Thought for Today
Exodus 12:2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
Deuteronomy 11:12 a land that the LORD your God looks after. The eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
Matthew 7:2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.
Luke 6:38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
Next Monday is Labor Day in the U.S.A. For the first 17 years of my life, Labor Day marked the beginning of the year. I did learn at an early age all about the calendar year and its beginning on January 1st. But for school age children, the year is divided into only 2 seasons, the school year and summer. In my youth, the school year began soon after Labor Day and ended about the end of May (Houston rarely needed to allow for Snow Days). Much later, I learned about fiscal years and their beginning on other dates.
This morning, much to the chagrin of our granddaughters, I am not thinking about the romance between the famous football player and some singer to whom he proposed. This morning, I am thinking about measuring, systems of measurement and the totally arbitrary nature of them all.
Most of us are aware of the argument about the merits of the metric system of measurement verses our ‘English’ system of measurement. At some point, now lost in history, our primary unit of measuring length was based on the length of the ruling monarch’s foot. That unit was then divided into 12 equal units each called 1 inch. The metric system is based on the number 10 verses ours based on the number 12. That does make calculations of length, weight and volume somewhat easier in the metric system. However, in every system of measurement of which I am aware, measurement of time is based on the number 12. Even metric measurements of time are not decimal, they are duodecimal.
In the Gregorian calendar used today throughout most of the world, our year (arbitrarily) begins on January 1st. Why? That has not always been the case. The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. It replaced the earlier Julian calendar, also a solar calendar. There are other calendars, some of which are lunar calendars, based on the cycles of the moon. Most familiar of them are the Hebrew and Islamic calendars.
Some of our holidays in the Gregorian calendar are fixed to a certain date, e.g., Christmas on December 25th. Others are determined based on a lunar calendar, e.g., Easter and Pentecost. Jesus would have measured time on both the Julian and Hebrew calendars. Civil life within the Roman calendar was marked on the Julian calendar. Hebrew worship and holidays were measured on the older, lunar calendar. For civil purposes, the year began on January 1st. For religious purposes, the year began on Rosh Hashanah (literally, the Head of the Year). “Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, falls on the Hebrew calendar dates of 1 and 2 Tishrei.” (www.chabad.org)
We measure the day from midnight to midnight. Jesus would have measured the day from sundown to sundown. He would have begun the year at sundown on Tishrei 1st and ended Rosh Hashanah at sundown on Tishrei 2nd.
If I am correct, and if all systems of measurement are basically arbitrary, does any of this make any difference? I believe it is not the calendar date or the metric being measured that determines the importance of the date or measurement. I believe the true significance is determined by the event or the item being measured. Irrespective of when we celebrate the birth, death or Resurrection of Jesus, the real significance is God’s gift of God’s Son. Just as, when I was young, it was the beginning of school or the beginning of ‘not school’ that was of significance. To paraphrase John Calvin, it is not the sign or symbol that is important, it is that of which the sign or symbol represents and reminds us.
All of that aside, I still can’t believe that next Monday is Labor Day. Wasn’t the 4th of July just a couple of weeks ago?
Stay safe, enjoy what is left of summer, trust God,
Pastor Ray