The kingdom of God re-orders all of life, including the way we understand time. The liturgical year helps us grasp this reality. We normally order our time by the days and weeks of our modern calendars, beginning in January every year. In many liturgical traditions, the church calendar is ordered around the story of God’s mission to the world in Jesus Christ. It begins in Advent and Christmas, culminates on Easter, and is completed during the long season of Trinitytide. The rhythms of this annual cycle give all Christians who observe it the opportunity to inhabit this story of God’s mission regularly in their churches and families. (from the cover of the Modern Liturgical Calendar… modernliturgic.com)
Happy New Year!
“Wait, well, what… is this nonsense of yours? It’s only December 9th!” You say.
That’s right. Happy New Year!
“Harumph.” Comes the reply. “I haven’t even bought Christmas presents yet.”
Well, dear friend, yes, it is the Christmas season in our common world. Santa is everywhere, as if we needed reminding. But there are many Christians who see the passage of time in a different way.
Speaking of this ‘passage of time,’ I’m running out of it, buddy. Gotta go on Christmas ‘vacation’ in three weeks. See those in-laws, crazy Aunt Rose, and eat a lot of cheap imitations of fudge. Harumph.
I see what you mean. Yes, proper fudge is an exact science that few manage to master. Say, didn’t Aunt Rose give you that fake fur blanket one Christmas?
Harumph.
Ah… memories, right? Well, happy Advent anyway!
My Story & The Seasons
Like many of you, I wasn’t raised in a church that celebrated a calendar based on spiritual seasons and “feast days.” Evangelicals like me seem to err on the side of rejection when it comes to things that scream “Catholic,” “Orthodox” or, even, “traditional.” Our churches celebrated the usual holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, but the seasons of the “high church” were never even mentioned. I only learned about the seasons of Advent and Lent by attending my grandmother’s Methodist church during occasional visits. Even then, I wasn’t engaged in that church regularly, so the seasons weren’t seared into my mind or sunk into my heart.
As an adult, I find myself increasingly drawn to the traditional church calendar. As a pastor, I instituted an Advent observation in our little non-traditional Bible church and found it to be a warmly-welcomed idea. As I learned about church history at seminary, I studied on my own the reasons and rhymes behind the liturgical seasons. I bought a Book of Common Prayer and started keeping some basic Daily Office observations, getting into the whole “liturgical idea” of doing church. But I was still an evangelical minister, both attracted to and yet wary of church traditions, and pretty certain that the people I ministered to would be turned off by anything they deemed to be “Catholic.”
Now, as a member of an Anglican church, I feel free to jump into this “re-ordering” of time that comes with the liturgical church calendar. Last Sunday was the first day of Advent, the “New Year’s Day” of the church calendar. In this four-week season we look forward to the great joy of Christmas Day by preparing our hearts for the coming of Jesus. What does this mean? Advent is like a child on Christmas Eve. Just like that child eagerly (and excitedly) awaits the presents of Christmas morning, we Christians eagerly await the celebration of Jesus’s birth as if we are the nation of Israel, awaiting their Messiah and the salvation that He brings.
BUT we are people who fully know that Jesus has already come once. And so we await Christmas day with great joy! And since he promised to come back to earth, Advent is also a time to look forward to His promise. We dwell on the justice and peace and righteousness that He promises to bring. We see sin and evil judged and we see heaven and eternal existence awaiting those who believe in Jesus.
And so the church year starts where the beginning of Jesus’ earthly story starts. Israel waited, so we wait. Jesus is coming! Then on Christmas Day we celebrate a new season: Christmastide. The song, “12 Days of Christmas” is all about this season of joy, and for 12 days we bask in the glory of the Nativity. Then, on January 6th, Epiphany Day brings on the next season. Funnily… when the world around us is still reeling from the New Year’s Day festivities, the Church is working on its third season of the year!
Throughout the year, the calendar moves to the visit of the magi, then the baptism of Jesus and His earthy ministry. It progresses to the cross, after a season called Lent, and then there is Eastertide, the great celebration of the resurrection. Next comes the season of Pentecost, when Jesus ascends into heaven, promising to return, and the church is born. Finally, there is a long stretch of the calendar called Ordinary Time, when the church digs deeper into the ministry of Jesus and how it applies to us in the church age. Late in the next fall, Advent starts the calendar anew.
The Need to Stand Out
I have come to think of the traditional Church calendar as a wonderful way to re-focus my heart and mind on the life of Jesus at a time when the world demands my undivided attention. I often hear Christians complain about how the Christmas season is too commercialized and yet we spend just as much money every December as those who choose to ignore Jesus and the manger. It is easy to get caught up in the rat race of holiday madness. Advent allows me to pause… every night the lovely Mrs. Newton and I light an Advent wreath candle, read Scripture, and focus our minds and hearts on Jesus. It has been wonderfully orienting.
In what is called His “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17, Jesus prayed that His followers would be united in love as they face hostility and opposition from people following the world’s philosophies and truths. Of his disciples, Jesus prayed,
“The world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.
I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”
Our fallen world is like quick sand. Just when you think you are navigating it fine, walking with surety under foot, one step grabs you firmer than the last. I find it really easy here in the Western World to think I’m living faithful life to Christ while also being relevant to those I encounter in daily life. But when I look at the influences in my life and my habits I find that the sand I was walking on has grabbed my feet and I’m getting slowly sucked down to ole Davy Jones’ Locker (the beach version).
As followers of Jesus, we are called to march to a different drummer than the world we live in. We are not OF this world, which means we are no longer under the authority of the spiritual forces of a world rebelling against God. When we first believed in Jesus, He immediately transferred our spiritual present and future out of the kingdom of darkness and into His kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13). So we no longer belong to this world. But we are IN this world because it is where we are born, it is where we reside, and it is where we die. And as long as we are alive on earth, our mission is to show the truth and power of the life of the Savior
One great way to stand out in this world is to keep a different pattern of times and seasons. It will seem strange to the world around us but it can be very orienting to our own hearts and minds. This is a lesson I have learned in recent years. Here are a few ways to do this, even if you don’t want to eagerly run and join a traditional or liturgical church.
- Add a physical element to your daily routine during holiday seasons. For example, during the Christmas holiday, take time every day to read some Scripture relating to the birth of Jesus. Make that time the same every day, if possible, so you form a habit. During the month leading up to Easter, focus on the mission and passion of Jesus. Maybe read Isaiah 53 every day. During Pentecost, read Acts 1-2. The important thing is to re-order some small part of your daily life to focus on Jesus and read His word.
- Use a liturgical wall calendar. Modern Liturgic is a small company that makes several calendars for each church year. Mrs. Newton and I just put up our second calendar in the hallway and it is wonderful. As we pass by it every day, we check to see if there is a special holiday coming up soon and to read about both seasons and “saints.” Use the link above to check it out.
Happy New Year! And be God’s!
— J.C. (John) Newton
J.C. Newton 