Shavuot

Art by Karin Foreman

Weekly D'rash on Parshat Shavuot

Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, is this week. It begins Thursday evening and continues through Shabbat. I hope that you are signed up for the UMJC evening Zoom observance. It is free, but you must register to receive the private link at UMJC Tikkun Leil Shavuot Event.

Our Shavuot service will be on the second day of Shavuot, which will be during our regular Shabbat morning service. As you may know, pastor Gerald Murphy will be with us. We will also have a special Shavuot Oneg following the service.

Shavuot marks the end of the entire Passover season. We finish counting the Omer and celebrate covenant relationship. First, we celebrate the covenant at Sinai to be a nation of priests and a holy nation. Second, we celebrate the new covenant relationship with all who embrace the Messiah, which was ratified on Shavuot when the Ruach HaKodesh was poured out. You can read more about it in Acts 2.

Like almost all holidays, the original meaning was the presentation of an offering to give thanks for the harvest. This is actually the Torah portion that we read this Shabbat from Deuteronomy 15–16. The holiday evolved into giving thanks for the Torah. It is an opportunity to renew our covenant faithfulness to the calling of God and living the Torah way of life. As people who dwell in the new covenant reality, having received the Ruach HaKodesh through Messiah Yeshua, Shavuot is also an opportunity to renew and restore our relationship with God. In this way, Shavuot is not simply a holiday where we remember a past historical event, but a consecration of self to the present and a celebration of hope for the future.

Both the covenant at Sinai and the new covenant point to the present way of life but also to the future reality. At Sinai, Israel began to learn, understand, and walk under the kingship of God. When we receive Yeshua in our lives and enter the reality of Acts 2, we have the firstfruits of the Spirit (Rom. 8:23). We live today under the kingship of Messiah Yeshua with an understanding that there is a hope and a future. At Beth Messiah Congregation, we like to say that we experience Israel’s future today. This means unity of people groups, forgiveness, victory over sin, intimacy with God, spiritual empowerment, and a life of loyal love and mercy. Let us move forward in experiencing the future today—and look forward to the ultimate reality of the World to Come when Yeshua returns. Several passages come to mind that remind us of the future and present hope.

The haftarah portion for this week comes from the Book of Habakkuk and pertains to this idea of looking forward to the future. The end of the book is a great word of hope and resiliency: “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and there is no yield on the vines; though the olive crop fail, and the fields produce no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no cattle in the stalls. Yet will I triumph in ADONAI, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! ADONAI my Lord, is my strength. He has made my feet like a deer’s, and will make me walk on my high places. For the choir director: On my stringed instruments” (Hab. 3:17–19). Habakkuk realizes that there will be a day of vindication, even if he does not see it today. He can stand on the firm footing of hope!

A second passage is in the New Covenant Scriptures: Phil. 2:1–5. “Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Messiah, if there is any comfort of love, if there is any fellowship of the Ruach, if there is any mercy and compassion, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, united in spirit, with one purpose. Do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but with humility consider others as more important than yourselves, looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others.”

This is how we are to live in the presence of the future today. On Shavuot, we celebrate the encouragement, comfort, fellowship, mercy, and compassion of the new covenant reality by living in such a way that demonstrates love for the other. As we wait for the redemption of our bodies, let us recommit ourselves to a godly, Messianic way of life on Shavuot!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Howard