The other week I was teaching my philosophy class about Nietsche’s ideas of art in The Birth of Tragedy. Nietsche’s ideas (which I think are borrowed from Kant and Schopenhaer) heavily feature Greek mythology, particularly Apollo and Dionysus.

I’ve followed this up with reading for an essay that has required me to think about sacrifice to those very idols and gods within Greek mythology, in the ancient town of Corinth.

Christians believe that whilst there are many ‘gods’ that are worshipped there is only one true God. Yet even then, we can create an idea or representation of God that is quite warped. Truly understanding what God is like requires ongoing, careful study of the book which is all about him, the Bible.

God is a God of many faces and so it is simplistic and silly to think that in our humanity that we can ever truly undestand everything about Him. The more we read about Him and meet other believers, the more we understand God. This does not mean that God changes. It just means that our understanding grows.

One thing I rarely hear spoken about is that the God of the Bible is a God of Festivals.

It’s not something God decided to just tack on after a while either. It’s right there back in Exodus 23 just after he establishes the Jewish nation as his people and he’s telling them how it will be to be his people:

Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

How often do we meditate on that one? Or what about this one in the most rule soaked book of all, Leviticus?

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

Jubilee: an anniversay. A celebration. A period of remission and forgiveness of sins.

How often do we hear the message that we’re not good enough? We need to do more? We need to work harder at our holiness?

Whilst all these messages are true and right, if we don’t balance them with the command to festival and walk in the rythmns of grace, then we haven’t got a true picture of Christianity and the true life of those who believe in the God of the Bible.

I hope you can experience the joy of Christmas this year and use it as an opportunity to festival; basking in the grace of a God who loves you so much that he sent his son into the world as a baby, to grow up into a man who would do everything that needs to be done to make you one of God’s people.

Why not use Christmas this year to refine your skills of festivaling? It’s biblical.

Even if it doesn’t feel like there’s much to celebrate, there’s no harm in starting small and thanking God for what you can right now.

I don’t know what has happened to you this year. I don’t know where you are and whether that is where you want to be. Maybe it’s not where you want to be at all. I agree. I was reflecting with colleagues recently and we decided that this term “The vibe is off.” I’d say that for the entire year. The vibe has been off all year.

There were highs and low, mostly lows. And as we move into Advent this year, something that God’s been speaking to me recently is “You are enough.”

So whatever has happened in 2024 for you, know that “You are enough” and thank God that he has brought you this far and will carry you onto completion.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

But maybe that seems a distance away right now and hardly tangible. Perhaps it was a really rugged year and the suggestion to festival is sounding a little “Pollyanna”. If that’s the case, here’s my prayer for you, dear reader. It’s the Bible Verse I prayed over 2024 for myself:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You are loved. You are known and seen. You are forgiven.

I pray you know it, in Jesus’ name.

Yours with a Bible and a party dress,

Alison