Home Sweet Home: Celebrating Biblical Events and Nurturing Faith

Nurturing a Christian Culture in the Home By Celebrating the Biblical Holy Days.

“Listen, O Israel! The LORD (Yahweh) is our God, the LORD alone (or, the LORD our God, the LORD is one)! You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

There are as many ways of raising children in the Christian faith as there are families. One time-honored way to nurture a Christ-centered culture in the home is to celebrate the biblical events, rituals and holy days. For, the Jewish faith as instructed by Lord Yahweh is the most child-centered faith there is. The home is sacred, the parents are expected to put their children first, their faith development at the top of the priority list. It’s fascinating to observe that Jesus, being fully Jewish, was raised in a multi-sensory, experiential style of learning. The Sh’ma in the passage above makes this clear. This vital piece of Scripture developed into the central statement of faith in the Jewish faith.  Notice the importance the LORD places on teaching the children in the home, on their knowledge of their faith and their education. Every Jewish parent took these commands in the Sh’ma to heart.

The God-fearing family was the centerpiece of each Jewish home. Education according to the teaching methods of Moses was constant, holistic, and involved eating and cooking, talking and listening, asking and telling, reading and writing, looking and touching, smelling and tasting, memorizing and discussing, experiencing and imagining. Jesus knew these teaching tactics intimately since He was raised in an obedient, practicing Jewish home. God wanted parents to be the first teachers, to teach the whole child in and around the home, all the time. The conscience was just as important as the intellect and the imagination. And every year the children would be taught through a cycle of biblical feasts and festivals and activities. These reenactments would bring their history and faith alive since they centered on biblical events and principles. The more family time spent in the home as a mini-community of faith, the better. The parents who did not succeed in putting forth the effort at being a good parent were despised and singled out and reproved by God. In the Biblical culture, raising a faithful family was considered a holy task, perhaps even the most holy.

Jewish Roots to the Christian Faith. Like millions of others, it is important to be intentional if parents want to nurture a home culture that strives to be Christ-centered, that seeks to nurture the truth of the Christian faith in our children. Many homes therefore celebrate biblical Jewish traditions in order to nurture that Christian faith. Why is that? Much of the motivation to add Hebrew Bible rituals, fulfilled in Christ, to family life is due to a recognition of the Jewish roots to Christian faith. Many parents believe in the value of:

• immersing the home in the same Bible that Jesus used, that He memorized and lived by;
• studying the Jewish Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible (OT) as the extended, exciting, inspired prelude to the Main Event;
• learning from those believers who paved the way for the Messiah, savoring the stories of triumph and tragedy, and the fascinating events, that were the building blocks for Christ’s appearing in the flesh;
• learning from the bloodline and heritage of our Savior;
• utilizing the full-bodied, multi-sensory, experiential way children were taught in the Jewish homes;
• exploring biblical ways to live out Scripture and learn from experience, which is how children, and all the rest of us, learn best;
• using family celebrations as vehicles for hospitality, as events in the home for friends and neighbors;
• respecting our Lord by relishing the same religious faith that He embraced and completed;
• pondering and learning the deep spiritual truths revealed by the Jewish feasts and holy days, seeing as how these very truths lead inevitably to Jesus Christ the Messiah.

It’s amazing, and instructive, how family-centric the Jewish Bible is. It appears that a main component of faith development is the celebration of historical feasts and liturgies in the home. That was God’s strategy for how to hand down the Jewish faith, from one generation to the next. Homespun activities, centered on the Torah, were how Jewish children became true believers. And this was how Jesus himself grew in his faith, through the religious orthodoxy of Joseph and Mary.

The Domestic Church. So, many Christian homes celebrate Jewish traditions and activities, as well as a number of Christian liturgies. Here is a brief overview of the homespun possibilities that were experienced by the Larson family:

Dinner Table. We believe in the sanctity of the daily dinner table, and how it was not a time for “business as usual.” We didn’t want to limit our time together to domestic details, daily minutia, homework, school matters. We wanted to discuss more important things, to pick each other’s brains about thoughts or experiences we’ve had, dilemmas to unpack, satisfying or happy moments to share, etc. We also wanted the table to be open to friends and acquaintances, who then add to the whole experience together.

Sabbath. Often we would gather on a Friday or Saturday night, with candles on the table and a nice meal. We turned off all technology, we prayed through the fairly brief Sabbath liturgy, during which we honored mom/wife, and dad would place his hands over each child to offer a fatherly blessing.

Passover. We would host a seder for the family and friends, reading through the formal Haggadah liturgy, and close the celebration with one or two joyful songs of freedom. We would discuss how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Passover, a Lamb without blemish, who was sacrificed to give us life and freedom. It was important for us to honor the Jewish traditions while acknowledging that it points to Christ. So we would use all the elements of Jewish Passover, all of which have historical and spiritual meaning.

Tashlich. This was a family time of repentance, fun and adventure. We would walk together in the dark late at night with flashlights to a source of “living water,” such as a stream, creek, or river. While walking in the dark, we would each gather little stones and put them in our pockets. When at the water site, we would each think about mistakes we have made, things we’re sorry for, and throw in the stones one at a time. And then we noted how God’s forgiveness covered those mistakes like the water covers over the stones, and we would watch as the stones disappeared into the bottom of the water. We would discuss how God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west, as far as the bottom of the sea where it is lost forever.

Sukkah. We made a temporary hut in the back yard with whatever we could find, to symbolize: God’s provisions to the homeless Jews in the wilderness; God’s faithfulness during insecure times; our wandering journey in this life; how God provides for and protects us during our temporary journey here before He provides a permanent shelter for us in the next life.

House Blessing. When we moved to a new house, we would invite a priest/pastor over soon after we had moved in, and we’d walk throughout the house, in each room, and throughout the property outside. The Blessing has prayers for each room and space, and led by candle light, we dedicated the house to God for His purposes. We liked inviting friends to join us in this Blessing.

We found through trial and error that it doesn’t pay to be overly legalistic, rigid, or tedious with these traditions. There is plenty of room to enjoy spontaneity, to make age-appropriate adjustments, and of course each family can add their own particular flavor within the basic structure of the activity.

Each home should feel the freedom to explore and enjoy these compelling biblical ways to teach and nurture the Christian faith to children at home. Imagine the conversations that are sparked, and the seeds that are sown, when the family celebrates these liturgies together. Your children, and of course the adults involved, will have their spiritual lives enriched, their imaginations inspired, and their faith strengthened while you discover and explore the roots of our Christian faith.