Happy New Year!!!
Here’s a quote from KBC’s Worship Guide:
"The Christian year does not begin on January 1 as it does on the secular calendar. Rather, it begins four Sundays before Christmas with the season of Advent (from the Latin adventus, "coming"), a season that calls for expectant waiting and readiness for the coming Christ. There is a simultaneous importance of both penitence and hope, of both remorse and rejoicing."
This means that for Christians the year begins on Sunday! I don’t think this means that we need to give up our annual celebrations watching Dick Clark drop the ball in New York City (or whatever he does), but I do think it means we need regular reminders that we who follow Christ follow a different clock. We live by a different time.
This “different time” is a multi-dimensional reality. It is both philosophical and pragmatic. It begins with a philosophical understanding that we serve a God who is above time, that we follow Jesus who taught us to not worry about tomorrow, and that we heed the advice of St. Paul who intimated that we ought to live by “kairos time” (quality time) rather than “kronos time” (quantity time). And this “church calendar” contains pragmatic annual reminders, and helpful hints, on how to do this. Of course one needn’t have the church calendar to live on God’s time. But I hope you do (or will!) agree with me, that it can be a helpful aid.
In Advent we hope and wait, in Christmas we rejoice and celebrate. In Epiphany we reflect on the need to follow the wisdom of Christ. In Lent we are reminded about the need to repent. In Holy Week, we take a close look at the reality of sacrificial love. On Easter we celebrate the resurrection and the living presence of Christ. This rhythm of the year is meant to remind us of Jesus – both of his life and his teachings. And this rhythm is meant to help us follow him.
As long as this life endures we will always be on a journey. We will never have arrived. We are blessed if we mark our journey, not by the passage of time, but by the intentional practice of following in the ways of Jesus. Let us being this new Christian year with a resolution, that by God’s grace, we’re going to do just that.
"The Christian year does not begin on January 1 as it does on the secular calendar. Rather, it begins four Sundays before Christmas with the season of Advent (from the Latin adventus, "coming"), a season that calls for expectant waiting and readiness for the coming Christ. There is a simultaneous importance of both penitence and hope, of both remorse and rejoicing."
This means that for Christians the year begins on Sunday! I don’t think this means that we need to give up our annual celebrations watching Dick Clark drop the ball in New York City (or whatever he does), but I do think it means we need regular reminders that we who follow Christ follow a different clock. We live by a different time.
This “different time” is a multi-dimensional reality. It is both philosophical and pragmatic. It begins with a philosophical understanding that we serve a God who is above time, that we follow Jesus who taught us to not worry about tomorrow, and that we heed the advice of St. Paul who intimated that we ought to live by “kairos time” (quality time) rather than “kronos time” (quantity time). And this “church calendar” contains pragmatic annual reminders, and helpful hints, on how to do this. Of course one needn’t have the church calendar to live on God’s time. But I hope you do (or will!) agree with me, that it can be a helpful aid.
In Advent we hope and wait, in Christmas we rejoice and celebrate. In Epiphany we reflect on the need to follow the wisdom of Christ. In Lent we are reminded about the need to repent. In Holy Week, we take a close look at the reality of sacrificial love. On Easter we celebrate the resurrection and the living presence of Christ. This rhythm of the year is meant to remind us of Jesus – both of his life and his teachings. And this rhythm is meant to help us follow him.
As long as this life endures we will always be on a journey. We will never have arrived. We are blessed if we mark our journey, not by the passage of time, but by the intentional practice of following in the ways of Jesus. Let us being this new Christian year with a resolution, that by God’s grace, we’re going to do just that.
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