Sacred Roots Workshop

Session 7 Living in the Way Living the Baptized Life through Shared Spirituality through the Church Year

We Mark Time by Its Connection to the Christ Event: Jesus of Nazareth in Our World

Contemporary liturgical scholarship has pointed out that the focal point and source of the Christian year is the death and resurrection of Christ. Even the earliest Christians recognized that the death and resurrection of Jesus began the “new time.” The fact that two major events of the church took place during Jewish celebrations – Passover and Pentecost – helped the early Christians to associate themselves with the Jewish reckoning of time and yet dissociate themselves by recognizing that a new time had begun. Thus, like the Jews, the early Christians marked time but, unlike the Jews, they marked their time now by the events of the new age. The unique feature of the Christian conception of time is the major moment ( kairos ) through which all other kairoi and chronoi find their meaning. This unique moment is the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. Thus, in Christianity, all time has a center. Paul developed this notion in his epistle to the Colossians declaring that Christ is the creator of all things (1.16), the one in whom all things hold together (1.17), and the one through whom all things are reconciled (1.20). Christ is the cosmic center of all history [italics mine]. Everything before Christ finds fulfillment in Christ. Everything since Christ finds its meaning by pointing back to Christ.

~ Robert Webber. The Services of the Christian Year . Nashville: Star Song Pub. Group, 1994. p. 79.

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I. “He Is Risen, Indeed!”: The Clear Implications of the Christus Victor Vision for Christian Life and Witness

God’s Kingdom means the divine conquest over His enemies, a conquest which is to be accomplished in three stages; and the first victory has already occurred. The power of the Kingdom of God has invaded the realm of Satan – the present evil Age. The activity of this power to deliver men from satanic rule was evidenced in the exorcism of demons. Thereby, Satan was bound; he was cast down from his position of power; his power was “destroyed.” The blessings of the Messianic Age are now available to those who embrace the Kingdom of God. We may already enjoy the blessings resulting from

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