Christian, the New Year is sooner than you think…

The Christian year is about to begin. Advent approaches, and many churches are preparing to observe this traditional season leading up to Christmas. Many others are not – either because they don’t know the first thing about Advent, because they think that’s a “Catholic” thing, or because they’re deliberately against something so “planned,” so “liturgical,” so “ritualistic,” or so “repetitive.”

I don’t think the Bible commands us to celebrate the liturgical calendar, nor does it bind our consciences to certain daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly observances apart from the worship service. But I do think it’s a good idea for churches to observe the Christian calendar – or at least more than just Christmas and Easter. Consider this a plea to evangelicals to consider following the example of the Catholics, the Lutherans, and the mainlines (those Greeks have a funny calendar, but we’d be following them as well, at least in spirit).

The ironic thing about the rejection of the Christian calendar on the grounds that it’s too ritualistic, or repetitive, is that churches that reject the Christian calendar follow the American one just fine. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Independence Day, Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day all find observation in the worship service of most evangelical churches. And then throw in the ones we’re making up – Compassion Sunday, the “we’re against abortion” Sunday, Justice Sunday, Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, New Year’s Day, etc, and you’ve got a calendar that’s filling up just as much with regular celebration of days as the traditional Christian calendar.

Only its focus is more on America than Christ. This year, Memorial Day and Pentecost fell on the same day; guess which one got mentioned and which one got left out.

It’s not a matter of whether or not we follow a calendar; it’s which one we choose to follow. I’d rather go with the one Christians have been following for a lot of centuries. Here are some reasons:

1. The Christian year is an invaluable resource for catechesis. Ah, catechesis. The instruction in the faith. In most churches, this is so unstructured or non-existent, we should not wonder why the Bible is so little-known and our own history so forgotten among evangelicals.  With preaching that comes from that funny feeling that pastor had after he ate the burrito…erm…I mean, how he felt led, and poorly-attending Sunday School classes on 7 steps to Living Your Victorious Christian Best Life Now, we are in desperate need of some kind of remedy.  How do we learn and constantly refresh out hearts with the surety of the promises of God?  How do we learn that the whole Bible is about Christ? How about spending every Advent preaching and teaching on the OT prophecies of Christ?
2. Following the Christian year places us firmly and firstly in the Kingdom of God.  When Memorial Day usurps Pentecost, we’ve made a decision; the American holiday trumps the traditional Christian one.  Objection: “But you’ve just said that we can’t bind consciences to the Christian year.”  True.  But try, just try to not observe Memorial Day or Independence Day in your average evangelical church.  Folks’ll be up in arms; you’ll see just how “bound” everyone’s American conscience is to the American calendar.  (Another fun experiment would be to take that American flag out of the sanctuary…but that’s for another post, maybe).  Forget Pentecost?  Doesn’t matter.  No one knew about it anyway.  Following the Christian year would serve to remind Christians to whose kingdom they belong.  If the rhythm of our year were dominated by Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, we’d have consistent reminders that we belong not firstly to America (or any other nation), but to God’s kingdom, and that time itself is orchestrated around His kingdom.
3. Following the Christian year is practically a big step toward restoring unity.  I’m under no delusion that denominational Christianity will be fixed by the Christian year.  We have many seemingly insurmountable differences, and some of them are important.  But could we at least take a few steps toward getting along?  There’s something really powerful in the idea that all Christians around the entire globe would be following the same – or at least very close to the same – rhythm year round.  Imagine the entire Christian world remembering the sending of the Holy Spirit in unison.  Powerful stuff.  (This is why I’m a big advocate of lectionary preaching, by the way…again, another post for another time).
4. Following the Christian year roots us in Church history.  I can think of few things more necessary in modern day evangelicalism than a historical rootedness.  Me-and-my-Bible Christianity is out. of. con. trol.  Evangelicals hear historically Christian positions and ask, “Who believes that?  Why would anyone believe that?”  Um…because Christians always believed that until your pastor came along, came up with a clever new idea, started another denomination, and abandoned it.  Following a calendar that re-tells the stories of martyrs and saints and has its own history of celebration would provide for us a vital link to our past and a regular reminder that we weren’t the first Christians to pick up a Bible and seek to understand it.
5. The Christian year takes us through the drama of redemption.  Advent: We are in Exile, waiting for Christ.  Christmas: He has come!  Peace on earth!  Epiphany: Christ is revealed; baptism remembered.  Maunday Thursday: King of the World, lowly servant, institution of the Eucharist.  Good Friday: Christ crucified for the sins of the world.  Easter: He is risen!  Ascension: He has gone and will come again.  Pentecost: the Spirit is sent.   You get the idea.  And it’s not as though we “act” or “pretend” as though Christ hasn’t come every Advent.  But we preach and meditate on the unfolding of the redemptive plan of God.  How many times throughout Scripture are we told to “remember”?  The Christian year establishes a framework of remembrance.  It establishes a framework of constant gospel preaching, which I need, and you need.

Of course, the Christian year is mere ritual if we go through the motions without heart.  But that is no argument against it (it’s no argument against weekly communion either…yet another post for another time).  It is better to have the framework of remembrance in place to stir the hearts of the calloused than to have the framework of American holidays.  The prophets did not demand that Israel abandon the cult; they demanded Israel change her heart.  It was not the festivals’ fault that hearts were hard; that’s an absurd conclusion that is too often made in evangelicalism.

To which world do we primarily belong?   I will celebrate New Year’s Eve with my family, like always; but this year, my New Year begins at Advent.