The Christmas Cycle
The Christmas Cycle includes the four weeks of Advent, the twelve days of Christmas and the day of the Epiphany of the Lord.
Advent is the time to prepare for the celebration of Christ’s coming as a baby as well as the time to prepare for his
continual coming in the present and his anticipated coming in the future.
Christmas breaks the Advent preparations by encouraging us to celebrate that
the Word of God was born among us in weak human form, and in this form, showed us through words and actions, the love of God
and who we are to be as God’s people. However, the Christ who came as a
baby continues to come among us and will continue to come into the future, leading us into God’s reign of love and justice
which will eventually be fulfilled.
The twelve days of Christmas have their origin in ancient calendar differences regarding the date of the winter solstice. For Western churches (Roman Catholic and churches coming from The Reformation), the
twelve days end on January 5th. January 6th is the day of The Epiphany of our
Lord for these churches, including of course, us. For Eastern Orthodox churches,
January 6th is the day before their celebration of Christmas, with their day of Epiphany being twelve days later.
The Epiphany is the day we celebrate the coming of the wise men to the infant Jesus.
Since these men were gentiles, Epiphany has become the time to celebrate God’s revelation in Christ to all nations
and people. Epiphany is celebrated because Christ is indeed the light of the
world.
Ordinary Time
This is the second in a series of articles on the cycles or times in the liturgical year.
In December, I wrote about the Christmas cycle which includes the four weeks of advent, the twelve days of Christmas, and
the day of Epiphany of The Lord. The Christmas cycle begins the liturgical year.
The first of two ordinary times during the year begins January 7, (the day following the day of Epiphany) and ends the day
before Ash Wednesday.
In the past, the common practice was to identify the time immediately after Epiphany as for example the “Second Sunday
after Epiphany” or the “fifth Sunday after Epiphany”. This
however was misleading in that it led people to believe that the Sundays following Epiphany were a part of the Epiphany Season. Epiphany is not a season. It is a single
day. The term now used is “Ordinary Time”. Since Ordinary Time is not a season, this period which comes between the Christmas and Easter Cycles then
again between the Easter and the next Christmas cycle, allows the Lord’s Day, Sunday, to be preeminent. In Ordinary Time the focus is on the Lord’s Day. Ordinary
Time is a sequence of Lord’s Days to reflect on the ministry of Jesus as witnessed by the gospel writers and Paul. Appropriate Old Testament texts are also used.
On the first Sunday of the Ordinary Time following the Day of Epiphany, we remember Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of
Jesus’ ministry. The last Sunday in this Ordinary Time focuses on Jesus’
Transfiguration, the event in Jesus life in which his majesty and glory shine forth; thus leading us into the Easter cycle
during which we reflect on Jesus death and resurrection.
The Easter Cycle
As we continue
our journey through the liturgical year, we begin this month with an introduction to the Easter cycle and in particular the
season of Lent with which the cycle begins. In April we shall continue our journey by discussing Holy Week and Easter.
In May, we shall reflect on The Day of Pentecost with which the Easter cycle concludes.
Easter is the oldest of the annual festivals and it celebrates the central event in the story of salvation. The Easter
cycle consists of the forty days of Lent excluding Sundays which are always festival days. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday
and ends the day before Easter. The cycle continues with the seven weeks of easter and concludes on the Sunday of Pentecost.
Throughout these weeks, the emphasis on cross and resurrection expresses the unity of the cycle. Cross and resurrection
are inseparable in our theology and in our liturgical celebration.
We observe Lent at the beginning of the cycle to remind us that unless we are willing to die to our old self-serving selves,
we cannot be raised to the new life with Christ. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. This day signifies a time to turn
around, a time to turn away from our self-centered self-serving life. The first step in Lent is to acknowledge our mortality,
our limitations. Some Christian traditions impose ashes on the person's forehead. This reminds us that we come
from dust and will return to dust. In the Bible, ashes applied to the body at times of fasting were also a sign of penitence.
Thus ashes become a sign of our brokenness and failures. During Lent we are reminded that our possessions, our accomplishments,
even our own lives do not last forever. During Lent we follow Jesus into the wilderness, where there is temptation and
then proceed with him to Jerusalem and the cross - his and ours. Our Lenten Journey is one in which we confront our
limitations and failures and then look forward with Christ to the new life God promises and which we know we can celebrate
because of the coming resurrection to new life.
The Easter Cycle continued
As we continue our journey
through the liturgical year, we resume our discussion of the Easter cycle. In
February, I wrote about Lent with which the cycle begins.
This month the focus is on Holy Week and Easter. During Holy Week, we hear the
fullness of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. Holy Week begins
on Passion/Palm Sunday. The name Passion/Palm Sunday maintains the tension that
exists between the joyful entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the somberness of his suffering and death
at the end of the week.
In First & Trinity, our worship on Passion/Palm Sunday begins in our Fellowship Hall where worshipers are given Palms. Following prayer and the reading of one of the Gospel stories about Jesus’ entry
into Jerusalem, we process into the sanctuary where our worship
focuses on Christ’s suffering and its meaning for us. Our worship on Passion/Palm
Sunday then leads us to our worship on Maundy Thursday. On that evening we remember
Jesus’ last meal with his disciples by observing a Passover-like meal which concludes with a communion service. Following the meal, worship continues with scripture readings and music which tell
of the betrayal of Christ, his trial before the high priest, Peter’s denial of Jesus and concludes with Jesus being
led away to be crucified. The next day is Good Friday. On that day we gather to remember through scripture, music and prayer Jesus’ death on a cross, the
final great act of his self-giving.
Two days later the triumph of God over destructive powers through the resurrection
of Christ from the dead is celebrated. On this day it is appropriate to partake
of the Lord’s supper as a joyful celebration of the life of the risen Christ among us and to baptize persons as a sign
of their resurrection into the new life Christ has made available to us.
Pentecost
The previous article in this series focused on Holy Week and Easter.
The Easter season lasts for seven weeks.
For seven weeks, a week of Sundays, we acclaim the
resurrection of Christ by the power of God. The period of seven weeks of jubilation
can be traced back to its Jewish roots of the fifty days celebrated from the day after Passover to Shavuot (Feast of Weeks,
Exodus 23:16). For Jews, the Feast of Weeks closed the season of harvest, which
had been initiated by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In a similar manner, early
Christians observed a fifty-day period of celebration from Easter to the Day of Pentecost.
On the pentecoste (“fiftieth”) day, not only was the fifty-day period concluded, but a festival with its
own proper content was celebrated. The Jews observed a feast of covenant renewal
and eventually commemorated the giving of the Law. Christians celebrated the
gift of the Spirit. What Moses and the Law did for the Jewish community, the
Holy Spirit now does for the community of Christ.
According to
the Day of Pentecost story in Acts 2:1-13, God gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower witnesses to the resurrection. Sounds from heaven, cosmic language, the rush of a mighty wind (spirit, breath) invaded
the house in which the apostles gathered, and appeared to them as a burning fire. Tongues
of fire touched their nerve centers. A power—the unseen power of God—moved
among them and gripped them. The Holy Spirit is unseen, like the wind, which
is why the Old Testament calls it “the wind, or breath, of God”. The
Spirit is the “unseenness of God” working among us.
The Holy Spirit breaks us out of our preoccupation with ourselves and frees
us to serve neighbors, loosens our grasp on possessions, and sets us to loving people.
The book of
Acts tell the story of the outcome of Pentecost’s new creation: people
witness in word and in deed to the risen Christ. At the outset, the newborn church
immediately tumbled out into the streets to witness to God’s mighty works in the languages of people all over the world.
Our call as
disciples of Christ is not only to celebrate but also to show and tell neighbors about God’s new world coming in the
name of the crucified and risen Christ.
The Spirit is conceived, first of all as God’s presence within the whole community of faith, rather than the
private possession of solitary individuals. The essential mark of the Spirit’s
presence is obedience to the will of God within the context of the community of faith.
Therefore,
on the Day of Pentecost, we celebrate God’s gift of Holy Spirit which draws us together as one people, helps us comprehend
what God is doing in the world, and empowers us to proclaim, in word and in deed, God’s plan of reconciling all people
in the name of Christ (Ephesians 1:10).
The Day of
Pentecost is the climax of the Great Fifty Days of Easter, celebrating as it does the gift of the Spirit to the body of Christ—the
church.
Ordinary
Time Again
In January I wrote an article in this series on the liturgical
year in which I focused on the first of two periods called Ordinary Time. The
first period of Ordinary Time is between Epiphany (January 6) and Lent. The second
period of Ordinary Time is between Pentecost and Advent.
In addition to what was written
in the January article, we need to remember that Ordinary Time is the normal, typical time during the church year. The Sundays of Ordinary Time celebrate the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the
unfolding presence of the new creation in Christ. Biblical texts during this
time focus on Jesus life and teaching and what it means for the church to be responsible in its mission.
Twice each year, however, Ordinary
Time is heightened by the extraordinary time of the Christmas and Easter cycles. These
cycles are extra-ordinary because they intensify the foundational acts of incarnation and resurrection.
At the beginning and end of these
periods of Ordinary Time are transitional Sundays that move the church from what has preceded to what follows. This present Ordinary Time begins with Trinity Sunday which is the Sunday following Pentecost. Trinity Sunday focuses on the three-fold nature of God as the fullness of God (Father), the personal expression
of God (Son), and the energizing power of God (The Holy Spirit).
The Ordinary Time between Pentecost
and Advent concludes with the festival of Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) which is the Sunday before the first Sunday
of Advent when the liturgical year begins anew. The festival of Christ the King
as well as All Saints’ Day in November will be discussed in detail in a later article.
All Saints Day and the Festival of
Christ the King
Ten months ago I began a series of articles on the meaning
of the liturgical year and why we commemorate the life of Jesus and the redeeming work of Christ in an orderly way throughout
the year. This article is the final article in this series.
All Saints Day is always November 1. We celebrate this day annually on the first Sunday in November. All
Saints Day is a time to remember the saints (all Christians) who in the past have faithfully served our Lord and in the present
continue to serve. This is a time for us to remember that we are a part of a
great company of witnesses whose faithfulness encourages us to be courageous and strong as we follow Jesus Christ in our time
and place.
During our worship on this day we remember those from
our church family who have died during the previous year.
The festival of Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) marks
the conclusion of the liturgical year. The Sunday next following Christ the King
is the first Sunday of Advent when the liturgical year beings again. As The
Companion to our Book of Common Worship puts it, “the festival of Christ the King centers us on the crucified and
risen Christ, whom God exalted to rule over the whole universe. The celebration
of the lordship of Christ thus looks back to Ascension, Easter, and Transfiguration, and points ahead to the appearing in
glory of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Christ reigns supreme. Christ rules in peace. Christ’s truth judges falsehood. As the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, Christ is the center of the universe,
the ruler of all history, the judge of all people. In Christ all things began,
and in Christ all things will be fulfilled. In the end, Christ will triumph over
all the forces of evil.
Such concepts as these cluster around the affirmation
that Christ is King or Christ reigns! As sovereign ruler, Christ calls us to
a loyalty that transcends every earthly claim on the human heart. To Christ alone
belongs the supreme allegiance of our lives. Christ calls us to stand with those
who in every age confessed, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” In every generation,
demagogues emerge to claim an allegiance that belongs only to God. But Christ
alone has the right to claim our highest loyalty. The blood of martyrs, past
and present, witnesses to this truth.
Behold the glory of the eternal Christ! From the beginning of time to its ending, Christ rules above all earthly powers!”
Peter C. Bower, Ed., The
Companion to the Book of Common Worship, (Louisville:Geneva
Press, 2003), 151
