Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

Session 4 God’s Timepiece and God’s Telos

God’s Appointed Times for Remembrance and Renewal

What Does It Really Mean to Be Saved and to Be Growing? Throughout history a revived interest in the insights of the early church has usually been accompanied by significant renewal in the church. For example, both Luther and Calvin drew heavily on the early church Fathers. Then, in the seventeenth century, when the fires of the Reformation were burning low, Philip Jacob Spener, the leader of the Pietist movement in Germany, called upon the people to recover the kind of Christianity taught and practiced by the early Christians. After citing Tertullian, Ignatius, Eusebius, Justin and others, Spener wrote: ‘It [the early church] demonstrates that what we are seeking is not impossible . . . it is the same Holy Spirit who is bestowed on us by God, who once effected all things in the early Christian, and he is neither less able nor less active today to accomplish the work of sanctification in us.’ The way we use our time in daily life is one of the best indications of what is really important to us. We can always be counted on to find time for those things we consider most important, though we may not always be willing to admit to others, or even to ourselves, what our real priorities are. Whether it is financial gain, political action, or family activities, we find time for putting first those things that matter most to us. Time talks. When we give it to others, we are really giving ourselves. Time, then, inevitably expresses our priorities. How we allocate this limited resource reveals what we value most. The church also shows what is most important to its life by the way it keeps time. Here again the use of time reveals priorities of faith and practice. One answer to “What do Christians profess?” could be “Look how they keep time!” ~ Robert Webber. The Majestic Tapestry . Nashville: Nelson Publishers, 1986. p. 19.

~ Hoyt L. Hickman, et. al. The New Handbook of the Christian Year . Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992. p. 16-17.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87