Rhythm.
"The liturgical calendar follows the life of Christ and, in its cyclical rhythm, invites us to enter into the movement of His life on a yearly basis."
I am not opposed to living within the context of a schedule. I do certain things on Monday and different things on Wednesday. It's a rhythm that I choose to embrace rather than fight against. We are not strangers to living out our lives around a calendar. Many of us are shaped significantly by a school calendar. We orient our months around when Spring Break and Fall Break fall and we look forward to the longer breaks of Christmas and summer. The seasons are an interesting calendar in themselves. The change of season brings the change of wardrobe and engaging in certain activities that are specific to that particular part of the year. Lea and I are in a particular part of the calendar year that is special for our family historically. The 63 days from November 2nd to January 3rd have a particular rhythm of celebration in our family. We celebrate Lea's birthday on November 2nd. At the end of the month we enjoy Thanksgiving weekend. Our Christmas tree goes up and then December 16th is Trent's birthday. Nine days later we celebrate the arrival of Jesus. Nine days later on January 3rd we remember the gift of Trey's life on his birthday. This collection of remembering and holy days are rich and full for our family and we enjoy that they fall on the calendar in the way that they do. It has brought a particular rhythm to our lives in the delicious details of how we choose to enter in to each occasion in those 63 days.
There is another calendar, called the liturgical calendar, that orients our living not to temperature or school holidays, but around the life of Jesus....remembering and savoring with gratitude His birth, His living, His dying, His resurrecting, and His eternal reigning forevermore. The liturgical calendar invites us as those following Jesus to orient our living year after year following the path of His life. I don't seem to have much problem orienting my life around when summer break is and when the Super Bowl happens. I've confessed that my family is living inside a stretch of 63 days that we really savor and enjoy. What I have also been finding over these years is that the rhythm of the liturgical, Christian year has been deeply stirring my heart to be more rooted in Jesus than in seasons and holidays. The writer said in the Bible book of Psalm, chapter 90 and verse 12, "teach us to number our days aright...". A couple of verses before in verse 10 it says that we may live for 70 or 80 years. Soon it is gone and we fly away. But is there a way that we can view our days through a grid that draws our attention to Christ as opposed to just simply living our days as 'get up, do our thing, go to bed' for 27,375 days (75 years or so)? I want that rhythm to be the rhythm of the life of Christ, not primarily the life of Damon. I want to keep learning about it.
We see some of the earliest whispers of this idea in the Bible book of Leviticus, chapter 23. God is training the people of Israel in His rhythm's. He says, "These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies." A re-orienting of life away from living primarily focussed on myself and my life to living life focussed on God and His rhythm's which He is pointing out to us as we are living. That's a rhythm shift. I see my need for that shift. More of Jesus. Less of me. I must decrease. He must increase. As Leviticus 23 continues there is this beautiful rhythm unfolding and He is teaching them about it. Don't miss that the first thing that is mentioned is a "sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath to the Lord". And out of this rest comes the Lord's passover, first fruits harvest reaping, a feast of weeks in the offering of new grain, then the day of atonement followed by the feast of tabernacles and booths. Each of these were set with a particular date. They were being trained in a new rhythm with appointed times for remembering and celebrating and learning. That's really what the liturgical calendar is. It is an invitation to learn a new rhythm with appointed times for remembering, celebrating and learning about the life of Christ invested in us.
The circle above offers a simple glimpse into this rhythm. The season of Advent helps us to prepare and wait for the arrival of the Christ child. The season of Christmas is a celebration of the coming of the Light of the World. Lent is a season to take stock of our lives as we remember the coming cross of Christ. Easter is a celebration of the defeat of death and evil and the reigning life of Jesus. Pentecost is a season to celebrate the Holy Spirit's power invested in each Jesus follower for the living of life in extraordinary and ordinary days. Ordinary time is the living out of the power of the Spirit in life's most mundane and majestic moments. A holy rhythm. We are invited.
Why am I writing these words today? Partly because there is value for my heart to ponder them as I write. And this rhythm of re-orientation is about to turn into a new season. The season of Advent begins in two weekends. On Thanksgiving weekend, we begin a season of four weeks leading to Christmas where we are invited to orient our hearts in a rhythm of preparing for the arrival of the Christ child, the Gift of gifts.
You've been practicing this rhythm for years? Savor it again and again. This rhythm is new for you? Welcome to another calendar. There's no pressure to master it or explain it. Rest in it. Rest. Consider this new rhythm of the heart.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019. "More of Jesus. Less of me." Interesting calendar entry huh?
There's more.