WHAT MAKES A DAY HOLY?

What is a holiday and what makes it holy?

A holiday is literally a day set apart from the rest as different. That’s what holy means. It means “set apart”. God is “set apart” and different from every other being in the universe. Some days are “set apart” and different from all the other days.

In the Torah, God set apart one day of each week as different from the others – the seventh day. He also set apart seven other holidays, (some lasting for seven days – God evidently has a thing with the number seven!) for resting, feasting, sacrificing and remembering God’s faithfulness. The people didn’t need to “make” the days holy, but they were commanded to “remember” them by “keeping” them that way.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” made the top ten list of God’s most important commandments.

Christmas is one of the biggest Christian holidays. God made it holy when he entered our history in time and space and became one of us. This holiday is set apart to remember “God with us” then as a baby born to a poor family in difficult circumstances, now by his Spirit who lives in us and in other unlikely people who bear God’s image, and later when he will return home to restore all things.

We keep Christmas holy when we set apart the time.

We gather for worship Christmas Eve to help you keep it holy. Our start times at 1, 3 and 5 PM force you to have a stopping point for your preparations and a starting point to your celebration. God set apart the day. It’s up to you to set apart the time to come.

It will require sacrifice because there is always one more thing to do. But that’s why God commands holy days. Sometimes we need to be told when to stop.