Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

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Mark i ng T ime : Formi ng Sp i r i tua l i t y through the Chr i s t i an Year

c. The freshness of the Spirit, 2 Cor. 3.5-6 (ESV) – Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

D. Fidelity and reproduction to the Apostolic Tradition (i.e., the testimony, teaching, and ethical vision of Christ and his Kingdom) is the essence of Christian maturity.

1. Tradition for the Church is not misguided nor arbitrary. Rather, we draw our sense of identity and history from the story of Jesus of Nazareth based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles, and their commentary and explanation of the meaning of the Christ event for our lives. 2. The Church is both a messianic as well as a story-ordered, hermeneutical community, drawing its life from its con viction, proclamation, celebration, and demonstration of the meaning of the person and work of Jesus as embodied in the history of Israel, as demonstrated through his incarnation and passion, and verified in his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God. 3. As the people of God, we relive and retell the story of Christus Victor in Jesus of Nazareth, from his Incarnation to his coming again, where the Lord will complete his work on the Cross and to establish the reign of God in this world. This story is the Church’s hope and love. 4. As so often said in the African American Christian worship communities, traditions’s role is to “make it plain,” that is, to make clear in its worship, ritual, celebration, and lifestyle, and service that Jesus of Nazareth is the Chosen One of God, borne witness to by the apostles.