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

4. “The Church Year makes sure that everything is remembered and celebrated, not just the fun things or the easy things. Sure, we have several weeks of Easter and 12 days of Christmas, but we also have 4 Sundays of Advent, 40 days of Lent and a week of Holy Week. How many churches not on the Church Year can honestly say they have focused on the life of Christ to such an extraordinary degree?” (Jonathan Bennett, The Church Year: Experience the Bible in a Year . Churchyear.net.)

B. It is Christo-centric: The Church Year focuses on the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.

1. “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).

2. In and of itself, severed from the life-giving apostolic testimony of the saving work of God in Jesus Christ, the Church Year has no spiritual power; without Christ, it is inert and anemic, and prone to abuse and exaggeration.

3. In all things related to salvation and spirituality, Christ Jesus is both supreme and all-sufficient. Nothing other than faith in him alone ( sola fides ) is necessary for salvation and sanctification.

a. As we receive Christ, so are we to walk in him, Col. 2.6-7 (ESV) – Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, [7] rooted and built up in