ORDERING OUR LIVES:

CHURCH YEAR...................................or SECULAR CALENDAR?




Last Sunday was “Christ the King” or “Reign of Christ” Sunday. It used to be called “Judgment Sunday.”

Did you know that? Does it matter? Do you care? Why is it that every now and then we hear designations of certain Sundays and seasons, like “Lent” and “Pentecost?” Maybe it all sounds like a bunch of old fashioned traditions, or stuffy liturgical rituals, or (gasp!) something CATHOLIC!! What’s the point? Why can’t we just come to church and worship God, pure and simple? That’s all that matters. Why do we have all this excess baggage? It’s not important, and just gets in the way of focusing on the Lord...

May I suggest that it is precisely because we desire to focus on the Lord that we have these specially designated Sundays, and that it is actually helpful to try and incorporate their meaning, not only into our worship on Sunday, but into our everyday lives as Christians.

These designations--Advent, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Trinity Sunday and the rest--are part of what is known as the Christian year, or “Church Year.” The idea is for us who believe in Christ to truly order our lives based on our faith in God, rather than on the agendas of the world. The Church Year keeps us focused on the history of our faith, the meaning of what we believe concerning God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Church, and the ultimate purpose of God’s design: to redeem the world and to bring all things to a final glorious conclusion at the end of time. By following the Church Year, rather than the calendar year, we declare that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20); not here on earth, but in another realm: the eternal heavenly realm of God Almighty. In other words, “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through...” When we live our lives according to the Church Year and not on the rhythms, routines, cycles and celebrations and holidays of the secular calendar, we demonstrate that our primary commitment is to the Lord; to His plans, His purposes, His ways and not to what the world tries so hard to impose on us. When we observe the Church Year in a more conscious way, it actually frees us from the pressures, demands, and viewpoints of the world! The Church Year keeps us in touch with what’s really happening all around us, not just with the physical realm and the everyday realities that seem so all-important to us, but with the transcendent spiritual realm in which we also dwell, and on the ultimate, eternal realities that matter much more than our day-to-day priorities. It reminds us of what truly counts each day: being obedient to the one whom we follow as disciples: Jesus Christ! And to the hope and joy we find in the fact that God is in charge, over all of the chaos and hardship and distress that we see and experience in our world every day. Living the Church Year keeps us confident that the final outcome of all the evil and suffering, sinfulness and death whirling around us will be God’s triumphant defeat of all of it--and of the devil himself!

Here’s a bit of background and history about the Church Year:
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We keep track of time and seasons of the year by using calendars that provide us opportunities to observe, commemorate, and celebrate certain events or occasions. The Christian year grew out of the conviction that the story of Jesus Christ is the central and most significant story in human history. By practicing the Church Year, Christians are enabled to recall and re-enact this story in such a way as to connect their lives, individually and corporately, with that of Christ. The Christian Church, following earlier Jewish tradition, has long used the seasons of the year as an opportunity for festivals and holidays, sacred time set aside to worship God as the Lord of life.

While Jewish celebration revolves around the Exodus from Egypt, the Christian Church year focuses on the life and ministry of Jesus. The sequence of festivals from Advent to Resurrection Sunday becomes an annual spiritual journey for worshipers as they kneel at the manger, listen on a hillside, walk the streets of Jerusalem, hear the roar of the mob, stand beneath the cross, and witness the resurrection! The rest of the Church Year provides opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the coming of Jesus and his commission to his people to be a light to the world.

The observance of the seasons of the Church Year has a long history in the life of the Christian Faith. When most of the people in the Church were poor and had no access to education, the church festivals and the cycle of the Church Year provided a vehicle for teaching the story of God and his actions in human history. Planned and purposeful observance of the Christian seasons and festivals can become an important tool for education and discipleship in the Faith, as well as a vehicle for spiritual growth and vitality.

As a congregation moves through the church calendar, they are presented in an organized way with the opportunity to talk about, reflect upon, and respond to the entire range of faith confessions that lie at the heart of the Christian Faith. This is important, not only for the vitality of the whole community, but especially for children to become aware in the context of community celebration those things that are important to their Faith (Deut 6:20-25).

The Christian calendar is organized around two major centers of “Sacred Time:” Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; and Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, concluding at Pentecost. The rest of the year following Pentecost is known as “Ordinary Time,” from the word "ordinal," which simply means counted time (First Sunday after Pentecost, etc.).  Ordinary Time is used to focus on various aspects of the Faith, especially the mission of the Church in the world.  

Many churches also celebrate other days not specifically tied to these cycles, such as Reformation Sunday and All Saints Sunday. These are becoming increasingly popular ways to flesh out the themes of the Church in the world during Ordinary Time by focusing on heritage and the faithfulness of those in the past.

Following the Church Year is more than simply marking time on a calendar or a note in the church bulletin.  Every effort should be made to use the various aspects of the Church Year as an opportunity to tell the story of God's redemptive work in the world.  It is an attempt to allow the Church and its history rather than secular culture to set the agenda for the Church's teaching and ministry.
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As I said before, this is one of the greatest reasons and benefits of observing the Church Year: to allow our Christian faith to set the agenda of our lives, not the secular culture! When we set our calendars on the Lord’s timing and schedule, we do not need to get caught up in the pressures and expectations that the world places on people, especially regarding the rhythms and cycles of the year. It seems that as the world searches for meaning, for excitement, and for “something new,” it creates and re-creates distractions to fill up our time, to drain our pocketbooks, to keep us entertained--and to just keep us busy! Think of the time, money, and energy that many are giving to Halloween these days. Or of the push to buy gifts, cards, and candy for Valentine’s Day. Or of the urgency to buy new clothes, backpacks, notebooks, and other supplies at the beginning of the school year. Or worst of all, the commercialization of Christmas that continues to grow and, in many ways, re-form the thinking and behavior even of us who want to keep the focus of this special season on Jesus. Let’s be honest: most of us who are Christians feel as pressured and stressed and BUSY during December as those who don’t know Jesus! We are as caught up in shopping, partying, programming, and frantic preparations as any other American--even in church! We say it is all for Jesus, we often pray and offer it all to Jesus, we even try to condone our frenzied December routines by attaching “Christian” reasons to what we do (gift-giving, canned food drives, parties, programs, concerts and traditions, etc.).

My question is: do we really have a spiritual sense behind all that we are doing every December? Is the intent actually there; that we are offering all of this to Christ as an act of worship and adoration? Are our children picking up on this at all? Or if we are really honest, do we realize that these are just spiritual excuses to parallel and parrot the actions, activities, and attitudes of the world around us? What would happen--what would it look like--if we refrained from all of the expectations and activities and routines that our culture dictates to us in order to “celebrate the holiday season” and, instead, we focused solely on Christ? Could we do it? How would we do it? Would we discover something that we are not able to see, due to our own rushed and frenzied pace?

Another reason and benefit of observing the Church Year is that it is a way to witness to our culture about the things we truly believe in and value. It can provide conversations about faith, holy history, and the meaning of life from God’s perspective, not from the perspective of our culture, our nation, our media. Again, what would it look like if all of us in the Church did not exhaust ourselves during December with so much “special” activity? What would those around us see demonstrated by us if we didn’t do the same things that the rest of our culture does throughout December? If we expressed our celebration of Christ’s birth in a radically new and different way? What would people think? Would they be curious? Would they think we’re just weird? Or could a different observance by us who call ourselves Christians prove appealing-- and maybe even alter the patterns and perspective of those around us, once they experienced a different mode of celebrating Christmas that was less frantic, stressful, and jam-packed? What if we somehow called a halt to the exhausting pace, the extra meetings and commitments, the holiday details that always threaten to undo us, even within the Church?

What if, instead, we simply made it all about Jesus again? Really about Jesus again? Without any glitz or galmour, or trying to ratchet up the expectations year after year, doing everything bigger and better than ever? What if we took to heart what we sing and say about Jesus being born in a lowly stable, poor and plain, simple and unassuming? What would our Decembers be like if we modeled this aspect of Jesus’ incarnation in our lives and our communities? How would our celebration of his birth look instead? Consider this idea: "Advent Conspiracy"

Observing the Church Year--all of it, not just Christmas and Easter--offers us a healthy spiritual alternative to the world’s routine. It can help us order our lives and keep a “kingdom” worldview all year long. It can help us realize and experience the overarching purpose and plan of God, from creation to the close of history, and provide a framework for the intersection of our physical, earthly existence and our spiritual, eternal reality; the “here-and-now” and the ultimate “out-of-time” existence that is our true home. It can help us remember that the world’s agendas, rhythms, and expectations are not ours, freeing us to follow Him whom we call our Master, our Savior, our King: Jesus!

By now you might be aghast at some of the proposals I’ve laid out here. You might be saying something like: “What’s wrong with Dan?” Of “What a scrooge!” Or “What a wet blanket!” Or “What a party-pooper!” As if I want to take all the fun and joy out of Christmas--and every other holiday and special occasion as well! That is not my intent here at all. In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that the reason I’m writing all of this is to remind myself of what I need to be thinking and doing as we once again approach the beginning of a new Church Year. I need to remember who it is that is the center of the celebration of Christmas. I need to remember where my true allegiance lies, and whose I am! I must remember that I am not first and foremost a consumer robot whose purpose is to help get the economy back on its feet by spending my money on STUFF this Christmas season! I am a human follower of my Savior Jesus, and my purpose and priorities are dictated to me by Him, not by Wall Street or Hollywood, Madison Avenue or People Magazine. As a disciple of Christ, I know that my life is to look different--somehow--from the lives of those around me who do not yet know Jesus. As Christmas approaches, I believe we have a unique window of opportunity to make the reality of Jesus known in ways that are more difficult to do during the rest of the year (during ordinary time). To myself I say: What can I do during Advent and Christmas to make my love for Jesus more apparent, and in a manner that clearly demonstrates the peace, the hope, and the quiet confidence that is mine because of my relationship with my Lord?

With the celebration of “Christ the King” Sunday (my preference of the three designations!), the Church Year comes to an end, which of course parallels what will happen at the end of all time when Christ returns as King, in all His glory.

A new Church Year begins this Sunday, November 30th, with the first Sunday of Advent (“coming”). This is a solemn time of anticipation and preparation for the different comings of Christ: first as a baby in Bethlehem, today in an ongoing way through word and sacrament, and finally in the victorious second coming of Christ in judgment and grace. Most of you reading this blogpost understand this season of the Church Year quite well because we observe it every year at church. Will you join me in making this Advent and Christmas season somehow different? More relaxed, more consciously focused on Jesus, more simple--”meek and lowly,” as the Christmas carol puts it? The December issue of the “Covenant Companion” has some wonderful helps for slowing down, re-focusing, and keeping a right spiritual perspective during Advent. Let’s get caught up in the grand story--God’s story--that is at the heart of our celebration of Jesus’ birth, rather than in the shallow story that our culture proclaims at this time of year. Let’s make “Jesus is the reason for the season” more than a Christian cliché. Let’s make it a reality as we enter this time of anticipation and preparation during Advent. Let’s keep our focus on how we are part of God’s ultimate plan and purpose, especially on how the redemption of all humankind was accomplished through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus as a tiny baby in a manger in Bethlehem long ago.


Now that’s something to celebrate!

“Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel!”

For many years, I have made “My Utmost For His Highest” part of my daily devotions. I can easily understand why it is said to be, apart from the Bible, the most read Christian book of all time. Oswald Chambers shared his wisdom over 100 years ago, but his insights are truly timeless, challenging his readers to engage faith, Scripture, and Christ in deeper, more thoughtful ways than many Christians typically do. His reflections are as relevant (perhaps even more relevant) as when he first expressed them before his death on November 15, 1917. I always read “My Utmost” at the end of my devotional time because I especially appreciate Oswald’s keen insights into following Jesus. They send me out into my day with energy and conviction, and continually encourage me to be “my utmost for HIS highest!”

I’d like to share a couple of writings from this exceptional book as we approach the 91st anniversary of Oswald Chambers passing tomorrow. The November 9th and 13th devotionals impacted me in a powerful way this year; see if they don’t challenge you too in your understanding of what is most important regarding preaching about Jesus and what faith is truly about. (The italicized paragraphs are the passages from "My Utmost.")

First , the November 9th entry, “Sacramental Service:”

"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. . . ." Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacramental "go-between," to be so identified with his Lord and the reality of His Redemption that He can continually bring His creating life through him. It is not the strength of one man's personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through the elements of the worker's life.

How true this is! In our witness, our preaching, our evangelism, it must always be about Christ and not about us! I think we agree with this, but the ways of the world all too often influence and overcome us, and we can be more enamored with the person--the famous speaker/teacher/author/band/singer--than with Jesus and His message. Our media-saturated culture and obsession with celebrity has, unfortunately, infected our spiritual values and perspectives as Christians and so we must continually resist the pressure to focus on the messenger instead of the message, and on our Lord.

When we preach the historic facts of the life and death of Our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacramental, God uses them on the ground of His Redemption to create in those who listen that which is not created otherwise. If we preach the effects of Redemption in human life instead of the revelation regarding Jesus, the result in those who listen is not new birth, but refined spiritual culture, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in another domain. We have to see that we are in such living sympathy with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in souls the things which He alone can do.

Did you catch that? “Preach the historic facts of the life and death of Our Lord!” That’s incarnational theology! What I believe is the most incredible, fantastic, unique centerpiece of Christian faith: that the very God of the universe loved us--His human, fallible, earthly creatures--so much that He willingly limited Himself and entered into our very existence and experienced everything that we go through in life. It’s absurd! Crazy! Impossible and incomprehensible and irrational--and it is the cornerstone of our faith! Of our relationship with God Himself! As Oswald also says, it is the Redemption that God made possible through His incarnation in Jesus that must always be our focus and not the effects of Redemption in our lives. The objective reality of Christ and what He has accomplished is the important thing, not how our salvation makes us feel or how changed and wonderful our lives might be as a result of our acceptance of Christ. Focusing on the results puts the emphasis in the wrong place--but again, this is what people in our culture love to get caught up in: the emotion and drama, the excitement and "gusto" of the experiences of life! We who follow Jesus regularly look first for these effects too, rather than focusing on the objective reality of the Redemption made actual in Jesus Himself. We Christians like “chills” and “how it brought tears to my eyes” and how powerful worship or preaching make us feel, just as much as non-believers enjoy their own thrills and chills! (More on this in the next devotional...) This is not right. It is something we need to repent of, guard against, and instead we must strive to intentionally re-focus our attention on the amazing truth of the Redemption itself. Otherwise, as Oswald concludes:

What a wonderful personality! What a fascinating man! Such marvellous insight! What chance has the Gospel of God through all that? It cannot get through, because the line of attraction is always the line of appeal. If a man attracts by his personality, his appeal is along that line; if he is identified with his Lord's personality, then the appeal is along the line of what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men; Jesus says we are to lift HIM up.



The November 13th entry is entitled “Faith And Experience:”

"The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

We have to battle through our moods into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus, to get out of the hole-and-corner business of our experience into abandoned devotion to Him.

This is so very difficult for us, isn’t it? To get over our infatuation with “experience” and “feelings” and all of our personal, individualistic, emotional obsessions and, instead, make it all about Jesus. To truly have FAITH--faith in the One Whom we claim is Savior of the world. Remember that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) However, the outer circumstances of our lives, the things that are so familiar and comfortable and pleasing to us, those “thrills and chills” when it comes to our spiritual lives--all of this is, unfortunately, where many of us who claim to have “faith” put our focus instead. It is all too easy to be devoted to the outer expressions and realities of our faith rather than, as Oswald says, “into abandoned devotion to Him.”

Think Who the New Testament says that Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meanness of the miserable faith we have - I haven't had this and that experience!

Now, you might be thinking that Oswald is speaking against Christian testimony. That when we see and hear about the effect Jesus has on the lives of different people we are almost making an idol of that person and of the experience. I don’t think that this is what Oswald means, at least not completely. Transformation in people is, in a sense, “incarnational” as well; a witness to Jesus Christ enfleshed in the very being of a follower of our Lord! What Oswald means here is that we must not make dramatic or emotional or specially unique experiences the measure of anyone’s relationship with Christ. No! Let me say it again: it must always be about Christ and not about us! It’s just hard for us to keep the main thing the main thing because in our humanness, we tend toward what is most immediate and easiest to grasp: those activities and things that our senses engage and interact with. Christ and God and faith and belief are more intangible; harder to get a grip on. So we can all too quickly allow ourselves to be caught up in the expressions and experiences of our faith rather than in the rock solid reality of who and what our faith is in: Jesus Christ Himself.

Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims: that He can present us faultless before the throne of God, unutterably pure, absolutely rectified and profoundly justified.

Do we “get it?” Can we truly wrap our minds around this? Is this more than a doctrinal or theological statement to us; something we only affirm in our heads, but that is too transcendent and vague and incomprehensible to really impact us at the level of our actual lives?

Stand in implicit adoring faith in Him, He  is made unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." How can we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! Our salvation is from hell and perdition, and then we talk about making sacrifices!

Wow! Have you ever thought of it in this way? That what we call “sacrifices” and struggles, hardships, and pain are only minor temporary irritations compared to what God accomplished for all eternity in and through our Savior, Jesus? Think of it; of what we are “saved” from: hell and perdition (an old fashioned word that means complete and irreparable loss of our souls and our hope for salvation, and damnation instead!) as well as from sin, death, and the devil! Sacrifices? How can anything we label “sacrifice” in our lives compare to what we actually receive and possess through Jesus’s sacrifice?

We have to get out into faith in Jesus Christ continually; not a prayer meeting Jesus Christ, nor a book Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, Who is God Incarnate, and Who ought to strike us to His feet as dead. Our faith must be in the One from Whom our experience springs.

THERE YOU HAVE IT IN A NUTSHELL! I can say no more...it’s Jesus, not our experience.

Jesus Christ wants our absolute abandon of devotion to Himself. We never can experience Jesus Christ, nor ever hold Him within the compass of our own hearts, but our faith must be built in strong emphatic confidence in Him.

Do we comprehend this? Can we go forward in our lives, individually and as a church, centered on this true reality; on the “bigness” of Jesus Christ Who is SO much beyond what we can “ever hold within the compass of our hearts?” Can we abandon ourselves to Him? Can our confidence be in Him only, so that all of the outer “experiences” of Him (sounds and sights of worship, words and phrases of Scripture, familiar expressions of faith, personal preferences, prejudices, and desires) no longer entangle us but, instead, fade into the background, becoming mere lenses through which we are able to embrace the ultimate reality of our Lord? Is this easy? Not at all! Can we get our heads around it? Barely! But I believe this re-focusing and re-prioritizing of our energies and attitudes and emotions on Jesus, not on our experiences, could be more deeply transforming for us, individually and as a church. It could alleviate tension between people, anxiety over change, and the need to have old familiar patterns be the expression of our faith in Christ. The result of all this would be an easier ability to embrace all that is necessary to be a church that can reach the ever-changing culture we are in the midst of today. If we could truly focus on Jesus--just Jesus--and not on our priorities and agendas, think of how freely Jesus could live and move in us! No longer restrained by our apprehensions, concerns, expectations, and desires of what we want our faith to be like. Think how attractive this could be to ousiders looking in on us who, sadly, usually only see the outer facade or expressions of our relationship with Jesus--and to many people, what they see is not attractive at all. Our confidence and delight must be in Jesus, not in the externals of our faith!

It is along this line that we see the rugged impatience of the Holy Ghost against unbelief. All our fears are wicked, and we fear because we will not nourish ourselves in our faith. How can any one who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! It ought to be an absolute pæan of perfectly irrepressible, triumphant belief.

Fear. Are you fearful these days? Unsure of the future, not only of the economy, of terrorism, of the unsettledness of the world, of so many things that you don’t understand, but also frightened by change, especially of what is happening to churches today, ours included? Feeling almost like an alien in your own surroundings because of the fast pace of life, changing technology, and unfathomable challenges facing us on every side today? Oswald certainly startles us with his words, “All our fears are wicked!” He calls us back to the simple, central reality where we must nourish our faith: Jesus! We must let go of all our concerns, including the ones we have about our church; concerns about change, style, conflict, music, tradtions, innovations, personalities--all of them. We need to come to the place where we realize that even if all of the things we cherish and hold dear were taken from us, we would be perfectly fine--even content, happy, joyful--because we have Jesus! This is how it was in the early Church. This is how it is for believers who are facing persecution right now, all over the world. And isn’t it interesting that this is where the Church is growing and thriving today? Where all of the things we give so much attention and energy to, that we are afraid to see changed or taken away from us, are removed from Christians who are in the midst of persecution? You see, all they have is Jesus! We can certainly learn from them. Can we embrace voluntarily what they are facing through force? And give our full attention to Jesus, “the author and finisher” (KJV), “the pioneer and perfecter” (RSV), “the source and goal” (Phillips), “on whom faith depends from start to finish.” (NEB)

As Oswald concludes: “How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear!”

May this be our reality in our lives, in our church, in the communities where we live today.

Oswald Chambers, July 24, 1874-November 15, 1917: Requiescat in pace. Amen.