What is time? Time is the measurement of motion through space.
\nA day is the revolution of the earth.
\nA month is the revolution of the moon around the earth.
\nA year is the revolution of the earth around the sun.
\nBut time as such is without any apparent meaning. Just a spinning planet with an orbiting moon orbiting a star … repeating the process for the past four and a half billion years.<\/p>\n
To give time meaning we need a story. Without a story time is pointless and nihilism beckons. (I am of the opinion that the violence that goes under the guise of Islamic terrorism is more likely a form of nihilist rage disguised in religious robes … but that is another subject.)<\/p>\n
For almost two thousand years the church has had the wisdom and creativity to mark time by the gospel story of Jesus. This is time made sacred. Thus the church calendar.
\nAdvent anticipates the coming of Messiah.
\nChristmas celebrates the birth of Jesus.
\nEpiphany remembers the revelation of Christ to Gentiles.
\nLent is the solemn journey to the cross.
\nEaster is the celebration of the resurrection.
\nPentecost marks the birth of the church.
\nOrdinary Time (or Kingdom Time) leads us through the year and back to Advent.
\nHow we tell time determines who we are. If you expect fireworks on the fourth day of the seventh month you are an American. Calendar creates culture.
\nThe Greek calendar told the Greek story.
\nThe Roman calendar told the Roman story.
\nThe American calendar tells the American story.
\nThe Jewish calendar tells the Jewish story.
\nThe Christian calendar tells the Christian story.
\nThe Islamic calendar tells the Islamic story.
\nThe Secular calendar says there is no story \u2014 only politics and commerce.
\nI make a big deal about the church calendar because I want my life and the lives of my children and grandchildren to be formed by the gospel story of Jesus. To reduce the Christian calendar to a day for Christmas (a day when we don\u2019t go to church) and a single Sunday for Easter is an almost total capitulation to secularism.<\/p>\n
The fact that we are far more formed by the Fourth of July than by Trinity Sunday is ample evidence of our de facto secularism. The sad truth is that most Christians (myself included) are really secularists trying in varying degrees not to be secularists. If we hope to successfully swim against the overwhelming tide of secularism we need to return to the Great Tradition. For me the door back into the Great Tradition was the church calendar. The church calendar was the wardrobe that led me into the Narnia of the lost sacred.<\/p>\n
So at our church you can be sure we will be doing all we can to emphasize the four weeks of Advent and the twelve days of Christmas that lead to Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. We believe the Jesus story is the true story that saves the world. We believe this so deeply that it\u2019s how we tell time.<\/p>\n
Today is not Black Friday. Today is the Friday before Advent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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