Celebrating Life

At Heartland, we value the throwing and attending of parties. We are learning to recognize and validate the people getting together, eating and drinking and playing and laughing together for no reason in particular. Part of the full, “abundant life” that Jesus gives his students is the simple act of enjoyment: enjoying creation, enjoying one another, enjoying good food and drink, enjoying the young and old among us, enjoying God in the context of a party. Actually enjoying and celebrating life is a way of saying “thank you” to God for his gift of life.

This value of enjoying and celebrating life is based on the practices of Jesus himself. When Jesus walked around Palestine all those years ago, he had a reputation for being a bit of a party-animal: “The Son of Man comes feasting and you call him a lush” (Luke 7:34). Now, neither Jesus nor any of his followers ever advocated drunkenness (Eph 5:18), but what kind of life did Jesus live that he ended up with that kind of reputation? Apparently the picture of Jesus as grumpy, boring, and stuffy is significantly wrong. When Jesus promised his students the same kind of joy he had within himself, they didn’t wince, because they knew from being with him that he was a genuinely happy, pleasant person. His first miracle, after all, was to extend a wedding party by making more wine (John 2:1-11)! People generally loved to be around him because he was a joyful person who enjoyed life.

And when we look forward to when God will renew and restore creation and humanity, we don’t see an endless church service. Instead we see all of life redeemed and transformed, made “as it should be.” It will be a time when all our daily activities, all our working, playing, eating, drinking, talking, singing, listening, partying and praying will be gathered up in celebration of all that God is and has done. We bring a bit of that future into the present when we throw a party and take time to celebrate and enjoy life right here and now.

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