Intentionality is for the Byrds – Why the Liturgical Calendar is Good, True, and Beautiful
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven
(Ecc 3.1).
Autumn is upon us. Kids are back to school, football is on TV, Halloween décor is creeping up everywhere, and the dog days of summer have given way to the crisp fall air. This season looks different for each of us. In the Loginow lodge our temporal currency is spent on football and marching band. Between games, football and cheer practice, and marching band rehearsals and competitions, these next two months are our busiest annual season.
We all have different calendars that shape our time – September’s demands are not December’s; May is not July. In January we watch the ball drop, while our ambitions for new habits rise. In April the Government says, “pay up;” in May the school year ends; in September the school year begins. The weather of the seasons demands different uniforms from us (don’t forget the kids’ snow bag for school!). Work, school, activities, church, vacation; on and on it goes.
Amid our differing calendars there is an ancient calendar that faithfully plods along – the liturgical calendar, or the church calendar. Signified in the paraments dawned by the pulpit and the Eucharist tables, the liturgical calendar structures our year around God and his gospel. It is Trinitarian in structure:
The Father: The advent of the liturgical year begins with the season of Advent. In the four weeks leading up to Christmas Eve we collectively anticipate the Incarnation of the Son of God – reflecting on themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. Then comes Christmas; The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1.14)! We celebrate Christmas for 12 days until Epiphany – the revelation of the Messiah to the Gentiles. Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany beckon us to collectively embody, anticipate, and celebrate that the Father sent the Son into the world to save sinners (Matt 1.21).
The Son: After Epiphany comes the somber season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a 40-day season of fasting (fasting Monday – Saturday; breaking fast Sundays in anticipation of the resurrection) in the pattern of Jesus’ 40-day temptation and fast in the wilderness (Matt 4.1-11; Luke 4.1-13). The practice of Lent doesn’t require that this be the only time Christians fast – there may be other seasons, for various reasons that one might fast – but it does facilitate a regular and communal opportunity to practice the spiritual discipline of fasting. The anticipation for Easter that slowly builds during these 6 weeks reaches a liturgical boiling point at Holy Week – Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, in particular.
The climax of the Christian calendar, the Highest of holy days dawns with the sun on Easter Sunday (and the 6 weeks that follow are called Eastertide - He is risen indeed!). This is the annual celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s true that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ every Sunday, but Easter (or Resurrection Day) honors the reality of history. Jesus rose again in time and space and the celebration of Eastertide, in alignment with Passover, connects us to the actual time of year when Jesus of Nazareth died, was buried, and rose again (1 Cor 15.3-4). From Lent – Eastertide beckons us to collectively remember and proclaim that the Son lived, died, and resurrected for us and our salvation.
The Spirit: After Eastertide we live out the remainder of the year in Ordinary Time, which begins with a triad of holy days – Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. We practice Ordinary Time until Christ the King Sunday (or Kingdomtide), which is the Sunday before Advent, and then we begin again. Ordinary Time beckons us to realize that the Lord Jesus has ascended where he sits in session at the right hand of God. The Holy Spirit has come to quicken the church, and she is sustained by Word and sacrament until Christ returns.
This is how we observe the liturgical calendar at Christ Community Church. There are different Christian traditions that observe the calendar in differing ways (including many more holy days). High church traditions tend to be more liturgical and low church traditions not some much. Even within our own church we have members who personally observe the calendar to a spectrum of degrees.
The liturgical calendar is an issue of Christian liberty – not an issue of faithfulness so much as one of personal conviction, conscience, and prudence. The only calendar explicitly required by the New Testament is the gathering of the church for worship on the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath – Sunday. Even so, the liturgical calendar invites us to inhabit the good, the true, and the beautiful. The church calendar is a means to intersect the story of our days with the story of Jesus. Much like the weekly liturgy is a collective “acting out” of the gospel (guilt-grace-gratitude), so too, the annual rhythm of the liturgical calendar allows us to embody the story of God and his gospel together.