life contains sadness and suffering, no different from any other person. What does differ is the way celebration shapes our whole life, even the sad or hard parts. With the significant changes occurring in our staff team (Ian and Christine) we pause to celebrate, to give thanks. We aren’t celebrating their leaving, we’re celebrating their time, their service, their love and care for us, the way God was at work through them. We give thanks to God for them through Christ Jesus.

By Rev. Craig McCorkindale