Planning Your Party

Mike Hosey, An Elder

There are some events in life that seem to demand formal recognition. For instance, it seems strange for a couple to call themselves married, but to never have had a wedding.  Although it is possible to be married and not have any human observance whatsoever, almost everyone in every culture expects a marriage to be marked by some kind of ceremony.  The same is true for funerals. When someone dies, his or her people almost always, in every culture, execute some kind of funeral ritual.  Obviously, death doesn’t require this formal recognition, but it is somehow expected. When a person graduates from high school, college, basic training, or any kind of significant education, there is expected by society a graduation ceremony. Once again, you can skip the ceremony and still get a job, but this is not the expectation.

These formal recognition events are actually pretty important.  For instance, the wedding publicly communicates to the world that one is serious about being committed to one’s new partner. The ceremony also cements and reinforces the couple’s vows to one another by making them part of a special event that everyone sees and easily remembers.

In the Old Testament book which bears his name, Nehemiah noticed that the walls of Jerusalem had fallen into disrepair. He agonized over this because the city was a symbol of his people and their relationship to God. He could not allow this, so he secured the right to repair the walls, and set about getting the men and material to do so.  But sometime before he dedicated the repaired wall, he put together a ceremony (which may have lasted as many as 6 hours) where Ezra the priest stood on a stage with a large number of other men and both read and explained the law of God to the people (Nehemiah 8:1-18).  The ceremony allowed the people to see how their own lives were in disrepair, just like the wall they were about to restore. They wept when they realized how much of the law had been ignored or forgotten.  They were then ordered to celebrate, with wine and food, and recognize the day as holy, and to remember that the joy of the Lord was their strength. This event helped them rejoice that God was going to restore them, as His word promised.

The Christian walk has these kinds of events as well. Baptism, for instance, is a major ceremony which symbolizes to the world that the old sinful self has died, and the new self has been raised with Jesus. 

Have you planned a party to recognize your walk?  Do you remember one you have had?