This morning as I was driving to church I scanned through Sirius Radio looking for something praiseworthy to get my heart ready for the service. An older song was playing and I found myself humming along. “Celebrate Jesus. Celebrate.” It is still quite a catchy, if now dated little tune.

I remember first hearing “worship music” in the church where God had dropped me off. I’d never heard music so personal, so loving, so…Jesus. I was raised on hymns and Latin ones at that. While beautiful and ethereal (and impossible to sing unless you were a monk) they were also impersonal. I pretty much gave up on church music – until I walked through my church’s doors on Mothers’ Day in the year 2000.

To celebrate the Person of Jesus! What an extraordinary concept! The word celebrate comes from the Latin celebratus which has several meanings as well as implications. It comes out of the Roman Catholic “celebration” of the Mass’s liturgy and may originally have been a formal religious application . In the Old Testament the Hebrew hallel meaning praise is closely related to celebrations. Praise to God and worship in the Temple especially when celebrating Jewish feast days were inseparable. In today’s vernacular usage it is to basically to praise someone or something or some event as great, important or worthy of acknowledgment.

I think of the holidays coming up in a few weeks. We talk about “celebrating” Thanksgiving and Christmas. And Easter, July Fourth, Presidents’ Day, Veterans’ Day and Mother’s Day. Even Punxsutawney Phil gets special recognition on Ground Hog Day. O course not all of these days deserve to be equally celebrated. While cute, the ground hog is but a furry rodent with yearly but elusive fame.

What of our Christian holidays and their impact on our heritage. How shall we as believers celebrate them? More and more the cultural impetus is not only to ignore the Christian basis of much that we celebrate, but to consciously degrade it. Christmas has become the shopping reason for Black Friday sales; Easter a kind of spring festival with chocolate bunnies and colored eggs abounding. Jesus has actually been “de-celebrated” on the very days of His life which we are to remember, honor, respect and especially rejoice in. If there is reason to remember our historical heroes on Presidents’ Day, how much more does Christ Jesus, God Incarnate who left heaven for us, deserve to be celebrated not just two or three days a year but every moment of our lives?

Who but Jesus has the power to save fallen mankind from destruction and is, thus most worthy to be celebrated? Whose Name but Jesus’ causes demons to tremble and the saints to shout Hallelujah. Who but Christ is the Lamb of God before whose throne we shall all stand in judgment and be accountable for our lives, celebratory or not.

Being free to celebrate Jesus now in this life is but a foretaste of what is to come. The fifth chapter of the Book Revelations describes what the ultimate heavenly celebration of Jesus will be like.

Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels and living creatures and elders encircling the throne, and their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. In a loud voice they said: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”…Revelation 5:11-12

Spectacular. Majestic. Divine. All Words fail. Let us celebrate the Lord Jesus now in preparation. To Him be honor and glory forever more. Amen