Liturgy Notes: The Liturgical Year

With the First Sunday in Advent, we begin once more the traditional “liturgical year” or “church year.” While the secular calendar was developed in the Roman Empire many centuries ago, the Christian Church has always viewed time in a rather different way. Instead of months and weeks of predictable length, the church’s year revolves around six seasons.

The origins of the church’s year are obscure. Early Christians were familiar with the concept of “sacred time” because Judaism observed certain festivals (Passover, for example). The specifically Christian calendar began with the observance of what the early Christians called “Pascha”; the word means “Passover”, but they had in mind the Christian passover, Christ’s victory over death. Even today the word “paschal” is used by Christians with reference to Easter (so we call the large candle which we light first on Easter the “paschal candle”).

By the early second century, this “paschal feast”--what we call “Easter”--was being observed each year. A rather obscure but interesting controversy in the church’s history was over the question of when Easter should be celebrated, with one party arguing that Easter ought always to coincide with the Jewish Passover, while the other party argued that Easter ought always be observed on a Sunday. (Obviously the latter group won!) Very early in its development, Easter was viewed as a period of 50 days, representing the time between Christ’s resurrection and the Day of Pentecost.

By the fourth century, the rudiments of what we call “Holy Week” leading up to Easter were observed, and gradually this grew into a longer, 40-day period of preparation which came to be called “Lent.” About this time, a celebration of Christ’s birth was established. Differing customs among different churches led ultimately to a Christmas “season” extending from Christmas Day to Epiphany, January 6 (“the twelve days of Christmas”). By the fifth century, a period of preparation was observed prior to Christmas, the time we now call “Advent.” With that, the basic outline of the liturgical year was in place.

Over the course of the centuries, the seasons began to take on their distinctive character. Schemes of color were used, changed, developed; certain music came to be associated with certain seasons. The liturgy itself became more elaborate during festival seasons, and simpler during penitential seasons.

The traditional year we have received, then, has three major divisions: the Christmas Cycle includes Advent, Christmas and Epiphany; the Easter Cycle includes Lent, Easter and concludes with the Day of Pentecost; and the third division, sometimes call Ordinary Time or the time of the church, runs from Pentecost to the beginning of the next Advent.

At the time of the Reformation, some Protestants were suspicious of the liturgical year (which, it must be admitted, at that time had been burdened with a very large number of saints days, etc.). Puritans in England and America, for example, forbade the celebration of Christmas and other festivals. Lutherans, however, maintained a respect and love for the tradition of the liturgical year, and most other Protestants by the twentieth century had recovered at least parts of the structure of the year. The calendar leads us in a systematic way through the life and teachings of Christ; the rhythm of the year helps us focus on his promises in a wonderful way. The liturgical year thus becomes for us what one scholar has called “the year of grace.”

Dear friends,

We recently had a week’s vacation in Vermont, visiting old friends and enjoying the colors (and bathing in the glow of enthusiasm for the Boston Red Sox!). Our friends, Bob and Kathy, have visited the Iona Community in Scotland, and we were talking about the wonderful music that comes out of that religious congregation. I was reminded of one Iona song that we have sung on occasion here at Peace (though not very recently):

Take, O take me as I am;

Summon out what I shall be;

Set your seal upon my heart

And live in me.

I find that little prayer to be an incredibly powerful statement of faith. In simple words, it both acknowledges the gracious love of God which takes me as I am; and it accepts the yet more wonderful grace which does not leave me there but "summons out" the person that he wants me to be.

It’s a very Biblical idea, of course. Isaiah refers to God as a potter—"we are the clay, and you are the potter," he says (Isaiah 64.8). I love that image, because the potter is one who takes a non-descript lump of clay and makes something beautiful, graceful, and also useful. That’s what God is doing with us—taking us, just as we are, lumps of clay, nothing special, and with his hands molding and shaping us into something beautiful.

If only we could see it! One of the things I love about my friend Bob is that he is an artist—photographer, painter, you name it and he does it. He has an eye that can see the beauty and summon it out. I don’t have that gift. When I look at a lump of clay, I see a lump of clay. But while I was visiting Bob, I realized that when I am with him, I somehow begin to see—just a little, just a glimpse—what he sees. He is able to show me things that I wouldn’t otherwise see.

That’s how it is with the church, it seems to me. Most of us are in the dark much of the time about God’s working in the world, in our lives. But when we are together, we somehow manage to catch glimpses of God’s grace in each other and even in ourselves. We begin to see more clearly, to love more dearly, to follow Christ more nearly.

How it happens is a miracle, really. Most of the time we have our eyes firmly fixed on the limitations and the realities of the present. We don’t see the possibilities, the potential. We see the lump of clay, but we don’t see the miraculous beauty that is about to emerge, slowly, patiently, gently, as God works with us.

When we had our all-church Bible study recently, one group on which I eavesdropped was talking about tithing. They raised the question: What would it do to our congregation if everyone tithed? They were not talking about the obvious mundane implication of that—plenty of money for our ministry and mission. They were talking about something much deeper. What would it do to our relationships? What would it do to commitment to Christ, and to each other? What would it do to the way we look at the world, and at each other, and at ourselves?

I expect that’s what Jesus meant when he said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6.21) When we invest ourselves completely and earnestly, our hearts are changed. When we give generously and faithfully, the biggest and most positive impact it has is on us. It teaches us to love, sets us free from bondage to self, and in the process we are shaped into the beautiful, gracious and useful beings that God intends us to be.

What is God summoning out of you? What is God summoning out of Peace Lutheran Church? I have trouble seeing it, I admit. I do not have the eye of the artist, the eye of the potter.

But then, after all, I’m only the clay. God is the potter. The best I can do is pray: "Take, O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be. Set your seal upon my heart, and live in me."

Peace to you,

Pastor Richard O. Johnson

Classic Prayers

Not our thought of thee, O God—let thy

thought for us hold our eyes and keep us steadfast. We do not ask so much for the strength which thou hast promised as for the grace to use what thou hast already supplied in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

--Paul Scherer

(20th century Lutheran

pastor and professor)

The “Other” Dinner Group

Would you like an occasional night out with old friends and new? Don’t want to transport food from one place to another or cook for a crowd? This may be the group for you. The Sinclairs are organizing a restaurant only dinner group. Our aim is to have eight or so people per group where each individual or couple will host a beverage and appetizer at their home and pick an old favorite or new restaurant to try. After each host has hosted, we will rotate members so we can get to know others in a new group. This is not limited to couples...singles are especially welcome! If you don’t like to drive at night, we will arrange to carpool. We are not limited to dinner; brunch or lunch would be fun too!

It’s not too late! For more information or to sign up to join this group, please phone Forester or Jean Sinclair at 272-4141, or e-mail Jean at jcts@usamedia.tv.