Guard the Good Deposit

48 • Guard the Good Deposit: The Great Tradition for the Whole Church

We need the Church Year as a connection with the whole people of God. If we are Christian, we are never alone. As churches, we are never alone. We are part of a body that extends from before time to beyond time. We are one with the Lord and one with one another. The Church Year is a practical way for us to live this connection. The idea of a holy calendar originates in the ancient past, predating the church and even Jesus. From its earliest days, the Lord set out for Israel a liturgical year that included remembrance, re-enactment, celebration, feasting, solemnity, fasting, and repentance. Building on the God-ordained festival calendar, the early church reshaped the liturgical year in light of the coming of the prophesied Messiah. While not every church celebrates the whole calendar today, we all share at least the most basic celebrations of the Church Year, Christmas and Easter. Billions of Christians throughout history and across the world today walk this same journey with Christ every year. Rediscovering the Church Year allows us all to share a common spiritual focus, both in our own community and across the world.

We need the Church Year as a pattern for our lives. The church patterns our life together on the story of Jesus in hopes that together we will be conformed to his image.