The
Jewish Festival of Booths, known as Sukkot (traditionally pronounced
SUE-coat but also said to rhyme with BOOK-us), is a seven-day
season of rejoicing—a marked contrast from the solemn
observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, five days before.
Sukkot is given significant attention in John’s Gospel
(see chapter 7), as it is then that Jesus secretly goes into
Galilee after his brothers challenge him to reveal himself.
It is established in Leviticus 23:33–36 that work is forbidden
on the first and last days of this harvest celebration, which
is sometimes referred to as the Festival of Ingathering. This
holiday also commemorates the forty years during which the Israelites
wandered in the desert, living in temporary shelters.
These shelters are the most visible signs of the “Feast
of Tabernacles” as it observed today, as many Jewish brothers
and sisters build temporary shelters in which they are to live
as much of their lives as possible, including sleep. Three of
the walls must be constructed with material that will not blow
away in the wind, while the roof must be loosely covered with
branches, cornstalks, or reeds that will allow the stars to
be seen—and even rain to enter. Traditionally the sukkah
(booth) is decorated with dried squash and corn that are available
during this time of year. In this way Sukkot bears more than
passing resemblance to Thanksgiving, which is only right, for
on each of these holidays people give thanks.
But the booth is only one of the essential signs of the season.
An important set of symbols for this festival has real implications
for World Communion Sunday, this year observed in the midst
of Sukkot (which begins on September 30). These “four
species,” signifying the bounty of the harvest, include
the branch of a palm tree (lulav in Hebrew); the citron
(or esrog), a citrus fruit native to Israel that is
similar to a lemon; three myrtle branches (hadassim);
and two willow tree branches (avara). Each day except
for the Sabbath, these four species are taken and shaken together.
Over the centuries there have been different interpretations
as to what these species symbolize, but in considering how Christians
might be mindful of Sukkot on World Communion Sunday, some particularly
helpful possibilities to note are the following:
- Because palm branches are tall, some say they suggest persons
of power. Others, because the palm gives good-tasting fruit
but has no smell, see it as a symbol of those who learn much
of God’s word but do no good deeds.
- The citron, with its good smell and taste, symbolizes those
who, as Jesus says, hear God’s word and do it, while
others suggest the esrog points to those who are saintly and
wise.
- Myrtle bushes have a nice aroma, but no fruit, suggesting
average people doing good deeds without reflecting on their
motives.
- The willow branches portray the poor and the lowly, or those
without learning or deeds.
Yet all are held together and shaken, because apart we are
not whole.
The festival of Sukkot is incomplete without the lulav,
esrog, hadassim, and arava. And in the same way,
the message of World Communion Sunday is that we are incomplete
without each other. Everyone is invited: the powerful and the
weak; saints and sinners; those who know much but do little;
and those who know little but do much. Everyone who would have
grumbled during the forty years in the desert must be welcomed
with everyone who would have remained faithful. This is the
joyful feast of the people of God, and it includes men and women
and children from east and west, north and south. We are to
be all for one because the Holy One is for all. We are all to
be for each other because God is for all of us.
Sukkot is a reminder that we are all ingathered under the same
stars, that the rain falls on the just and unjust alike, and
that we must all be held together in thanksgiving. The celebration
of the Lord’s Supper every Sunday, and in a particular
way, on World Communion Sunday, is a foretaste of the day when
it will truly be so. |
