Feeling out of Step?

Observing the liturgical calendar (also called the Christian year) can make you feel off-beat with the rhythms of American society. This is certainly the case during Advent, when liturgical Christians are holding off on celebrating Christmas and are focusing on silence, reflection, and repentance. This sense of disconnect continues with the twelve day season of Christmastide. Our society (having celebrated Christmas since around Halloween) is getting tired of the celebration and is looking forward to the New Year (which according to the Christian calendar happened back in Advent!). Yet, liturgical Christians are just getting to the celebration of Christmas on December 25 and continue with it until January 5 (sometimes with the celebration of twelfth night).

Of course, most of us are far more influenced by the secular calendar than we are by our own Christian calendar. Obviously, we need to pay attention to both calendars, but for most of us, our focus on the liturgical calendar is very fleeting, limited usually to a recognition that the colors of the vestments and hangings in church have changed from one week to the next.

I’m often asked why the Church in North America is in such decline (and that decline is more obvious in some places than others), and I think one small part of the answer to that question is that we have, in recent decades, lost a sense of faith being tied to the home, to family observance, and have limited Christianity to Sundays. The liturgical calendar provides a very rich resource by which individuals and families can bring their faith into their homes and their seasonal routines. Whether it’s using a crèche set during Advent, singing a Christmas carol a day during Christmastide, baking a special cake for Epiphany, turning off the television during Lent, buying new clothes around Easter, learning a new word in a new language at Pentecost, etc., these practices make faith a real and meaningful part of our lives instead of something we only do on Sundays. A return by families and individuals to a serious (and fun!) observance of the Christian calendar will do much over time to revive Christianity in our communities.

Besides all of this, feeling slightly out of step with the rest of society should come naturally for Christians, who are supposed to live a bit differently than other people because of our commitment to Jesus Christ. The liturgical calendar, whatever the season, helps remind us that our way of living, just like our way of keeping time, is different than the ways of the world.

Merry Incarnation..er..Christmas (same thing)

There are many reasons that people celebrate Christmas. Even those who identify themselves as Christians often celebrate the day (never mind that it’s a twelve day season) for reasons other than the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the Christian belief that in Jesus God became a man. More recently, some of have referred to the Incarnation as the idea that God moved into our neighbor, quite literally, by becoming one of us.

There is a familiar story often told this time of year which seeks to explain the Incarnation. While familiar it is worth repeating. There was once a man who didn't believe in the incarnation or the spiritual meaning of Christmas, and was skeptical about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer.

One snowy Christmas eve she was taking the kids to the midnight mass at the local Episcopal church. She begged him to come, but he refused. He ridiculed the idea of the incarnation of Christ and after they left, the winds grew stronger (a familiar theme for those of us living in North Dakota) and the snow turned into a blizzard. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.

Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window... And, still another thump. He looked outside but could not see anything. So he ventured outside for a better view. In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of geese. They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down south, but they had been caught in the snowstorm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles. He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, the barn would be a great place for them to stay. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he opened the barn doors for them.

He waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. Nevertheless, they did not notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear. He went into the house and came back with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still did not catch on.

Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They panicked and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety, and shelter. Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they follow me? Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them?"

He thought for a moment and realized that they just would not follow a human. He said to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them. Then I could save them. They would follow me and I would lead them to safety."

At that moment he heard the bells ringing from the church just a couple of miles away, he stopped and considered what he had said. The words reverberated in his mind: If only I could become like one of them, then I could save them. Then, at last, he understood the Incarnation and fell on his knees in the snow - may you and I do the same.

Never Heard of Jesus?

It was a Tuesday night and I was looking across the faces of several teenagers sitting on beaten up donated couches in our youth room. We had regular youth group on Sunday nights, but Tuesday nights were for the very committed kids (or those who were desperate to get out of the house!); when we would have Bible study and more serious conversations about faith and daily life. At the end of our gathering I remember a friend of one of our regular kids – who had never attended before - casually ask me (the youth pastor) as we left, “Jesus, didn’t he fight in world war two or something?” This young teenager was not kidding, he had never heard of Jesus. While I knew at the time that less and less people were attending church (this article about that), I was a little shocked that someone who had grown up in our society had never heard of Jesus at all (fast forward ten years I’m not so shocked by this anymore). The problem for a lot of us (especially those who attend church fairly regularly) is that we’ve heard and keep hearing lots of stuff about Jesus.

Of course, Jesus should be central to our lives as Christians and central to the life and worship of our local churches. Yet, with all this buzz about Jesus flying around us we need to ask ourselves whether or not we really know Jesus at all? For example, I know a number of facts about George Washington, but I don’t know him per se. Similarly, while I regularly chat with the cashier at the gas station, I don’t really know her either. Is your understanding of Jesus based more on knowing facts about Jesus or is your understanding of Jesus limited to some regular but superficial conversations? Maybe you know Jesus in a different way then I’ve talked about here?

Collect for Saint Dominic

O God of the prophets, you opened the eyes of your servant Dominic to perceive a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord, and moved him, and those he drew about him, to satisfy that hunger with sound preaching and fervent devotion:  Make your church, dear Lord, in this and every age, attentive to the hungers of the world, and quick to respond in love to those who are perishing; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Prayer for the Order

O Lord Jesus Christ, you became poor for our sake, that we might be made rich through your poverty: Guide and sanctify, we pray, the Anglican Order of Preachers, to be a community of men and women who follow you under vows of simplicity, purity, and obedience, that by their prayers and preaching they may enrich your Church, and by their life and worship glorify your Name; for you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, one Truth, now and forever. Amen.

No Repentance Please

Repentance is not a topic most of us naturally enjoy talking about. In fact, most of us – me included – would rather talk about almost anything else. Yet, repentance is an essential part of the Christian life. Repentance involves the personal recognition of our sins and failures and a striving with God’s help to live differently.  Our natural inclination to shy away from repentance and its requirements (confessing our sins and changing our behavior) is similar to the hesitancy that some demonstrate to the idea of having an annual physical.

By avoiding the physical one can avoid the bad news about weight gain, high blood pressure, or looming diseases on the horizon.  Of course, the comfort provided by avoiding the physical is only short-term; eventually our physical condition will catch up with us. The same is true of our spiritual condition. It is for this reason that the call for repentance is always timely – especially during those seasons of our lives when we are particularly busy and overwhelmed.

It is for this reason, as well as others, that Christians should be seeking to live lives of continual repentance. It isn’t about holding ourselves to impossible standards; it’s about keeping ourselves healthy and whole (holy) so that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).