Day 202: Sukkot The Feast of Tabernacles

 

DAY 202

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-nine    Friday 2 October 2020

Sukkot

The Feast of Tabernacles

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work…So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees – from palms, willows and other leafy trees – and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” -  Leviticus 23:33-36, 38-43.

Built in 1791, the Cane Ridge Meeting House in Paris, Kentucky was a Presbyterian church that was the location of one of the greatest revivals in American history, the Cane Ridge Revival that began in the hearts of a group of Presbyterian pastors in 1804. Upwards of 10,000 people at times were in attendance, packing the building and filling the fields surrounding it. Out of that revival came an American denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We have visited the site, the original log church now completely surrounded by a much larger stone building to house and protect it.

As with the protected structure at Cane Ridge, so with the instructions from God to the Jews to annually build temporary shelters, tabernacles  or booths, ‘sukkot,’ to remember and never forget that such were the shelters of their ancestors as they experienced their deliverance by God from bondage in Egypt, a celebration marked this week by millions of Jews.

Reflective question: If you were to build a tabernacle or structure over a place where God did something memorable in your life, where would that place be?

Reflective Scripture: For a different take on this dynamic, read Matthew 17:1-9.

Reflective hymn:

“This is Holy Ground” – Christopher Beatty (1944-     )

This is holy ground; we’re standing on holy ground,

For the Lord is present and where He is holy.