A Sojourner's Quest

PA RT I I I : L I V I NG I N T H E WAY / 1 5 1

The Church Year and You Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis

Structuring Your Days to Live the Christ Life through the Year: The Christian Calendar Since our earliest records, the Church has been a messianic community, a community of worship and remembrance where the person of Jesus of Nazareth has been recognized as both the Lamb of God (our sacrifice) and the Lion of the tribe of Judah (our deliverer). The divine Son of Man died and rose again, and now reigns above as King, interceding for his own, and being Head over all things to his body, the Church. Soon in power he will return and make an end to sin, war, and the curse, will judge all humankind, and restore creation under the sovereign will of the Father. This story of love and grace, of strength and valor, of mercy and hope has anchored the Church in the Judeo-Christian vision of messianic longing, and strengthened its faith through the ages. Indeed, we are a people of remembrance and re-enactment, a community of the Messiah who is also the King. Since the time of the apostles, believers everywhere have remembered and celebrated the events of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. The ancient Church centered its worship and witness on his glorious person and salvation work. A cursory outline of Church history reveals its deep commitment to live this cosmic drama in its worship and wit- ness and its zeal to re-enact and re-present the major events of Jesus’ life in real time. Largely as an act of worship and instruction, the Church Year (also known as the “Christian Calendar,” the “liturgical year,” and “Church Calendar”) was both a practical and ingenious response of the early Church to the then secular society’s attempt to make meaning through its civil calendar and its celebrations. Rather than participate in the orgies and lewd festivals of the Roman empire, the early Christians imitated the richness of the Jewish Sacred Year and its festivals. Believing that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the prophecies and longings of the Hebrews for their Messiah, the Church embraced the Christian Year’s observances, feasts, and services in order to think “Christianly” about their days, and the passing of the weeks and months, keeping an eye to the Story which bound their