Sukkot 2024: Resting and Celebrating

In one paragraph

Tribe gathered at the Virginian Saloon on October 14 to kick off two weeks on Sukkot, the feast of shelters. Brian walked through Leviticus 23 and made the case that God's feasts belong to the whole family of God, not just to Israel, and that this particular feast is an invitation to stop running and rest. The conversation wove together congregation members' own observations and Scripture...

Read together

1. Leviticus 23:39-44 primary text read aloud by a congregation member, instructions for the feast of Sukkot
2. Psalm 1:2-3 congregation member connected the willows of the brook to trees planted by the riverbank bearing fruit
3. Jeremiah 17:7-8 congregation member connected God's covering to the blessed one who trusts in the Lord like a tree planted by water
4. Zechariah 14:16-19 referenced as the passage where nations celebrate the feast of tabernacles during the millennial reign
5. Proverbs 3:3-5 quoted to illustrate resting from our own plan, trust in the Lord with all your heart
6. Hebrews 4 read in part to illustrate resting from striving for salvation, God's promise of entering his rest still stands
7. Song of Solomon 2:14 quoted as an allegory of Jesus speaking over us, inviting us to rest from trying to earn his love

What was said

• Build a simple sukkah on your back deck or in your backyard this week using branches, lights, or whatever you have, and spend time in it each day.
• Join the Tribe family camping trip up Little Granite Creek in Granite Creek Canyon on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday night, even if you can only come down for the evening.
• If you have not been water baptized and you have a saving relationship with Jesus, reach out to Pastor Brian this week to talk about getting baptized.
• Sign up for the Tribe text blast by filling out a connect card so you receive the dropped pin for the camping location and other updates during Sukkot.
• Each morning or evening this week, step outside away from your phone and your normal routine, and spend a few quiet minutes letting go of your own striving and simply receiving what Brian described as God's love that is not based on your performance.

Talk about it

1. Brian talked about the church scrambling after COVID to jump back onto the treadmill at speed level 10 rather than pausing to recalibrate. Where in your own life do you feel that pressure to keep running at the world's pace, and what has it cost you?
2. Brian described the three reasons Tribe honors the feasts of the Lord as remembering, recalibrating, and rehearsing. Which of those three feels most personally meaningful or most foreign to you right now, and why?
3. Several people in the room made connections between the leafy boughs of the sukkah and passages like Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17. When you read Scripture, do you find it reading you back? Has a passage ever surprised you by speaking directly into something you were going through?
4. Brian said God invites us to rest from our own plan, from striving for our own salvation, and from trying to earn his love. Which of those three is hardest for you to actually set down, and what makes it so hard to let go?
5. The sukkah is meant to pull us out of our comfortable, convenient homes and into a simple shelter where we spend time with God. What would it look like practically this week, whether you build a sukkah, come camping at Little Granite Creek, or something else entirely, to create that kind of intentional simplicity in your own life?