Lynne Baab

Praying about the flow of time: The Feast of Tabernacles calls us to stay fluid and flexible

Lynne Baab • Tuesday October 15 2024

Twenty years ago, I heard a sermon that stayed in my memory. The preacher set up a contrast between tents and buildings. He said it was no accident that God’s people lived in tents for so long while wandering in the desert. He said God had a purpose in refusing David’s request to build a temple (2 Samuel 7). God wanted the Ark of the Covenant, God’s presence with the people, to stay in a tent so it could easily travel with the people.

The minister talked about the way tents keep us flexible and fluid. God can guide us more easily when we live in tents because we can pull up stakes and move. We are more closely connected to nature because we hear animals and the wind through the tent’s fabric in a way that we can’t hear them in a building.

At the time I heard that sermon, I was a Ph.D. student. I entered the program in 2004 because I felt a strong call to teach practical ministry classes in a seminary. It was clear I would have to move to do so. My husband Dave was ready to retire, so the timing was good. The sermon on tents versus buildings was helpful and encouraging to me. I don’t like being fluid and flexible! I don’t like pulling up stakes! (But I do like being close to nature.) In those student years, I was praying daily for God’s guidance for a job after my studies. I had no idea the job would be in New Zealand, 7,000 miles from Dave’s and my home in Seattle. We pulled up our tent pegs!

The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, also called Sukkot or the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:33-43), provides an opportunity to remember God’s guidance for the people of Israel as they lived in tents and makeshift dwellings in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. Today, if possible, Jewish families set up tents or other temporary dwellings on their patio or balcony and sleep there for the week of the festival. During the festival, Jewish families often eat their meals outdoors in their temporary dwelling, which makes this holiday a favorite of children.

This year, the Feast of Tabernacles begins the evening of Wednesday, October 16, and goes to the 23rd. It is also a celebration of the harvest, so fruits and vegetables play are highlighted in the traditional foods for the holiday.

I live in a house. I’m sure most or all of my readers live in a house or apartment. Since we don’t live in tents, our challenge is to reclaim or retain some of the flexibility that comes from living in temporary dwellings. This is one area of prayer stimulated by the Feast of Tabernacles.

A second area of prayer comes from the immeasurably sad outcome of the housing crisis in the United States. Adequate numbers of houses and apartments have not been built for two decades now, causing ever-increasing demand for more housing. That raises prices. Just like the game of musical chairs that I played many times as a child at birthday parties, each round means that one more person is not going to get a chair or apartment or house.

Here in Seattle, many people who don’t have a home live in tents. We see them as we move around the city. We don’t see the much larger number of displaced refugees and migrants around the world who have been forced out of their homes because of wars and famines. When I see the tents of people who don’t have a home, my prayer challenge is to keep my heart soft. I continue to ask God to teach me how to lament and pray for people without a home.

John 7 describes Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, a dramatic series of encounters culminating with Jesus’s words on the last day of the festival: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

The Gospel writer interprets Jesus’s words: “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive” (verse 39). We can pray that the Holy Spirit would help us be fluid and flexible like water. We can pray that the Holy Spirit would bring the freshness of flowing water into the lives of refugees, migrants, and people without homes. I love the juxtaposition of the Feast of Tabernacles, celebrating God’s guidance in the desert, with Jesus’s words about the Holy Spirit who works in us like rivers of living water.

God of living waters, we tend to cling to the predictable aspects of our lives. Flow through our lives like a refreshing river so we can follow your guidance in a flexible and fluid way.  We tend to believe that we have earned the stability of our lives. Please keep our hearts tender so we can lament with those whose lives have been upended by homelessness, war, famine, and political unrest. Bring your living water to them and to us. Thank you that when we are in the wilderness, you are there with us. Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit, who guides and empowers us.

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Next week: daily rhythms. Illustration by Dave Baab: The Spokane River.

Some previous posts that mention tents:

• Psalm 84: The sweetness
• Creative prayer with colors
• Responding to terror by listening to Jesus’s voice

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Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »

Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups. 

Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian  Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.

You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.

Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills. 

Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.

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"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
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