The Hallowed Eve decorations are all up, so it would be good to think about the “holidays.” Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (ERH), a German-American Christian thinker who ended up in the Harvard Divinity school since he talked a lot about God, has some great observations about the “holidays” worthy of consideration.

ERH argued that holidays are “time-bettering days” — days that improve time by furthering communities, helping to form a group with something “common.” He said, “On a holiday, we share one time and one space although we are divided by self-interest, by age, by wealth, by occupation, by climate, by language, by race, by history; we carry on as though we were one and the same man, regardless of birth, unafraid of death…unperturbed by fear.” He noted that “even the apparent idleness of a Puritan town was productive because it was a matter of being idle together. Puritans labored “for being idle together. The gathering of the idle was primary.”

He further notes that “on holidays, a community triumphs over tragedy…” The power of a holiday consists in the ascendancy over tragedy. Holidays “…place us at the center of existence where death becomes the gate to life.” He means that …“holidays commemorate the great moments, often the great crises, of a community’s history.” (quotes from Peter J. Leithart, I Respond, Though I Shall Be Changed)

Of course, that’s exactly the Christian Church Year of holidays — remembering and celebrating, by being together as a community, the life we have in Christ, having been saved by the great tragedy of Christ on the Cross.

So during this season of holidays, take time to be “idle” with the body of Christ, relaxing and celebrating and being together in the Sunshine of Christ’s love!

“As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them…And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed…It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold” (Dan 2.34, 44b-45a).

Twice Daniel mentions to King Nebuchadnezzar that the statue he saw will be destroyed by a stone “cut out by no human hand.” Why is he told that? Why are you told that? What are you, in your bible reading, supposed to be connecting?

In the scriptures, uncut stones, stones no iron tool is used on, are “altar stones” (Ex. 20:25; Dt. 27:5–6: Josh 8:31). So this is an “altar stone” that destroys the statue in the days of the iron and clay feet (Roman oikumene/empire). Say what?

Since the “stone” grows to be a “great mountain that fills the whole earth” and a “kingdom that shall never be destroyed” (vv. 35, 44), we can surmise that this kingdom is built upon worship, since worship took place at the altar, where the sacrificial offerings were placed. Particularly the worship of the stone, the rock of God, Jesus himself, the Son of Man, who receives the kingdom later on in chapter 7. Jesus appears during the Roman iron/clay era, is worshipped, and then the Apostles expand the worship of Jesus by planting churches, places of singing, praying, fellowshipping, feasting and teaching, all “altar” associated activities in the temple, where altars are normally found. So the kingdom expands, filling the world; and it does so through the worship of the gathered body of Christ!

If you do any reading on the assassin of Charlie Kirk, it’s not long before you start reading about the markings on the bullet casings, his dark web subculture, The Groyper Army, Black Pill culture, etc. He is surely a representative of an angry, lonely, and anchor-less subculture that believes there is no future for men, mankind, or the world, and that cultures and institutions are irreformable. Hence, their focus is tearing down and destroying because that is all there is to do; there is no hope for the future. If you hate God, you love death and destruction.

This is where you come in! You are a bright light of hope for these lonely, dislocated and disillusioned people! In Jesus, you have hope, having been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” In Jesus you have joy, because “by God’s power your are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed…” You have community, being united to other believers through God’s word, worship, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship where all are fed by his grace and kindness. Having your eyes fixed on Jesus the Lord of America and the world, you have purpose and peace.

That’s what Charlie’s assassin and all his friends, associates, and fellow unbelievers need, but desperately lack. This is not a conflict between left and right, liberal and conservative, generation X versus generation XX; it is a conflict between believers in Christ and believers in self or Satan or nothing at all.

So as you enjoy the life of a Christian that has hope and joy and love and family, look around and invite these unbelievers into your life and home, and especially to worship. Listen and speak the truth, with kindness and boldness, for you alone, of all the peoples on the planet, have the soul-satisfying answers!