Man we totally missed Rosh Hashana this year and I’m bummed.
Rosh Hashana (“head of the year”) is Jewish New Year.
We used to very regularly celebrate holydays using an awesome book that taught how to celebrate Jewish Holydays with a Christian spin, but recently we’ve been slacking.
For Rosh Hashana last year we at apples and honey and this amazing bread that Sarah made. We sent cards to our family. My parents were awesome and sent us a “happy new years” card this year. (Thank you mom and dad, it was really meaningful.)
Last year around this time I was a youth pastor. For fun I took my wife’s trombone (I didn’t have a shofar) to youth worship and I did my rendition of American Pie. We then talked about Rosh Hashana and 1 Thess. 4 where the end will come “with a loud trumpet blast.”
Maybe we’ll hit up Yom Kippur next week.
Billy Chia 
That’s awesome. The lead pastor of my church, St. Paul’s (www.stpaulswired.org) is actually a Jewish believer. It’s pretty awesome. He brings a very unique perspective to the table, one that I find pretty insightful in the sense that it embraces the “Old Testament” tradition in light of the “New Testament” grace. Pretty cool stuff. I sometimes think about the fact that, as Christians, we’re really reformed Jews.
Yeah…this time last year we didn’t have this whining, up-in-the-middle-of-the-night bundle of joy. We’ll hit it up next year, huh?
To Steve: calling Christians “reformed Jews” is probably not the best idea, since there’s already a sect of Jews with that title. Perhaps something like “grafted Jew.”
lol – Sarah’s completely right.
It’s all the baby’s fault life is so chaotic. I should mention that despite being bummed about missing a cool moment with the family that Ashlyn creates several cool moments of her own.
It’s a bit of trade off.
You’re right, Sarah. I guess I was more thinking about the principle that Christians are, in essence, Jews that have recognized the Messiah…I just think it’s an interesting historical reality that sometimes gets overlooked. But yeah, I wouldn’t by any means call Christians “reformed Jews” in an official capacity. I’m also not suggesting Christians should necessarily practice Jewish traditions either. Ultimately, I’m just tracing the family tree 🙂
Are you or someone in your fam Jewish? I’m confused.
Conner,
Yeah, Sarah has ethnically Jewish ancestry, but that’s not why we celebrate.
There is tons of Christian significance to be found in Jewish festivals. They have all this great imagery.
It’s like if you celebrate passover you understand more about communion. (It’s thought that Jesus was celebrating passover during the last supper.) Hanukkah is also really cool. The only mention of Hanukkah (Also called the feast of dedication) in the Bible is actually when Jesus was celebrating it. (John 10:22)
It’s been neat at our church because we have a staffer who’s…well let’s see, she was Jewish but she’s now a Christian (but not a Messianic Jew) I learn more from her every week!
So we do some real interesting things as a church like mentioned. We’ve done Seder dinners and different things around Christmas/Hanakkah. It’s been fascinating.
So I was curious, hope I didn’t come across offensive there, I realized I was a bit abrupt with my comment.
Conner,
No way bro, you’re comments are always welcome 🙂
I guess I’m so enthusiastic about it I cam across as offended?
It’s the good old joy of text-based communication.
Haha yeah we were just talking about the medium of text communication via blogs, phones, emails, etc.
No you didn’t. I just reread my comment and was like, Wow I wonder how people read that?
Hi! *waving*
I don’t know if you know, but you’re the top-featured item in WP’s “family” category. Congrats. Well anyway, that’s how I found you.
And I clicked, because I was intrigued with this post that was displayed. I’m a Messianic Jew. Which basically means that I’m a Christian, but practice all the Biblical Festivals and many of the teachings commonly referred to as “the law”. Not because I think I need to in order to make it to heaven, or any other legalistic reason. Simply put: I believe that God wants what’s best for us and always has. So I don’t believe he gave his people rules willy-nilly, to go and change his mind later. I could go on, but I’ll just say that I agree with Paul when he told Timothy that “all scripture” (at the time only the OT) is for our good! (As opposed to how most Christians believe, that it was something to drag us down and make us realize how awful and hopeless and condemned we are. And then go and invoke all the Deut 28 blessings without reading the 1st verse that says they are a reward for following all those ‘evil’ rules! But I digress…)
Well anyhoo, I’m probably preaching to the choir here. It’s just always nice to meet others on the same path. And quite amazing to see that path featured in a secular, public forum 🙂
Nice to meet you. Curious to hear how Yom Kippur and Sukkot went for you, as I’m still exploring ways of celebrating also. Did you celebrate?