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I was talking to someone recently about why at Liberti Collingswood we practice the annual liturgical calendar of the church.  I don’t think that the Bible would mandate that we do, I replied, but at the same time, in my experience, walking through the liturgical year does a congregation a lot of good.

I’ve heard it explained this way: at Liberti, we inherit the Reformed and Presbyterian Protestant traditions, the former of which comes to us from the European continent (primarily the Netherlands), and the latter from good old Scotland.  Between these two streams there were differing views of how to emphasize time in the life of the church.  For the Scottish, the emphasis fell on the Lord’s Day (a.k.a. the Christian Sabbath, a.k.a. Sunday), while for other Reformed strands, the preponderance of weight was placed on the seasons of the liturgical year (i.e., Advent, Lent, Eastertide, Ordinary Time, and so on).

Which tradition is correct?  Well, let’s remember that good Americans never need to chose between “tastes great” and “less filling.”

I’m not a strict “sabbatarian” per se, but even so, I believe that for a believer and for a Christian family, we should effort to make Sunday different from other days by partaking in less work and more rest.  God loves you so much that he wants you to find respite and renewal in him every seven days.  The word “Sabbath” stems from the Hebrew word for “seven,” ‘natch.

Then there are the seasons of the liturgical year.  Why participate in them?  Because they serve as crucial signals that all time is God’s time.  If you think about it, we’re governed in our daily lives by lots of different seasons; depending on who you are, it might be football season, an election season, a shopping season, a vacation season, and on down the line.  It’s perfectly fine to live in terms of these seasons as long as we remember that there is one Lord of all, including every season of our lives.  Time is not a free agent for which we’re able to operate however we might please.  Our time, our days, our seasons only occur under the auspices of a sovereign creator and sustainer of life.  We become most human, most fit to creation, when we conform ourselves to the will, and to rhythms, of our Creator.  That’s why liturgical seasons in the church are helpful, since, for example, they help us to keep in mind that we’re not just in April, but we’re Lent.  Like every season, we’re in the midst of God’s season.

Another aspect I love about  liturgical seasons is their variety.  I’m told that continual cross-training is better for a human body than sticking with the same exercise routine forever.  (Studies apparently demonstrate, e.g., that youth who are forced into doing just one sport year round are more prone to injury than kids that rotate through different sports from season to season.)  What do you know, then, but various liturgical seasons of the church give you all kinds of 31 flavors of spiritual invitation and growth!  For Advent, we practice quiet and hopeful waiting, in Eastertide a celebratory leaning into the way of resurrection obedience, and in Ordinary Time the awareness that God is both present and provident in the dog days of the mundane.  

Oh, and Lent?  It’s a solemn and practical rededication to the way of the cross.

How was Lent for you?  And speaking of the cross, see you there on Good Friday, and at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.  Time to flip the calendar to Eastertide.

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